Why I Like Rainbows
My first published book is called Refracted, and refraction of light makes rainbows. But I've characterized my website with rainbows right from my first self-published work. So what's so special about them?
I like the symbolism of the rainbow's arch--it's going somewhere; it's not a straight line; it doesn't last forever--you've got to catch it while you can.
I like the math and science of it--the bending of light; the speed of light; relativity; wave-particle theories; refraction, diffraction, and the wonderful fact that even the least scientific among us can see it.
I like the fiction of rainbow promises--gold and leprechauns and mystery.
I like the promise of the Bible--the rainbow of Noah's ark, not magically created at the ending of the storm, but something God points to in the sky; something that becomes a promise of God that he'll never forget his love for us.
I like the splitting apart of things--me, an English American, a Catholic Protestant, a mathematician that can't add up and a writer that can't spell, a contradiction in search of a direction...
and I like their putting back together again into something that's greater than the whole; white light becomes a rainbow becomes a ribbon of white again.
Oh yeah, and I'm English. It rains in England. What English child could fail to fall in love with rainbows?
Why I Like Sevens
Prime numbers are fun;
seven colors in the rainbow;
seven days in the week;
seven eras of creation;
seven churches of revelation;
seven heavenly bodies we can see in the sky;
and seven sacrificial lambs.
Plus, there's always seventy times seven times that we should forgive,
and seven sevens plus one 'til Jubilee.
Seven--the number for God's perfect plan--I like seven.
Why I Use Rainbows to Characterize my Sites
A friend asked why I use rainbows as the theme for all my sites, so here's the answer(s).
1. I started out using pictures from my books and trying to advertise. When I wanted to change the picture, I'd just published A Bible Book of Colors on Lulu, so I sliced a piece of rainbow from the cover as my new image.
2. I wanted visitors to my sites to see the text without having to scroll. My rainbow just happened to be nice and thin, so I kept it. Of course, the rainbow theme on this blog's a little different.
3. Then I started looking for an overarching theme (and dream). The rainbow's a sign of God's promise, and okay, He was promising not to destroy the world with a flood, but seeing a rainbow on my sites reminds me of His love. And without His Love, I can do nothing...
4. Of course, God was the original teller of stories, and He told us the story of Noah. I used to be so sure it couldn't be true. After all, there must have been rainbows ever since there was rain and light. God couldn't have waited till Noah to make the first one. But, when I read the Bible more carefully, I found it just says God pointed to the rainbow, not that He made it. And the flood? Well we've all heard of global warming now, and they've found some fascinating stuff underneath the Black Sea...
5. All of which means I really am Inspired by Faith and Science. So then I had a theme, and a title for my Inspired by Faith and Science website.
6. Of course, that theme only applies to my Bible books, but God's promises are for all of me, and I'm sure that includes all I write.
7. So, by some curiously delightful coincidence, or divine sleight of hand, my first published eBook was Refracted (from Gypsy Shadow, soon to be republished in Speculatively Yours from Indigo Sea) which just perfectly fits my rainbow.
