Research of a Very Different Sort

I Try My Hand At My Character's Hobby

Dahlia Rehnquist, the main character of my work-in-progress Over the Edge, has a unique hobby: she makes bread dough figurines of her friends and family. Her figurines are quite a bit better than mine. As they should be - Dahlia spends hours and hours on each figurine, adding painstaking detail such as a violin for her best friend and a soccer ball for her brother. In the interest of "getting it right" - and of having a fun craft project - I decided I needed to make some bread dough figurines of my own. As research.

It's a very enjoyable kind of research. I had a great time.

First, I found directions for making the dough. I needed a recipe that uses white glue and a slice of bread. I'd seen Peruvian figurines made from this type of bread dough and the dough is much finer than the grainy recipes I remember as a child that used a cup of salt and flour and water. 

Peruvian Bread Dough Figurines

Next, I invited friends over for lunch and a crafting party. They came with their darling 4-year-old twin daughters, and - after a tasty lunch of strawberry shortcake - we got right into the project. 

Tearing The Crusts off a Slice of White Bread

I passed out a slice of bread to each person. We carefully tore the crusts off and then shredded the bread into little bits and tossed them into individual bowls. Then we measured a teaspoon of white glue into each bowl (which became much easier when my husband took the lid off the glue dispenser). I dribbled a bit extra into mine, since it seemed somewhat dry.

Shredding the Bread

Adding the Glue

Next we worked it in our fingers until it became nice and smooth and stopped sticking to our fingers. The more it was worked, the nicer it felt. After only two or three minutes of kneading my lump between my fingers, it was ready to go. What surprised me was that a single slice of white bread - without crusts, no less - made a piece of dough about the size of a golf ball.

A Bit Messy at First, But Not Too Bad

This is Me, With my Ball of Dough

My plan was to make the same figurine I was going to have my character make in the novel. It was supposed to be her best friend, Dawn, a woman with a long black braid playing the violin. I quickly abandoned that idea, deciding that the fictional Dahlia Rehnquist has a lot more patience than I do! The violin I made for my figurine to hold left something to be desired, for example. I showed the sort-of violin to my little friends, and they looked perplexed. "What is that?" asked one of them, "is it supposed to be a turtle?" Needless to say, I didn't use the violin.

Poking Fun at the Photographer

The Beginnings of My Figurine,

Looking Rather Like An Easter Island Rock Sculpture

My Figurine, With a Dashing Top Hat and a Tie

The Girls' Figurines

Their Father's Figurine - Duck Man on a Pedestal

It was a fun hour we spent playing with the bread dough. We used drops of water to stick the pieces together, but I have the feeling that it didn't quite do the trick. If I were to do serious figurine-making, I'd want to find a better way of sticking elements together. We'll let the figurines dry for two or three days, and then, if they make it that long in one piece, they can be painted. An alternate method of adding color is to add drops of food coloring to the dough as it is being mixed. I read that finished figurines can be given a protective, glossy finish by brushing them with a mixture of half water, half white glue.

The upshot of my little research-craft project? It was fun! I also confirmed my belief that Dahlia's hobby is a good fit for my novel. She will be able to procure the supplies she needs, which are few, and she'll be able to do this very low-tech craft project.

Five Days Later:

An update, just because I thought you'd like to know. Last night, I caught my top-hatted figurine (the one pictured above) with the edge of my sleeve, and the poor guy went skidding across the table and crashed onto the floor. He bounced! And then he rolled to the other side of the kitchen.

But - guess what? He survived without a mark! He didn't fall apart. His head didn't separate, his hat didn't fall off. Nothing! So I guess the water-as-an-adhesive works just fine.

Two Weeks Later:

Another update! Yesterday I accidentally doused my little guy with water. He was soaked. Saturated. Sopping wet. I set him on the windowsill to dry, turning him over a couple of times. I thought he would be a goner, all sticky and yucky and disintegrating - but when he dried off, he was fine! He's none the worse for wear. He is strong and hard. I have to say that I'm very impressed with the hardiness of the white glue - bread dough recipe for making figurines.

Looking Debonair in His New Home - the Flower Pot on the Kitchen Table

Snapshots of a Writer

An Art Show - Kind Of

This is the bouquet my sister-in-law sent to me 

when my first book was published. 

The image has been altered in very cool ways.

Last night, I was up until 2 o'clock in the morning altering photographs. I'd dragged my laptop into bed with me - I have this sweet little lap table to perch it on - and pushed away curious cats. I made sure the clack-clacking of the keyboard and clicking of the mouse wasn't bothering my husband, and then I let myself have fun. And it was fun. I had so much dang fun I couldn't stop myself. (See how I just used the word "fun" three times in a row? Rebecca, my editor, wouldn't approve! My excuse is that I was up until 2 o'clock last night.)

