Advisors On My Shoulders

by Pam Ripling

Do you ever hear it? Better yet, do you hear multiple voices, one taunting, teasing, pushing, the other admonishing, warning, and scaring you back under the covers?

In visual fiction they are oft depicted as the little angel, the little devil that sits on each shoulder, whispering into your ear when you're undecided. "Do it!" "Don't!" "Aw, c'mon, wimp." "You'll be sorrrryyyy..." We've all warred with our conscience at one time or another. And, clearly, only saints could truthfully say that the devil in us has never won. But it isn't all black and white, is it?

Sometimes, the warring factions might be connected to our own fears, rather than good and evil. I recently blogged a recollection of crashing a snowmobile into a tree at Steamboat Springs. I'd had those conversations with my shoulder buddies that very morning. Should I go? Hop on board a death-defying, raging vehicle that sped through the snow at an alarming speed – a vehicle I'd never paid any attention to before? Or...should I stay? Inside a warm condo, with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book, a blaze in the fireplace, quiet, solitude...?

While it certainly wasn't evil to opt for the excitement of the snow eating monster, it was that little Lucifer type that made me do it. The angelic bookworm sniffed and turned her back, and I dropped her into my novel like a bookmark for later. I returned with a butterfly bandage on my eyebrow, rosy cheeks and a new experience I wouldn't have traded, in retrospect, for all the cocoa and Heathcliffs in the world.

So sometimes, not always, the little guy in red is only trying to show you a good time!

PS - That's not me on the snowmobile above, but it certainly felt like it!

Pam Ripling is the author of middle-grade mystery, LOCKER SHOCK! Buy it at Quake, Fictionwise or Amazon today! E-book version now available for your Kindle! Visit Pam at www.BeaconStreetBooks.com.