FMs

Fulgid Meteorites
Fluid Molasses
Fomenting Magmamen
Flowering Marsupials
Fridge Magnets

Really, it's all about the Fridge Magnets. I should probably be blogging something about writing or editing or reading, right? But I want to post a blog once a week, and so Fridge Magnets is my topic of choice today. My mother gave me my first FM when I was a kid. I voraciously read Spiderman comic books, and she saw this nifty web-slinger magnet on one of her shopping errands. It has moved from Ottawa, IL, to DeKalb, IL, to Quincy, IL, to Evansville, IN, to Williams Bay, WI, to Burlington, WI, to Kenosha, WI, and finally to tiny Tolono. He's a little yellowed from the years and the miles, but he's still hanging in there.

I started collecting magnets from states I visited on various vacations, band tours, and later conventions and a cruise. Visiting friends noticed my growing collection and blessedly have added to it from their own travels. It is a wonderful, chaotic, colorful miasma of birds, dogs, states, bottle caps, and whatnot, that I occasionally artfully rearrange so I can fit new additions. They tip the scales at a little more than twenty pounds (I weighed them before the last move).

Iowa rests next to China, which is near Tennessee.

Ah, I've learned to appreciate the beauty of FMs.

How unique my kitchen is!

It's an homage to past travels and a shrine to friendship. I can point to any one FM and tell you who gave it to me...pretty amazing considering the assortment I have.

So why am I blogging about this? I dunno. I was looking for a topic when I poached eggs for breakfast. The shiny art display caught my eye.

And now it has caught my imagination. I have a murder-mystery in progress (well, I'll be back to it after I finish this SF book). I've decided my main character will have a quirk. Her father collected Christmas tree ornaments. She'll collect FMs; her only obsession, really, and it'll point to her past...a lead-in for the occasional flashback.

The FMs on my fridge will make an appearance in the book.

Okay, I've tied it back to writing. Hope you find room on your fridge for a few FMs of your own.

Jean