Barbed Wire

The Stone Barn. I love those weathered clothespins!

If you have been reading The Chorus of the Crows on a regular basis, you are aware that this is a creative writing blog. Anything goes. I've written about human leftovers, cat poop crimes, feathered floozies, martians (according to Jack Torrence) and a thrift sale of other odd and ends. 

But this blog is also a platform for my future novel. You know...The Chorus of the Crows. Visit my Flying Monkeys post for a big fat blurb and character lowdown. I also created the thorny image below. I like how it portrays the rural side of the story, but also conveys something more sinister and dark. Something that might cut you if you are not careful. You know you're a good ole country gal, when you have numerous memories of traversing fields and forests, and coming to an impasse, then wheedling your way through barbed wire to get where you want to go. I guess that's a perfect analogy for trying to get a book published. There are road blocks set up to stop you.

 Barbed wire is perfectly twisted in its simplicity. 

But back to the real world...

Now, if you're a follower of my blog Sharon's Paws Create you couldn't possibly have missed the fact that my favorite Midwest road trip is to The Stone Barn pizza joint in Nelson, Wisconsin. If it looks familiar, that's because I used the above black and white shot of the pizza place for my header. The Stone Barn is a beloved rural, backwoods and yes, even wood burning pizza place. A novel idea in my book. We were just there. 

In addition to eating pizza, we witnessed a good old boy chewing tobacco and spitting the juice on the gravel floor of the restaurant. Sigh. I wanted to sucker punch that particular character. There were groups of happy Harley riders also sporting dubious table manners. There was an Asian family wearing hanker chiefs over their mouths, playing a ball game on the lawn. They were either recreating a weird bank robbery scene from their favorite Western or worried about all the gross fresh air. And among all the pizza noshers, a group of hungry locals arrived....on horse back. We even overheard another table talking about how last year, a helicopter landed on the lawn to pick up some take out. Only at the Stone Barn!  The pizza is worth it.

My novel is also set on a bucolic, real life farm. Unfortunately, the farm that houses my fictional family burned down years ago.  Luckily, it is still vivid and all too real in my mind's eye. I might be able to dig up actual photos of it for a future post. When I move the antiquated slide projector, I see a stately white washed house with perfectly painted black shutters; sad and wispy trees weeping down willowy vines; corn as high as the 4th of July; rhubarb patches on steroids and a fading red barn as you enter the long gravel driveway. Hopefully, someday, you'll read all about it.

But for now, there's just pizza.