Threading Your Needle 

by Carol Clouse

My story isn’t about architecture any more than it is about dogs.  Yet these are two of the colorful threads that have been sewn into my memoir tapestry, weaving a connected tale that the reader can then unravel.

You know you have a story, but telling it can be another matter.  There are all sorts of colors and colorful characters.  There are all types of textures, some soft and some abrasive.  There are all manner of patterns, sequence, style and space.  And you would think that the story alone could produce a palatable fabric of one comprehensive quilt.  But it can elude. 

If you look into the sewing box of your life, you will surely find a spool of one of your “favorite things”.   Maybe it’s a person or a place.  Maybe it’s a sport, or a hobby, or a passion.  Cooking, Grandma’s plate collection, knitting, shoes, seashells, golf, music, horses, gardening, or Uncle Joe; the list is as unlimited as you are!  Pick out one on your favorite things, pull the end strand from the spool, and thread your needle.  Now start writing your story.   With your special sewing strand in hand, it will pull together quite nicely.  It might even add a twist of insight to your novel or non-fiction that you would have never otherwise perceived. 

My story traversed the whole of my life, and in my mind it was of ethereal spiritual nature.  The pieces were all there, but they were not congruent quips that could tell a literal story.  The selected pieces had to pull together.

As an architect, I used architecture - my college education, my professional career, and my personal experiences with design and construction - as a thread to weave through my tale.  Dog stories served as a secondary accent strand, and my book finally flowed.  But like I said, it’s not a book about architecture - - - or dogs.  It is a story of challenge, change, and compassion.  It is a story of the spirit of creativity, which unfolds with a weave of architectural azure and canine crimson.

 www.carolclouse.com  Clouse’s Houses by Carol Clouse