Celebrating the Color Red

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I love to drop what I'm doing and sit down at Meanderings and Muses to write about things I love and rant about things I don't.

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This is about one of the things I love.

Pottery by Boyd Owens

The color red.

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I've written about it before in one of my favorite pieces about needing some red in my life,  but I just happened to run across this wonderful poem and decided it was time to do it again.

My Red Poem (written with my pink pen) by Dorothy Alves Holmes

Here I write a red poem, Sophie Tucker red, 'The last of the red hot mama's red' It is a hard Tap Dancing Red, St. Valentine's red... Cinnamon Apple scented red... Georgio sweet smelling red, Victoria Secret Red Morning sunrise red, Red Hot lipstick red The blush on your cheeks red, Happy Go Lucky Red, Written with my flaming Pink Craylo Pen On this October day... Oh you kid! 12: 36 a.m. Dorothy Oh, That Poet Who Loves.....  Source: redcrayons.net Source: pianoworld.com

There's a lot to the color red.  Many feel it's a stimulant and related to our energy level. And an attention getter. Source: heelfreeshipping.com How the color red affects us physically Increases enthusiasm Stimulates energy and can increase the blood pressure, respiration, heartbeat, and pulse rate Encourages action and confidence Provides a sense of protection from fears and anxiety Red around the world Red represents beauty in many languages and cultures, including Russia. In Chinese culture, colors corresponded with the five primary elements, the directions and the four seasons. Red was associated with fire, south, and summer. In Japan, the color red is associated closely with a few deities in Shinto and Buddhist traditions, so statues of these deities are often decked in red clothing or painted red. In Sweden, Falun red (red based on the pigment from the Falun mine) was reserved for the privileged class. In China, red is associated with good luck and fortune. In Greece, Easter eggs are dyed red and the Greek expression "piase kokkino" ("touch red") is said when two people say the same thing at the same time. It is believed that such an occurrence is an omen that the two will have an argument in the future, which can only be broken when the two touch the closest thing that is red. In Jamaica, a popular slang term for someone who is under the influence or drunk is "red." In England, red phone booths and red double decker buses are national icons. Standard British pillar boxes (mail boxes) have been painted red since 1874. Source: lanoirenouvelle.blogspot.com In India, a red mark on the forehead is said to bring good luck. To the Hindu, red symbolizes joy, life, energy, and creativity. Islamic, Hindu, and Chinese brides traditionally wear red. Cochineal red, discovered by the Aztecs, was made using the female cochineal beetle. A pound of water-soluble extract required about a million insects. For the Aztecs, Indian red dye was considered more valuable than gold! However, it was the Spaniards who introduced the crimson color of Cochineal red to Europe in the 1500s. In Aztec culture, red was connected with blood. Red amulets were worn in many cultures to prolong life. In Singapore, the color red traditionally symbolizes joy. Chinese New Year is celebrated by wearing red clothing and decorating the house with red. Red envelopes with "luck money" are given to unmarried children to bring good fortune to them for the rest of the year. Red symbolizes feast days of martyrs in the Catholic church. In Israel, kosher clothing stores banned the color red and sell only loose-fitting apparel for women. The belief in the protective power of the color red can be traced back to the old Chinese folklore of the Nian, a man-eating beast of ancient China who used to feed on human flesh. Discovering that the creature abhorred loud noises and the color red, the people made liberal use of the color not only in their firecrackers, but also in home decorations and clothing to protect themselves from the Nian. Source: christiansalelouboutins.com   Interesting and fun stuff about red Red is the highest arc of the rainbow. Red is the first color you lose sight of at twilight. The longest wavelength of light is red. In the financial arena, red symbolizes a negative direction. Eric the Red is the Norwegian Viking credited for colonizing Greenland...he earned his nickname from his bright red hair and beard. Feng shui recommends painting the front door of a home red to invite prosperity to the residents.   Source: copyright-mandylynne-d.com   According to "The Language of Stained Glass" at Armstrong Browing Library at Baylor University: When Dante spoke of the Seraphim - the first of the nine choirs of Angels - the color that "glows" was the pure orange vermilion which his fellow citizens and brothers-in-spirit (the painters, illuminators, and glassmen) knew as red. So, it may be said that pure red is the color of divine love, the Holy Spirit, courage, self-sacrifice, martyrdom, and all the warm impulses that belong to the great-hearted everywhere. Bees can't see the color red, but they can see all other bright colors. Red flowers are usually pollinated by birds, butterflies, bats, and wind, rather than bees. Red is the color that means "severe" in the color-coded threat system established by presidential order in March 2002. This system quickly informs law enforcement agencies when intelligence indicates a change in the terrorist threat facing the United States.   