Posts Tagged ‘pareidolia’
new Kaye Eliot Mystery, coming soon
I have spent the last week doing the final edits on my next Kaye Eliot Mystery. The name of this one will be ‘Pareidolia,’ meaning the tendency of people to see specific, meaningful images in random visual arrangements. Those who see a ‘man in the moon’ will know what I mean.
~
In this book, the Eliot family will tackle another rural mystery, this time in a huge old house and its marble floors – marble floors with images embedded for those who look closely … a story told in ‘pareidolia.’
~
~
The book and the mystery occur around the planning for Clara and Daniel’s upcoming wedding. Clara and Daniel, the stonemason, are Kaye’s friends and will be known to readers of the Kaye Eliot series.
~
~
The image for the cover of the book is completed, an acrylic painting that shows some of the scenes within the old house – a house being used as a venue for weddings and anniversaries. The marble tiles are also featured in the cover image. Only a rectangular area of the painting will be featured on the book cover.
~
~
The book will be available in late November 2023. This is the fifth book in the series. Come roam with Kaye and her family in rural Nova Scotia and enjoy the antics of the Eliot kids and their friends.
~
The other books in the series are:
How Her Garden Grew
Something the Sundial Said
Land Between the Furrows
Stained Glass
~
~
Looking forward to sharing this mystery story with you!
~
All my best,
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
a Kaye Eliot Mystery — number 5 in the series
~
The Kaye Eliot Mysteries are cozy, family-based and set in a small fictional community in Nova Scotia. So far, there are four in the series.
~
~
In November, the fifth volume in the series will be released. Pareidolia continues the story of a family who loves solving mysteries together. ‘Pareidolia’ is the tendency to perceive a specific, meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. Think of ‘the man in the moon.’ In this cozy mystery, Kaye and her family search for images in the marble floor tiles of a century-old country house, now used as a wedding venue.
~
The floor tiles are clues to the location of a valuable hidden sculpture. Each tile reveals the next line in a story, told in the black and white patterns in the marble of the tile. If Kaye can find the sculpture, a beautiful wedding venue will be available for Kaye’s friend Clara, free of charge.
~
You will love the various rooms in Marshall’s Elegant Weddings, the quirky folks who live in the community of Stone Ridge, and the members of the Eliot family, especially five-year-old Matthew. You may not love Kaye’s plan for her family to spend the entire week of March Break staring at black and white tiles. You may never again look at the floor in the same way.
~
~
This week, I am working on the book cover painting for Pareidolia. It will show Clara and her husband-to-be, the stone-mason Daniel, sitting in the hall of Marshall’s Elegant Weddings, dreaming of their future together. All around them are the marble floor tiles, some showing clues to the mystery.
~
All my best,
Jane
(a.k.a. Alexandra)
Pareidolia
pareidolia: the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
~
When you look at marble, or at clouds in the sky, or bubbles in a glass of milk, do you see faces? Can you see The Man in the Moon? Pareidolia refers to the seeing of human faces or other images where they don’t exist. Pareidolia is a normal human tendency.
~
I often see images in the marble patterns of our flooring. It can be quite entertaining. Mostly, I see animals. I think it is the biologist in me!
~
~
~
Perhaps aliens also have pareidolia. In my upcoming book Meniscus: The Knife, I devote a chapter to this phenomenon. On planet Meniscus, there is a dirth of paper. One of my early characters, Ning, made paper from plant fibres for her girlfriend Kathryn, an artist. By Meniscus: The Knife, Book 8 in the series, (spoiler alert) only three sheets of Ning’s paper remain. Don-est, the alien child, wants to draw, so Kathryn shows her how to draw on the marble walls of the dwellings in the Village.
~
~
Vicki sets her laundry
on the marble floor.
Tries to see
what Don’est is doing.
~
As her eyes adjust
to smoky light,
she sees markings on the walls.
Drawings of bug-eyed evernells
and fuzzy elginards.
A slear-snake
with myriad eyes.
A cardoth moon,
slim sickle
of glowing white
in marble green.
~
Don’est feels eyes on her.
Swivels her neck.
“What do you think
of my drawings?”
she says.
~
“What are you doing?”
says Vicki.
~
“I asked Kathryn for paper
but she has only a sheet or two
of the paper Ning made.
“So she showed me
an idea she had.
~
“The marble walls,
you see,
have hidden secrets.
Lines and shadows
look like evernells
and Humans and slear-snakes
and grammid trees.”
~
Vicki looks
at faint green lines on the walls.
Sees an old man in the pattern.
A thready waterfall.
A leaf-bare tree,
branches reaching for sky.
~
“But what are you using to draw?”
she says.
“
Eyebrow pencil.
Kathryn and Ning
found it on a transport
long ago.”
~
~
All my best,
staying at home,
drawing on the floors and walls,
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 