Friday, November 18, 2011

Beanstalk

My novel-writing is going strong and I feel confident that I will have the first draft done by the end of the month.  I'm about halfway there as far as word-count is concerned, and it only took me 10 chapters to get to the point where the beanstalk shows up!

Chapter 10 ends with the following paragraph:
Outside on the other side of the house, a tiny leaflet pushed up through the soil under a crescent moon.  Its bright green color pulsed with the process of photosynthesis and life, stretching out its leafy tendrils as if yawning after a long nap.  Watered by teardrops and planted with passionate emotion, the beanstalk lifted its vegetable head and looked skyward towards the heavens.  Its goal in sight, the great plant sprouted upward in a rush of great speed and breathtaking magic.
Then later in Chapter 11, once they discover what has grown in their yard overnight, I describe the beanstalk as so:
The base of the beanstalk was just as wide as their front porch, comprised of large intertwining stems the size of tree trunks.  Great leaves like giant green tents sprouted forth in every direction casting immensely long shadows in the early morning light.  Tendrils like twisting garden hoses curled up and out, and amidst all of the emerald foliage enormous beans grew of every type.
Bean pods hung like evergreen canoes on a Christmas tree.  There were green beans, coral beans, red beans and black-eyed peas.  Runner beans ran up along the sides, never losing their breath.  Winged beans flew alongside pigeon beans and moth beans, each racing each other towards the sky like jade-colored angels.  Plush velvet beans beckoned at Jack, inviting him to climb upward.  Upward amongst the fava and pinto and hyacinth.  Skyward with the kidney and lima and garbanzo.

It really bothers me that the beanstalk is typically depicted without any beans growing on it.  Even in the new movie Puss in Boots, there are no beans growing on the beanstalk!  Crazy!!  Well my beanstalk is so named because it really is a bean plant with growing beans.  Giant beans, of course, but beans nonetheless!

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