{"id":1,"date":"2015-06-05T18:55:39","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T18:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/?p=1"},"modified":"2026-05-25T12:37:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:37:24","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/2015\/06\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A Trunk, a Lantern, and a Kaleidoscope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"kaleidoscope\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is my first blog to launch my website, so why did I choose these images?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I\u2019m writing historical fiction, I wanted images evocative of the past. And I like clickable images, but I didn\u2019t want them floating in space. I had to put them somewhere. A mantel would have worked, but then I\u2019d have to decide on a fireplace, and a fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I picked an old steamer trunk, like something Tintin and Captain Haddock might have packed, although I have no idea what they\u2019d put inside since Tintin never changed out of those three-quarter pants, not even in the snowfields of Tibet. So that\u2019s the trunk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kaleidoscope was easy since my YA manuscript is The Devil\u2019s Kaleidoscope<\/em>, about a 14-year-old Armenian boy named Arakel, caught up in the genocide 100 years ago. In May 2015, around the time of the 100-year commemoration of the genocide, I was preparing a presentation about Armenia, where I planned to end by reading a chapter from the manuscript. I found an old, creepy-looking kaleidoscope for the slide, which was in the background while I read. That\u2019s this image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old leather-bound books? I like them. They look classy. Since a leather-bound book figures in The Devil\u2019s Kaleidoscope<\/em>, that was another obvious choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lantern makes me think about danger and bravery, like waiting out a hurricane with no water or power, or making the rounds after midnight on a night watchman\u2019s circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pitcher is here because . . . I\u2019m not sure why. I like its shape and I wanted something hand-made and hand-painted. The running tile across the top is the same idea — hand-painted Armenian tile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s it. I might add more once I finish my second novel, which I am only starting now. That one features two girls who drop out of college during 1970, live in Berkeley and get into a lot of trouble with boys, drugs and life in general. Maybe a pair of wire-rim glasses or love beads draped over the pitcher will appear one day. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What images inspire you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my first blog to launch my website, so why did I choose these images? Since I\u2019m writing historical fiction, I wanted images evocative of the past. And I like clickable images, but I didn\u2019t want them floating in space. I had to put them somewhere. A mantel would have worked, but then I\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","event_title":"","event_details":"","event_timezone":"","event_gmap":"","event_image":"","event_image_url":"","event_calendar_link":"","event_location":"","event_location_name":"","event_location_address":"","event_location_unit":"","event_location_city":"","event_location_state":"","event_location_country":"","event_location_zip":"","event_datetime_with_summary":"","event_datetime":"","event_date":"","event_time":"","event_date_type":"","event_rulesummary":"","event_ticket_rsvp":"","event_capacity":"","event_capacity_remaining":"","event_capacity_sold":"","event_sold_out":"","event_low_stock":"","event_ticket_count":"","event_ticket_summary":"","event_sales_start":"","event_sales_end":"","event_ticket_price_from":"","event_ticket_price_to":"","event_ticket_price_range":"","event_date_year":"","event_date_month":"","event_date_month_short":"","event_date_day":"","event_date_day_name":"","event_date_iso":"","event_rsvp_capacity":"","event_rsvp_remaining":"","event_rsvp_going":"","event_rsvp_full":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/kaleidoscope.png?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahignatius.com\/staging\/4657\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}