Here's Your Sign

Bragging rights are on the line for the Vortex-er who correctly guesses The Mystery Guy (first three clues). Robin requested more hints, so look for them at the end of today's post and sprinkled in throughout the week.

During a recent twenty-four hour period of crippling self-doubt I'm told is intrinsic to all writers mid-novel, the universe spoke to me. Not once or twice-that might be coincidence. Three times? Here's your sign.

Frankly, the luster is gone. The bloom is off the rose. Whatever cliche fits that gruesome stretch when I'm courting my manuscript, and I realize it scratches itself in polite company and has the annoying habit of repeating itself to make a point. Other ideas flirt with me across the crowded rave going on in my brain. I wonder if I've made a long-term commitment to the wrong story.

But in that funny way life has of sending us what we need, when we need it, the central, defining image of my story slammed into my awareness like a trinity of reassurance. Three times in that twenty-four hour period, I happened upon Ferris wheels: a yearly carnival parked and assembled on a street I drive each day; a random History Channel International show on the world's biggest machines featuring the London Eye; a full-color ad in a waiting room magazine. Random on any other day, at best, it was precisely what I needed to turn back to my manuscript and remember that spark that made me fall in love with it.

The longer I occupy this Earth, the more convinced I become that God or karma or whatever you attribute to things far beyond our understanding sails us into pockets of awareness we often miss. We have only to listen and plug in to details and things we take for granted each day to find our bearings and seek out our true North.

For now, my true North is to stay the course, man the ship and never lose hope that the journey will be far richer than the destination. What answer is the universe sending your way this week?

Could it be The Mystery Guy? He's now on my radar enough to warrant a change of color and font. This must be serious. Three more clues coming at you:

4. He was once a Tommy Hilfiger model

5. He wears mismatched socks, both in real life and as part of his character's wardrobe because his grandmother believed it to mean good luck

6. BAU

Guesses? Leave them in the comment section. Mid-week, look for little-known facts about the Ferris wheel I uncovered during research for my current novel. Until then, today's question:

What is your favorite Ferris wheel memory?