Source: bridalsassique.com   Popular phrases that include red Red carpet treatment: giving privileged treatment to an important person Caught red-handed: clearly guilty Red in the face: to become embarrassed Seeing red: to be angered Red flag: a warning of danger Not worth a red cent: having no value Red letter day: a memorable, joyful day Red tape: excessive formalities in governmental process In the red: a term to describe an economic loss Scarlet letter: a punitive mark of adultery that originated with the novel (1850) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Source: weddingcolor.com   Red in the garden Red is considered a warm color in landscape design. Its appearance in the garden has an energetic effect. Red flowers and foliage give the illusion of coming forward in the landscape, helping to make a large garden feel cozier.   Source:  sacredoysters.blogspot.com   Red plants attract the eye and are a good choice for areas you want to draw attention to. Red's complimentary color in the garden is green.   out our back door   Write mystery into your garden plots by combining deep reds, such as burgundy, maroon, and russet, with equally dark purple and chocolate brown. Such sultry combinations create the illusion of depth and hidden distances. --Better Homes and Garden     Source: 123rf.com    Red and our sense of taste Red fruits are flavorful and nutritious. Although not seen as frequently, there are also red vegetables. A few of my favorite red foods are listed below. The warm scent and flavor of baking apples is a sure sign that fall is just around the corner. The fragrant, sweet juiciness and deep red color of strawberries can brighten up both the taste and aesthetics of any meal; it is no wonder they are the most popular berry fruit in the world. Fresh cranberries, which contain the highest levels of beneficial nutrients, are at their peak from October through December, just in time to add their festive hue, tart, tangy flavor, and numerous health protective effects to your holiday meals.     Source: fineartphotoblog.com   Red and our sense of smell "Red is a color associated with poison, passion and seduction" -- Aromascope "Gallica Roses come in crimsons, deep pinks, mauves, and stripes and splashes. They are most often described as having Old Rose fragrances, which can be intense and spicy." -- American Rose Association AromaPod, a scented lifestyle tool, uses the color red with the scent that provides energy. "Cherry" was the original scent of the red colored Magic Scents Crayons from Binney & Smith Inc., introduced in 1994 with mostly food scents. However, there were numerous reports that children were eating the food-scented crayons, so the food scents were retired and replaced with non-food scents. The scent for the color red became "cedar chest." And since I love the power of images - here are some I wanted to share - - -  just 'cause.  Enjoy!  And embrace the power of red. Harley loves red too Source: beckonsyogaclothing.com Source: betterphoto.com Pottery by Boyd Owens Source: designholeonline.com Source: the-mediterranean-region.com Source: frostmeblogspot.com Source: liquidpaper.typepad Source: pamelaviola.blogspot.com Source: wvs.topleftpixel.com Source: writerquake.blogspot.com Source: thecreativemama.com Source: sodahead.com Source: squidoo.com Source: theasc.com Celebrate it with music - - - Whatever your favorite shade might be -  crimson burgundy cardinal carmine chestnut coral fire engine red fuchsia magenta maroon persian red pink rose ruby terra cotta vermillion sangria Sing about it ! Dance to it ! Source: dailymail.co.uk.com Shake a Tail Feather, Honeys ! AND -  ending with one of my all time favorite poems, ever - The Red Dress (or What do Women Want) by Kim Addonizio I want a red dress. I want it flimsy and cheap, I want it too tight, I want to wear it until someone tears it off me. I want it sleeveless and backless, this dress, so no one has to guess what's underneath. I want to walk down the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store with all those keys glittering in the window, past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly, hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders. I want to walk like I'm the only woman on earth and I can have my pick. I want that red dress bad. I want it to confirm your worst fears about me, to show you how little I care about you or anything except what I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment from its hanger like I'm choosing a body to carry me into this world, through the birth-cries and the love-cries too, and I'll wear it like bones, like skin, it'll be the goddamned dress they bury me in.