It's all because I discovered this wonderful picture-editing tool on my image program.

This was the original version. The mixer had to go. 

I use Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006. I have no idea if that's a good editing program or not, but it sure has some fun ways (...fun!...and there I go again!) to alter an image. So I thought I'd alter a series of photos, some recent and some a bit older, and use them to illustrate and chronicle my writing past.

Me and my Breakfast Basket

It was about three years ago. I was at the first-ever writer's retreat in Icicle Creak, Washington, run by Hugo House in Seattle. I had this sweet little cabin all to myself. It had a bunk-bed ,and a table and chair combo for writing, and a picture window that took up an entire wall and let in streams of light at 5:30 in the morning. Perhaps best of all was the breakfast basket sitting on my doorstep each dawn. I Skyped with my husband (but not at 5:30 am!) and proudly showed off my basket. What you don't see is me taking out each thing individually and showing them to him. I'm not sure exactly how he did it, but he took this picture during our Skype session, which explains the weirdly cool angle. And now I've altered it and made it even weirder.

At the Starbucks in the Hospital Lobby

That's me in the white sweater. This is the same location where I overheard some of the snippets in my two "Intrepid Eavesdropper" posts. It's a nice little place, big windows, lots of people-watching. The funny thing is...in real life, as I sit here at the kitchen table on this Tuesday morning, writing this post for my blog - I am about to head to this Starbucks. In fact, I will probably finish the post at the very same table in the image! So how about that?

Linky the Writer Cat

Linky is a sweetie, but sometimes he figures that he's more important than my novel. On this occasion, I'd just spent ten dedicated minutes petting him, which was an odd sort of torture because I had a glaring typo on the screen that I badly, badly, badly wanted to correct so I wouldn't have to stare at it any longer. But no. Cat on arm is more important.

Working on my Novel

Gail Bridges, the Author

I was at the Emerald City Writer's Conference last October. I'd reserved a table at the book fair...because I am an honest-to-god REAL LIFE author now! I have three books! I have posters and swag and the whole bit. I asked the lady at the next table to abandon her post for a moment - this was about two minutes before the doors were to open - and snap this image of my first time publicly being an author.

Going to the Coffee Shop

My husband took this shot of me last week. I was out the door, on my way to Zoka (the second "Intrepid Eavesdropper" location). "Hey," I said, handing him the camera, "do you think you could take an Author Photo of me? Right now, right here?" He moved me from place to place and took probably six shots, none of which would come close to being an Author Photo. But what the heck, it was fun.

At the Coffee Shop

(Actually, it's the Starbucks in the Hospital Lobby.

I have yet to take a photo at Zoka.)

Healing Hands

This shot was taken four days ago. I set it up as an image for an article or blog post I plan to write soon, about the interview I did last week with an Energy Healer. I've been doing a lot of research for my new novel, "Over the Edge". I'm conducting a series of fascinating interviews with REAL LIFE healers and gathering boatloads of material.

But I needed a cool illustration for the post. So I dragged my son over and asked him to hold hands with me. Wonderful 22-year-old that he is, he didn't even complain. We tried various poses with our hands, and were shocked that it wasn't as easy as we thought it would be! My husband helped. He took picture after picture, shaking his head and saying, "Nope. Not this one. Try again." It took a while, but we finally hit gold!

That's it for now.

For my next blog post, I will share the final few images and describe how I altered them. Thanks for reading!

Interview With a Healer

Healing Hands:

Fascinating Research for my New Novel

I have recently started a new erotic horror novel set in the same world as Inn on the Edge. Dahlia, my earnest and good-hearted main character, enters an Institute that teaches Curative Touch and soon finds herself tangling with Sex Demons. They manipulate her into helping them with their dark, twisted ulterior motives. Along the way, Dahlia will discover that she is a talented sexual healer. And, to make her choices even harder, she'll fall in love with a young Sex Demon.

The book is coming together - but I have so many questions: What exactly is touch healing? What sorts of maladies can a touch healer help with? What does society think of what they do? I am especially interested in what the healing feels like from the healer's point of view.

I had to interview a touch healer.

