A Bit of Magic…
As I promised last week, here’s a little bit of trivia that may find you thinking J. K. wasn’t the first to use this bit of magic.
During a recent research session for a short story I wrote for Dancing With Bear Publishing title The
As I promised last week, here’s a little bit of trivia that may find you thinking J. K. wasn’t the first to use this bit of magic.
During a recent research session for a short story I wrote for Dancing With Bear Publishing title The
Storyteller, I was looking for information I needed for a very minor character who shows up at the end of the story. His name is Jiggs. I love odd names and I was curious where the name came from.
I pilfered the name Jiggs from a very dear friend’s father (now deceased), so the first thing I did was ask our friend where the name came from. I was told it was from a comic strip series, but that was all he was aware of.
Enter Google search.
Jiggs and Maggie was a comic strip about an Irishman who made a fortune by winning a million dollars in the Irish sweepstakes and came to America. It ran from 1913-2000. In the research, I discovered the creator, George McManus (1884-1954) used a running gag (a comical reference that appears repeatedly throughout the work) involving hanging wall paintings that “come to life”. The characters in the paintings often escaped the confines of the picture frames or changed positions from panel to panel in the strip.
Sound familiar? Anyone who has read the Harry Potter series knows of the “moving” portraits on the walls of Hogwarts and the photos that appear in the Daily Prophet and throughout the series. Now that's a bit of MAGIC!
Research can be a monotonous task, or it can be enlightening and a whole lot of fun! In either case, it is vital to your story. Believability is at the core of every word you write, and your readers will love you for it.
Until next time--
Happy Reading, Happy Writing,
~Susie
I pilfered the name Jiggs from a very dear friend’s father (now deceased), so the first thing I did was ask our friend where the name came from. I was told it was from a comic strip series, but that was all he was aware of.
Enter Google search.
Jiggs and Maggie was a comic strip about an Irishman who made a fortune by winning a million dollars in the Irish sweepstakes and came to America. It ran from 1913-2000. In the research, I discovered the creator, George McManus (1884-1954) used a running gag (a comical reference that appears repeatedly throughout the work) involving hanging wall paintings that “come to life”. The characters in the paintings often escaped the confines of the picture frames or changed positions from panel to panel in the strip.
Sound familiar? Anyone who has read the Harry Potter series knows of the “moving” portraits on the walls of Hogwarts and the photos that appear in the Daily Prophet and throughout the series. Now that's a bit of MAGIC!
Research can be a monotonous task, or it can be enlightening and a whole lot of fun! In either case, it is vital to your story. Believability is at the core of every word you write, and your readers will love you for it.
Until next time--
Happy Reading, Happy Writing,
~Susie
Source: Wikipedia-Bringing Up Father
RSS Feed