My very own StarMark

The StarMark - the main feature of my soon-to-be-published debut novel (and boy, does that feel good to write!) - is a seven-pointed star birthmark. Black on the skin initially, it changes to gold when the StarChain is worn at the point of succession for the overlords of Koltarn.

To celebrate the fact that StarMark is being published, I started looking for a small star charm to add to my charm bracelet. I've got all sorts of charms on it already - it's my life story in silver! I've already got a pencil to indicate my writing, but something as momentous as a first novel deserved its own special charm.

So I did a bit of digging, starting with images of seven-pointed stars. I hadn't realised that it's a symbol with a lot of meaning; it was apparently 'a familiar motif during Hellenistic times when the seven-day week was first adopted. Each point refers to a day of the week and a celestial body... Seven is a dynamic number of magickal significance in most cultures.' And there was me, using a seven-pointed star just because a five-pointed one seemed ordinary!

With a bit of digging, I found the website of Mark Defrates in the US, (which is where the above information came from). There were stars aplenty on his site - all custom-made, with an option for silver and a variety of sizes. Perfect!

And so, after a bit of discussion with Mark, I ordered not one, but two 'StarMarks' from him; one for my charm bracelet and one to wear as a pendant at the launch party I will most probably have for StarMark, the book!

They arrived this morning...

Gorgeous, or what? They are both sterling silver and set with a black diopside stone, which is peculiar in that when the light reflects on it, there's a 4-pointed star visible actually in the stone. Mark had suggested other black or silvery-grey stones at my request, but we decided on diopside because there's another level of significance here for the novel; one of the characters, Lord Terenz, is known as The Black Star - and given that this black stone has a star inside it, it seemed doubly appropriate.

So now I'm off to buy a chain to hang the pendant from - look out for me wearing it in a few months time!