Musing in Middle Florida by Deborah Sharp

Deborah Sharp is a Florida native and former USA Today reporter. She writes the funny, southern-flavored Mace Bauer Mysteries, featuring Mace’s wacky mama. The fourth book in the series is Mama Sees Stars (Midnight Ink, September 2011). 

You may read an excerpt here: http://mamaseesstars.com/

Deborah’s website is here: http://www.deborahsharp.com/

Musing in Middle Florida

By Deborah Sharp

Debsharp1@gmail.com for questions

 Excavating my desk recently, I uncovered an essay I wrote for Mystery Scene magazine way back in 2008, when my first book came out.  It was about how the fictional town of Himmarshee in my Mace Bauer Mysteries is inspired by a real-life slice of middle Florida -- all sweet tea and citrus groves, cattle ranches and rodeo:

A spot where cowboy is used as a verb, where barbecue is a religion, and where the mascot for the local high school is a 1,500-pound Brahma bull named Bubba.

The clip made me think how places spark our creative spirit; serve as muses, if you will. Since the lovely Kaye Barley invited me to be today’s guest blogger, I thought it would be fun to meander to some of the spots I love in the little-known part of Florida I write about. I once rode a horse across the region, saddling up to research the annual week-long trail ride that became the setting for my second book, Mama Rides Shotgun.

I know Kaye often runs pictures of authors and their pets. Domino, the sweet-tempered horse I borrowed for trail ride, is not a pet. But I loved him. When we made it to the end of the Cracker Trail Ride, his owner gave me one of Domino’s worn horseshoes as a souvenir.  I use it as a paper-weight.

Early on, I thought I’d set my books in the real town of Okeechobee. It’s about 80 miles south of the manufactured fun of Walt Disney World, and 50 miles from the nearest ocean breeze. But it turned out the down-home, rural flavor I wanted for the series was endangered there. I knew it as soon as I saw a hand-lettered sign pop up outside a remote country store: 

Boiled P’nuts/Cappuccino.

Cappuccino? There goes the neighborhood.

So I made up Himmarshee. I kept the rustic elements that attracted me to the area in the first place, and lost what I’d rather not see. Like a Walmart on former pasture land. Or a proposal to plow under orange trees and plant 14,000 new homes. Without a lick of irony, the planners of that pre-recession project wanted to name it “The Grove.’’

There is still plenty of beauty to take in, though. Like a creek on a fog-shrouded morning along the Cracker Trail. 

And there are still wild things to admire . . . from a distance. 

One of my favorite writing spots is outside, along the Kissimmee River. My husband and I have a getaway there, a little trailer on a few acres of land. 

 It’s not exactly an office, but it is a spot where I can envision what my main character, Mace Bauer, might see. Alligators glide by in the dark river. Sandhill cranes soar overhead. Cattle low from a nearby pasture. My middle Florida muses.

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Camping Reflections by Jonathan Quist

Jonathan Quist lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife of twenty-three years in an increasingly empty nest.  While the 1.7 kids have moved out, he still has the dogs and the minivan, and would consider a picket fence in partial trade for a slightly-used pop-up camper.

He is currently returning from an employer-imposed hiatus, and expects to use his new-found household silence to resume several writing projects in progress.

Camping Reflections 

by Jonathan Quist

A couple weekends back, my wife and I took a short camping trip. Just a little getaway in our pop-up camper. But a big deal, all the same.  This was the first family vacation in twenty years that did not include the kids, who are both off at college.

That’s a major milestone, and led me to reflect on family vacations past.

As a kid, camping was just what we did, for two weeks every summer.

My earliest camping memories are of Chippewa Park, just outside Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario in the early 1960’s. My dad and two brothers slept in a tent, and I slept in the car with Mom. My grandfather originally purchased the tent as war surplus around 1930.  Yeah, surplus of The World War.

