Tuesday 25 December 2018

Colliding Worlds 3: Curly Whirly Ever So Swirly

Colliding Worlds 3: Curly Whirly Ever So Swirly

I love to play with colliding worlds. It sounds violent, but it's just another name for networlds. I write quite a lot of stories in different series, genres and at different levels. Sometimes, just for fun, I let my worlds collide.

Back in 2001, my picture book Cinderella's Wedding was published. This wasn't a re-write of the Cinderella story, but a guest's journey to the wedding. When the three little pigs make a cameo appearance, the playful refrain remarks that they are curly whirly ever so swirly in regards to their tails... or something like that! To be fair, it's a while since I read the book.





Yvanne Skipton is a character who has been mentioned in a couple of my books. She is a kind of cousin to one of my POV characters from Sam and the Sylvan and Sunshower. Yvanne is the eldest of three sisters. She is highly musical and has curly hair and a serious nature. She rarely leaves home. I needed someone to carry a message to another musician, so I employed Yvanne in that role. She plays a small but key part in the mystery surrounding the disappearance of one half of an indie band at the Patterdale Music Festival. Gemma, the roadie whose sister is the other half of the band sees Yvanne but has no idea who she is. Gemma has a habit of using Cockney slang and of using other colourful descriptive language. When she has to describe Yvanne to others, she calls her Curly-Whirly-ever-so-Swirly, a moniker which soon becomes shortened to Ms Curly-Whirly or Ms Curly.  Gemma, it is stated, is quoting from a half-forgotten childhood favourite.
That story, for those who know, is obviously Cinderella's Wedding. Gemma would have been born in 1996, which lines her up perfectly for this memory. To add to the serendipity of the collision of worlds, Gemma has something of a Cinderella quality as she is sometimes overlooked for her more talented and more beautiful sister. 

So, there's another little matter to make some reader, sometime, maybe pause and smile...

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