Mining the calendar

n Any Color You Want I used the lead-up to and the outcome of a kids' soccer tournament to build tension (along with a historic Election Day, a mammoth financial meltdown and other goodies). In The Beer Flower Limited (The Girl Who Cried L-v-), I have a rivalry between two individuals (Pijiu and Houston), two countries (China and the U.S.), (at least) two media outlets (East and West) and other factors to build tension, but it never hurts to consult the calendar.

In this case, I'm consulting the Chinese calendar, in particular, their calendar and history of cultural festivals as described in Traditional Chinese Festivals (2007) from the Spring Festival to the Harvest Festival. Until I actually get to make the trip to China, this book and others have greatly enlightened me as to Chinese traditions, history, culture and language - all bits that can only make my story richer and more poignant.

Working with a particular festival can also help me time my story as a community/country prepares for a festival, celebrates a festival and then recovers from it essentially providing its own arc which the rest of the story can run parallel to, if I so choose.

Lastly, thanks to Jessica Hische for the capital "I" that lead off this post. She has made such caps available for free through her Daily Drop Cap site.