It’s All in the Name
Thanks for letting me visit your blog, Marcia!
People ask me where I get my ideas and how long it’s taken
to get something written. Well, A Lizard’s Tail has been simmering for a long
time.
It began around 1977 in the Virgin Islands while I was
working for a friend who had a ceramics shop. She made souvenir ceramic mugs
and other touristy things, for wholesale. I helped with pouring slip, cleaning,
and glazing. One slow days we’d sit around playing with clay, making small
sculptures, beads, or hand-molding bowls.
One day I “sculpted” a lizard. When it was dry, I glazed it
and fired it. It came out looking quite mischievous and obviously needing a
name. Another employee, who helped pack and deliver orders to the various
stores, was a nice, humorous guy name Marvin.
He saw the lizard and liked it so much I decided to name it
after him, to which he replied that Marvin needed a last name. Right then a
wind chime tinkled. From out of the blue his full name came to me. Marvin P.
Tinkleberry. What the “P” stood for I had no idea, but we all agreed the name
suited my little lizard sculpture quite well.
I knew immediately that I had a character for a story.
Early notes indicate that I was thinking of making him a
kind of story teller that explained things like, why hibiscuses are red or why
lizards do push-ups. But none of those ideas felt right.
And so Marvin slumbered. Later notes talk about him being
vain and full of himself. I was getting closer. Then, about ten years ago, the
actually idea for a story came to me. Marvin had to have conflict, what greater
conflict could he have than dealing with a dangerous feral cat?
Thus, A Lizard’s Tale began to take shape. I wrote the first
rough draft in short order. It was the revising and rewriting that took a long
time. I did it in bits and pieces, in fits and starts, because for me, revising
is the hard, boring part, though I’m getting better at it.
After I self-published Anansi and Company, I was determined
to put Marvin out there too. And now, here he is in all his glory, a vain,
young lizard who believes he has a destiny.
What, you may ask, does the “P” stand for? Well, you’ll have
to read the story to find out.
Do you have ideas that have simmered for years before taking
shape? Do you enjoy revising or is it a part of the job you don’t like?
*********
Bish Denham was raised in the U. S. Virgin Islands. Her
mother's side of the family has lived in the Caribbean for over one hundred
years and she still has plenty of family there whom she visits regularly. She says, "Growing up in the islands was like living
inside a history book. Columbus named the islands, Sir Francis Drake sailed
through the area, and Alexander Hamilton was raised on St. Croix. Then there
were the pirates who plied the waters. Life for me was magical, and through my
writing I hope to pass on some of that magic."
Bish has known many lizards in her life. Marvin and Leeza
are based on two that lived in her bedroom. She is the author of Anansi and Company: Retold Jamaican
Folk Tales which you can find on Amazon.com.