Gloria - a pseudonym - is a real person. She is a lovely massage therapist I've known for several years. I only recently learned that she has studied healing touch extensively, and has untold hours of hands-on experience. Her healing work is separate from her massage therapy work. I was thrilled when she agreed to this interview.

~~~The Interview~~~

Me: What is your background?

Gloria: I am a practicing massage therapist, with the anatomy and physiology coursework required for licensing in the State of Washington. I also study such things as herbal remedies, cranial-sacral massage, infant massage, and more. I also am very interested in Maya Healing techniques, and have attended several in-depth workshops in Central America with native Maya healers. I am always educating myself, incorporating everything I can into my work. I do not reject Western Medicine - I just feel like there are other, ancient, more gentle methods that are beneficial alongside it.

Me: Can you tell me how you approach a healing?

Gloria: First, I do "triage" - I listen to what the person wants, then decide if that's what they really need. For example: a person might want me to work on their knee, they might tell me it aches and hurts and can I please, please help with it. Well, I might or I might not work on the knee itself. I have to see if the knee joint is actually where the problem stems from. The patient doesn't always know. I'll do an evaluation. It may be that I'll decide that it is really the hip joint that needs work and not the knee.

Me: Do you prepare yourself emotionally before a session?

Gloria: Good question. I do prepare myself, I do have rituals. If I didn't, I could easily become overwhelmed, and if that were to happen, I wouldn't be much help to anyone.

Me: What are your rituals?

Gloria: I need barriers. I need to separate myself from the work. Rituals help. I have a calming, cleansing hang-washing ritual that I've used for years, using herbs and spring water and a pouring vessel that has special meaning to me. I wash my hands after every healing, outdoors if at all possible. Of course I constantly do hygienic hand-washing also, for obvious reasons, but that's different. My ritual hand-washing is deeper, more emotional, not meant to clean, but to spiritually cleanse.

Me: Any other rituals?

Gloria: I put myself into a different mind-space when I heal. To do this, I always change into my "practitioner clothes" - which is soft, comfortable clothing that I only use for this purpose. I don't do a healing in my everyday street clothes, it doesn't give me the emotional separation I need.

I prefer to do the healings in a quiet, secluded spot, preferably the same place every time. This applies for massages also. If this isn't possible, then I pay extra attention to my rituals.

Me: Is there anything you find especially difficult?

Gloria: Yes. People's need can devour you if you let it. I can't give people in need everything they ask for. One of the hardest things I learned was how and when to hold part of myself back.

It's not something I like to talk about, but there are the rare people that I call "Black Pits". I have to be super careful not to let this sort of person's problems rub off on me or overwhelm me. "Black Pit" people can have a miasma of upset and hurt hanging to them, troubles so powerful they seem capable of clinging to other people as well. That is why I find it necessary sometimes to hold myself behind careful barriers.

I do want to point out that these "Black Pit" people are not the same as the "people in need" I just mentioned. I also want to point out that in both cases, the hardest part is not being able to completely stop their pain.

Me: What does the healing feel like, from your perspective?

Gloria: Sometimes, if I'm having a really good day, I can read a person a bit. This is a sense of feeling what's inside of a person, inside their body. Sometimes I can feel problem areas with my hands before even touching a person, just from passing my hands above their body. It feels rather like a hot spot. This is something I've developed with time and practice. I'm pretty sure that, if I wanted to, I could work on this skill enough to be able to find tumors. There are healers who can do this, who are tumor hunters. But I'm not at that point.

When I first started, I discovered that I could sometimes read a person and know their soul, know everything about them. But I quickly understood that it was too much. It was an invasion of their privacy. It was too much information for me to deal with, too overwhelming, too many things that I didn't want to know about a client. So I trained myself not to "look" at a person that way. I haven't done that kind of looking into a person for twenty years.

Me: What else do you find helpful to your work?

Gloria: Timing is crucial. I have to stick to hour-long sessions. When I first began, I would let sessions with friends and clients get away from me. Sometimes they'd go for hours and hours. Some of the longest sessions were four or five hours long, which was ridiculous. It was a breach of boundaries and a terrible expenditure of healing energy. I didn't understand at first that over-doing it would make me feel sick the next day.

The exception to the time limit is when I'm studying. Sometimes I do special healing workshops where the healing sessions are allowed to be much longer, so students can explore these same issues in a controlled environment.

Me: How about sexual healing? Have you ever heard of that?

Gloria: Absolutely. There is a huge population of healers, and some of them do sexual healing and take it very seriously. And yes, some of them have sex with clients as a valued part of their work. Look up "sexual surrogacy" to find information about sexual healers.

Thank you to Gloria for allowing me this glimpse into the workings and inner thoughts of a healer. As well as being fascinating, you've shared invaluable information which will be a great help to me in my writing. You can put your hands on me anytime.