Calling All Authors (and Readers!)

Several authors have recently commented that they are struggling with writers' blocks of one form or another; I'm in the same boat. But while I'm trying to get my writing mojo back, I was thinking a bit about one of the more enjoyable parts of writing: coming up with just the right metaphor. When you hit it, you know it, and it's a good feeling. Sometimes it means coming up with a fresh comparison; other times, it's a matter of playing with one that is well-known.

I ran across an example of the latter just this morning, reading the latest chapter of Iolanthe Portmaneaux's amazing story, Charlotte Had a Boyfriend. Here it is in all its glory:

If I had strings like a violin, you'd feel and hear those strings tightening up: their fibers straining, stretching dangerously, farther than they're ever meant to go. The pitch would keep rising, higher and higher, and with it the certitude that any second, those strings are going to pop.

Just sit with that for a minute. How often have we heard "tight as a bowstring" or something similar. But in Iolanthe's version, we get a vivid visual image, extended over time -- the strings growing tighter and tighter -- coupled with a description of the sound as well. A sound that effortlessly conveys rising distress, to the point of breaking.

Perfect.

So, here's my question for authors: What metaphor are you most proud of, from which story? Or for readers, what metaphor from a BC story has really stuck in your mind? I'll throw out one, from Strange Manors; I'm not sure it's my favorite, but I want to get the ball rolling and see what other people are thinking. "He pulled me close and laid my head above his heart, my hair cascading over him like smoke over a battlefield."