Logo to the left, the why of it above.
First, the logo. Somehow I stumbled across this design of what is supposed to be somewhat abstract flowers arranged in a circle. To my eyes, the flowers looked more like old-fashioned fountain pens. Okay, that's good. After all, I'm a writer, and though old-fashioned fountain pens have mostly gone the way of the T-Rex, they remain a symbol of writing. Heck, I even have one in my slideshow.
But then something interesting happened. As I worked with the design, I realized the red flowers/fountain pens resembled a wagon wheel, and when I experimented with background colors, I was dumbfounded by the design's resemblance to the Romani flag.
And that was fine with me! Don't get me wrong. I'm not a flag expert, and until I started researching information about the Romani culture for The Rain Gypsy, I didn't know much of anything about these amazing and resilient people. For example, I had no idea they originally came from northern India. (The term "Gypsy," often seen as derogatory, comes from the mistaken belief they were from Egypt.)
But back to the flag. Spread throughout the world as they are, the Romani are sometimes referred to as "a nation without a country." But they're still a nation, and they deserve a flag of their own. The convoluted evolution of the flag, which had its beginnings as far back as the 1930s, is too complicated to go into here. The version that is commonly accepted today was approved by representatives of various Romani communities at the first and second World Romani Congresses of 1971 and 1978. The background bars of blue and green represent the heavens and the earth, and the red cartwheel in the center both symbolizes the traveling tradition of the Romani people and pays homage to the flag of India with its cartwheel of navy blue.
So there you have it--the conglomeration of seemingly unconnected items that coalesced into my logo. Okay, to be honest, it didn't hurt that despite my next novel having nothing to do with the Romani, I'm currently planning an entire Rain Gypsies series. And besides that, to my eye, the logo is just darn pretty!