Imagination – What a Gift!

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.” ― Carl Sagan

And so, another Mystery Photo Game comes to a close. I hope you had fun. I appreciated all of you who took part and did your imagination exercise. I hope it carried you off to somewhere fun.

I have to admit that I might not been exactly fair on this last one, but I couldn’t resist when yes, it does very much look like a cat. Many of you agreed although Judi said it was a weird cat. She was right about that. Well, would have been right if the picture had been of a cat.  A few of you gave it a little twist by saying the painting of a cat, and Hope went so far as to call it Egyptian art of a cat. But there were other guesses. Suzanne wasn’t sure what it was but she saw two birds at a fountain and a scarecrow in the back. I had to go right back to the mystery photo to see what she was seeing. I saw the birds. Didn’t see the scarecrow.

There were other guesses. Lucy thought it looked like a cat, but she’s played enough of these mystery photo games to know it probably wasn’t a cat. So she guessed fungi. Pam, Lee, and Marj saw flowers. Different flowers, but flowers. I liked that. Deborah came up with a great guess of a prize ribbon. Lavon knows how I’m always taking pictures of moths or butterflies, so that was her guess. Wrong, but reasonable. Dana and Una thought it might be a rug. Una also guessed a kaleidoscope. That’s a great idea for a mystery photo. Kris guessed a mirror image with a snake in it. I have done art projects with my Sunday school kids of letting them smear paint inside a folded paper and then smashing the two sides together to make an image. They had a blast.

I really liked Janet’s guess – the inside of a walnut. That was a great guess. Wrong like all the others, but one that seemed possible.  Now comes the sort of unfair part of this mystery photo. I barely zoomed in on the picture and just cropped it here and there.

You cannot show people only the petals and not the thorns. It’s not fair to them. ~Bethenny Frankel

I guess that’s sort of what I do with these mystery photos. Show you the petals or maybe only the thorns and let you guess about the rest.  So here goes with the rest of the photo.

This guy is a very odd looking spider. It’s another picture that my daughter shared with me some time ago. I’m not sure where she took it, but we talked about what an odd looking spider it was at the time. That’s the part where I wasn’t too fair. You have probably never seen a spider that looks like this. Still, it is plain that it is a spider. A weird spider as Judi said about seeing the cat face. Hope the picture doesn’t give you spider haters or fearers the shivers.

As to the other photo, you all knew those piano keys at first glance. I thought you would.

And now for the winners.

Hope S. from PA was the first name I drew. She says she’s never lucky in drawings, except for mine. She did win a book from me a few years ago. Since she said she already had most of my books, she chose my only nonfiction book, Angels at the Crossroads. It’s the life testimony of one of my friends who got in trouble as a young man and went to prison where he turned his life around. It is an amazing story.

The second name I drew was Tammy R. from GA. She too had read most of my books. She picked An Appalachian Summer, because it was one of her favorites and she had read the e-book.

They both had me smiling by telling me they had read my books. And those of you who didn’t win this time, never fear.  I will have more giveaways. I do giveaways in my newsletters, but I always have many, many entries in those. I had quite a few entries in this Mystery Photo Game giveaway, but of course, some of you guessed on all five pictures and got extra entries. That gave you more chances to win. I will have another giveaway chance here on One Writer’s Journal before the summer is out. Maybe I’ll have one in July to celebrate our country’s 250th birthday.

Meanwhile, back to the picture up top. I shared that quote from my Shaker book, The Refuge, because it is on e-book sale at Barnes & Noble and Kobo this week for 99 cents. This is a flash sale. Here now and gone in a few tomorrows. It’s not on special sale at Amazon or other internet sites. It and some of my other books are available through Kindle Unlimited though if you have Kindle Unlimited.

I liked writing The Refuge. The story was inspired by the thought of a young woman, recently widowed, who is expecting a baby. She and her husband came into the Shaker village to escape a cholera epidemic since Shakers never seemed to have cholera in their villages. They were going to come, stay a few months until the epidemic was over, and then leave again. But when the husband has an untimely accident and dies, Darcie is left with no options except to stay with the Shakers as she becomes noticeably with child in a place where the marriage and love Darcie and her husband had shared is banned and all live as sisters and brothers. The only babies in the village are those brought in as orphans. That was the initial “what if” of the story, but then the attachments between the sisters she shared a room with became an important part of the story. I love writing stories about sisters. I suppose I did again in A Chance for Kallie Mae.

Did you enjoy the Mystery Photo Game? Am I forgiven for this last nearly impossible mystery photo? 

I am asking for forgiveness, but I’m smiling. I like it when my pictures trick all of you. Thanks for reading.