Friday, October 18, 2013

As The Pendulum Swings


Decisions, decisions! Do you have a hard time, sometimes, choosing between one thing and another? Do you ever use a pendulum to make the choice?

 

I learned about pendulums way back in what (in the old days) was called Junior High School. Our science teacher explained the way farmers divided a bunch of chicks into hens and roosters.

 

The farmer would make a pendulum by threading a needle so it could hang down about a foot. He would hold it over each chick. It would either go around in a circle or swing back and forth. Now I can't remember which way was which for male/female, but that's the way it was done. I learned it doesn't have to be a needle, it can be anything you can hang, like a button or key.

 

Yes, I know you are going to say that you influence what it does and can make it swing any direction you want it to. You're just going to have to take my word that I don't do that. I hung it over my belly each time I was pregnant, and it came out right all four times. Test it out over your friends or pets. You'll see.

 

One of my friends uses this method to choose what she is going to order off a menu. She points to an item with her left hand and holds her keys dangling from her right. Of course to me that's no test, since anything would be right, IMO, but I tried something similar today.

 

I've decided to try to find a literary agent for my novel, BROUSSARD COURT. This takes a lot of research, as all writers know, to find an agent who (1) is accepting new clients and (2) likes the genre you are pitching. One of my first choices is a firm that represents one of my favorite authors. This author writes women's lit with an edge of mysticism—sort of like what I do. In researching this firm I found a couple of agents who are taking new clients. I couldn't decide which one to pitch to.

 

So I made a pendulum—out of a paper clip, of all things. It swung forward and back for one agent and side to side for the other. I'm taking forward and back as nodding 'yes' and side to side as shaking my head 'no'.

 

And in that way, I chose which agent is for me. Now it may not work out. She might not like my work. I'll let you know what happens. Nothing fast, I'm quite sure. The publishing business is a slow process.

 

I have a beautiful agate pendulum that I bought at a bead and stone shop some years back, but I don't know what I did with it. It probably wouldn't work any better than a paper clip, though, or a needle.

 

Have you ever worked with a pendulum? Let us know how it worked.