I bought my first piece of butterscotch amber at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. I’m only able to make it up to the PA Faire once a year, but I always stop by to visit the two fabulous men who run a store called Amber Forever. That year, they had a square pendant that I simply had to have, though I didn’t know anything about the stone.
I’ve learned since then that at one time butterscotch amber was worn exclusively by royalty (which makes it very appropriate for the Faire). Now, all varieties of amber are worn for love, luck, happiness, and especially healing!
For a long time, I wore that pendant every single day. So when it came time to give Janie a piece of jewelry that she would wear every day in the book - the pendant which would become the magick charm - I decided it would be made of butterscotch amber. I wanted to change the shape of the charm to something more symbolic than a simple square, though. A rose for a love spell would be perfect, I told myself. And it was. In theory.
Fast forward a few years to when my book was finally being published (yaaaay!). My friend, Sam, was holding my book release party at her store, 13 Magickal Moons. I should get a pendant like Janie’s to wear for the book signing, I thought. Okay, have you ever tried to find such a thing? Probably not. Let me tell you it’s next to impossible - at least if you want to be anywhere near reasonable about the price. But by this time, it was a Quest and I wouldn’t rest until I found and bought my pendant!
Finally, success! I believe if you look long enough, almost anything can be found on the internet. My pendant has a bit more silver work than Janie’s did, but it’s almost exactly perfect.
The lesson I learned is this: If you’re going to put something symbolic in your book, find out if such a thing can be obtained first, just in case you might want to wear it to a book signing. Okay, I admit this lesson probably doesn’t apply to a lot of situations… But if I had looked first, Janie probably would have been wearing a silver flower pendant with a round amber cabochon set in the center instead!