The car was a 1958 Rambler. Those who attended high school in the sixties may remember the Rambler for one of its unique features, a fully-reclining bench seat, which folded flat to the level of the back seat. That’s right, the make-out seat. To me it was just my bedroom away from home and I assumed all cars worked that way. Mom had devised a sophisticated system to pin up mosquito netting inside the windows, which were left open a few inches for fresh air. And we’d lay there telling each other stories until we fell asleep to the accompaniment of Dad’s muffled snores in the tent outside.

But I longed to sleep in that tent with the big boys. And by my 5th birthday, I was promised that 1965 was the year. I got this instead:

We were no longer sleeping on the ground – we were sleeping in beds!  In a spacious room with a nice breeze! Because it had window screens for walls! Except for those summer rainstorms, canvas zipped, when we were sleeping in a hot, damp room that smelled of wet campers. Still, it was a retractable step up from the previous arrangement, and we did have some great vacations. So great, in fact, that it was not until I had graduated from college that I learned the truth: we camped because we had to.

And the couple of times that we drove straight through the 650 miles from Fort William to Lisle, Illinois, or the times we came home a day or two early, we weren’t dodging marginal weather, or giving ourselves an extra day to get the house in order before returning to the daily routine. The truth of the matter was, we were outrunning an empty pocketbook.

When my parents told me that, I didn’t believe them. Still don’t.

Those trips were beyond the ability of mere dollars to add or subtract.

When my wife and I decided some years back that we’d had our fill of touristy vacations, we did the only logical thing. We camped. The first year, we did the tent thing, but got one large enough to hold us, the kids and the dog all in one. The very first night out, we got the storm of the decade, including tornadoes, in a state park half a mile from a heavily-freighted railroad. (That became a pattern with us, over the course of the next eight years – we always manage to camp within earshot of an active freight line.) All night long, we listened to the wind, the rain, and the freight trains. The latter, according to my Midwestern upbringing and the National Weather service, is also what a tornado sounds like. As each train approached Karin and I held our breath until the horn blew for the grade crossing. Then we’d relax, and wait for the next one. In the morning, after two hours sleep, we dumped about fifty gallons of water out of the tent and packed up for the next leg.

A few weeks later, we bought the trailer. I suspect most first-time low to mid-range camping trailers are purchased under similar circumstances.

Did my kids like those family vacations? Funny you should ask that. On returning from our trailer’s final voyage, I found an email from my twenty-year-old daughter. She wanted to know did we still have a tent.  She’s planning a camping trip with friends next summer.
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I think it’s only fair to share some of the knowledge and skills I have gained over 50 years of camping.

Camping tips:

1) Organization is everything. If at all possible, keep your camping gear pre-packed, so no essential items are left at home.
 

2) When you find something that will be handy, buy it immediately.  You'll forget it later. Until the middle of the next trip, when the nearest store is 50 miles away, and your chemical toilet is leaking.

3) This tip is for the men. It’s kind of personal, so ladies, you may wish to skip to the next one. Guys: Get over yourself. Our wives know how to pack the car better than we do. If you can’t accept this for your own benefit, do so for the common good.
 

4) Equipment and methodology. Face it, “This is how Dad and Grandpa always did it” just doesn’t wash.  When your dad was camping, tents were made of canvas and nylon was found only in women’s stockings.  When your grandpa was camping, women’s stockings were made of canvas, and tents were reserved for commanding officers. In other words, if you’ve just invested in the latest camp technology, take a minute to read the manual.
 

5) The single most useful item you can have along camping is something a fellow camper taught me a couple years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to buy it, so I forget what it is.
 

6) This one I learned from my Dad, 40 years ago. Never use more than a single match to light your camp fire.
 

7) If you plan on having a camp fire, don’t forget your propane torch.  You’ll need it if you really think it only takes one match. Another of Dad’s lessons.

Fishing:

1) The only thing necessary to catch a fish is a bare hook and an enthusiastic child.
 

2) If the only thing you catch is a two pound walleye, you're having Dinty Moore for dinner.
 

3) If your kid catches a six ounce bluegill, you're having fresh fish.
 

4) The six ounce bluegill will taste better than the two pound walleye.
 

5) All the advanced fishing techniques you learned as a teen won't catch a single northern pike in the time it takes your kids and a can of night crawlers to catch a bucket of rock bass.
 

