MY LIFE AS FICTION

People do weird things, sometimes touching and sweet, and sometimes they do things that are evil, careless, or beyond my understanding. But whatever they do, if I encounter something that results from their actions, you can be sure I’ll write about it in my writer’s journal. Sometimes the situation is such that I can’t get it off my mind. It will haunt me and make we wonder why a person would do such a thing. Such was the case with a baby grand piano that was left out in the front yard of someone’s house which I noticed on my way to work.

The scene was odd enough when I first noticed it, but I thought the owner was trying to figure out a way to get it into the house and the piano would soon be safely ensconced in the house and played by someone who would enjoy it and care for it. But as the days marched by and the weather turned stormy, the piano remained outside. In the beginning it had not occurred to me that someone intended to leave the piano out there on purpose until I saw it standing there in the pouring rain. Then I finally got it—whoever owned that piano intended to destroy it by allowing it to slowly deteriorate in its exposure to the elements. Such a diabolical plan for the destruction of something that, in itself, was a thing of beauty, but also brought delightful music into the world, just seemed too dark for my understanding. In the end, the piano fell into pieces and ended up on the side of the road for trash pickup. I found its demise in in this strange way dark, sad, and disturbing. What led a person to do such a thing? Did they throw puppies and kittens in the trash, too?

Of course, I wrote about it in my journal. I wasn’t sure how I would ever use it for a romance story, but I couldn’t let go of it. I wrote a paranormal short about it in which the piano was possessed by an evil spirit, and then another story in which it was cursed, but that didn’t satisfy me. That piano still crept into my subconscious and haunted me. The piano wasn’t evil, it was sad and broken. Finally, I realized it was a representation of how many of us feel when we are rejected or abandoned by those we love. No one who has lived a life fully has managed to escape heartbreak in one form or another. But it isn’t the heartbreak that’s important, it’s how we respond to it that counts. There are those who get back up, and don’t let the hurt destroy their search for true, forever love. Some people are so devastated by it, they guard their hearts against falling into love and allowing themselves to be vulnerable that they choose “safe” love, not too exciting or deep to hurt them. And then there are those who decide to harden their hearts and even become the people who hurt others before they can be hurt themselves.

Eventually, I was able to use this little chunk of real life into a story titled, CAST AWAY HEART. It is one of my rare contemporary stories without even a dot of paranormal in it.

An abandoned piano, rejected love, and hope

Blurb:

After her fiancé breaks her heart and humiliates her on what was to be their wedding day, Ella Dubois has vowed never to open her heart again.

Nickoli Vesa, a Romanian pianist, has loved Ella for years, but she only sees him as her longtime friend.

How can a deserted piano heal a shattered spirit and inspire it to sing again?

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