I guess everyone has heard about the old guy with the metal detector…I’m not kidding, it’s not a joke ….who uncovered a huge, horde of Celtic gold and silver treasure in a field in Staffordshire this past week. It was all over the NY Times — big article, color pictures, etc .
Now I’m always interested in archaic Celtic stuff. It’s been a lifelong interest and is actually the glue that holds my first three books together. I laid it all out in the first book. Because of shallow pockets, I eliminated some illustrative material I researched and sketched out while I was writing the first draft back in the Winter of 1999-2000.
Friday, I opened up the Times, and read the tresure story, to be confronted face-to-face, with an artifact that is an exact illustration of an odd symbol I devised from pre-Christian Celtic sources as being the device on the sails of some very important (to my book, at least) ancient ships. I don’t mean a little reminiscent. I mean exact.
So here I sit, two days later, with an odd buzing in the back of my mind to pay heed to this. Really. LIke it is a message, or a sign, or a poortent, or something….
We writers need to believe in such portents. We need a talisman to protect us from encroaching reality. The magic we weave in the dim recesses of our imaginations need recharging from time to time, and this is one of those times for me. Whether it’s really communication from the auld gods or not doesn’t matter…. it can be if I want it to be!
Just remember: Whatever works.