6) A half pound rock bass takes as much time and effort to clean as a six pound northern. Dinner’s at 9:00.

Trailering:

1) If you purchase a tow vehicle or add a hitch to an existing vehicle, next year you will upgrade the trailer to something that requires the next stronger hitch or vehicle. May as well scrape together the down payment on a Suburban.

 
2) If you replace your under-powered, 8-seat minivan with a 4-seat, V-8 powered extended cab pickup, your non-driving kids will invite two friends to go on the next trip.

3) If you decide to skip hooking up and adjusting your trailer anti-sway device to save time, and get on the road before the coming storm hits, the first fifty miles you drive will be on grooved pavement in a construction zone with barricades where the right lane used to be.

4) Most important of all, Safety First! If you are new to towing a trailer, seek advice from an expert. Desi Arnaz, for example:


 

How An Opening Scene Becomes a Futuristic Thriller by L.J. Sellers

L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and the author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mystery/suspense series: The Sex Club, Secrets to Die For, Thrilled to Death, Passions of the Dead, and Dying for Justice. Her novels have been highly praised by Mystery Scene, Crimespree, and Spinetingler magazines, and the series has been on Amazon Kindle’s bestselling police procedural list. L.J. also has three standalone thrillers: The Baby Thief, The Suicide Effect, and The Arranger. When not plotting murders, she enjoys performing standup comedy, cycling, social networking, and attending mystery conferences. She’s also been known to jump out of airplanes.

How An Opening Scene Becomes a Futuristic Thriller

by L.J. Sellers

Where do you get your ideas? That’s what readers often want to know, but for my latest novel, a futuristic thriller, I get that question more than ever. Typically, my plots spring from social issues I feel passionately about or from intriguing criminal concepts, but The Arranger started with the opening scene. One day as I watched paramedics carry a patient from a home, I thought: What if those paramedics witnessed a crime? Or heard a deathbed confession that made them a target to be killed? I visualized such a scenario as an opening scene for a crime fiction novel. I became so intrigued by the idea, I decided to see if I could develop a plot.

At the time, I was considering writing a futuristic thriller, one of my favorite genres to read, and I realized Detective Evans from my Jackson series had a background as a paramedic. Those things came together to give me a time frame, a character, and an opening scene. As for how the rest of the plot developed, it was a complex combination of ideas that eventually melded.

The underlying themes in my stories are almost always rooted in my fears. Because I try to be optimistic—and fearless—in my personal life, my fiction gives me a way to process fears that I otherwise try to suppress. One of my greatest concerns now is what will happen if high unemployment continues and the economy stagnates. In such a scenario, ten or fifteen years from now, I envisioned that jobs would become a premium, valuable commodities with the inherent capacity for corruption. 

Once I had that idea, my second character, who’s both a protagonist and antagonist, quickly developed. At first, I envisioned Paul as a sociopath, but as I began to write his story, I empathized with him and he morphed. I began to see him as someone who felt powerless and invisible, yet wanted desperately to be seen and loved. Paul is a decent man who is presented with an opportunity to change his life. And he does. But as a result of an interesting set of circumstances, he goes too far in his transformation.

The real protagonist, ex-detective Lara Evans, already had a background established in my fifth Jackson book, Dying for Justice. She is intensively physical with impulsive tendencies. From that, the idea of a national endurance competition with jobs as the prize emerged as the ideal scenario for Lara. Her impulsiveness also gave me an idea for what had happened to end her law enforcement career and give her the driving motivation to win the Gauntlet.

Now all I had to do was bring the diverse ideas together in a way that worked with my opening scene. It required a few brainstorming sessions, but then the story seemed fall into place. Still, it was the most difficult novel I’ve written yet. In some ways, The Arranger is less complex than my mysteries, but the characters were more challenging, and the Gauntlet scenes were out of my league. Yet writing them was the most fun I’ve ever had, and early readers say those scenes left them breathless.

Many readers have asked if The Arranger is the start of a new series, hoping that it would be. I honestly don’t know. My plan is to write two more Detective Jackson novels, then see what comes up for me next. If “future Lara” proves to be popular, she could make a comeback.

Readers: Will you follow a familiar character into the future?

Writers: Where do you get your most unusual plot ideas?