Jolene

Do you ever get those moments when a critique partner says, “I hate that name”? That happened when I tried to name one of my characters ‘Josephine’ and as much as I tried to convince her that the name was making a comeback, she remained adamant. Instead, I used Jolene. The name Jolene is also recovering its popularity, and sat at 571st in the US in 2016. It’s a diminutive of Joseph, and was sufficiently quirky and individual for me to assign the name to the main female character in “Merry Christmas, Liebchen“. Just like the names we give our children, ‘Jolene’ seemed to fit the character well.

Haiku

Jolene, daughter of Joseph –
a happy branding
with strong associations.

Jade

Jade is beautiful in all its forms. The range of colours of the crystal is extensive and in the short story (unnamed because I have submitted it to a short-story competition), Jared makes use of many of them. The meanings and metaphysical properties of jade required more research. https://www.healingwithcrystals.net.au/jade.html In the story, Jared tells Jade, the female lead, that the integrity of jade can be tested by holding a flame to it – to ensure that you’re not buying a hard-plastic facsimile. I couldn’t find reference to that on the internet. Rather, it was information that was passed to me by a Chinese friend years ago and has stood me in good stead. My reason for researching jade was for a short story that took ‘jade’ as its theme. I used the stone as part of the story but also gave the main female character the name ‘Jade’. The story is out in competition at the moment.

Haiku

Generous Jade calms the nerves,
grounds your reality,
in serenity and love.