M. Larose's Blog: From the Meadow and the Tower - Posts Tagged "flower-magic"

Like the ground around my home, I've been struggling to break free of winter's grip. Concerns with boring yet important things, such as frozen pipes and household budgets, have kept my creativity suppressed. But as I watch the potted tulip bulbs on my kitchen countertop begin to push up green shoots through the soil, I feel my imagination growing complicated, rich scenes that will soon push themselves out as shooting words and swirling sentences, to unfold in a rainbow of emotional images and colors.
And so I wrestle with the balance between impatience for spring's glory and the need for gentle awakening from winter's icy grip. We must be gentle with emerging, and allow the unseen energies to strengthen and bloom in their own proper time. Forced flowers can be beautiful, but their energy soon fades.
So I'm allowing myself to linger in the thawing, and trust that the blooms will be vibrant when my flowers of imagination finally burst forth and are recorded as new scenes in the sequel to The Flower Eater. This is my current flowery vision!

Well, my yard is still covered by a foot of snow, but temperatures have been warming and the sun is shining today. When I clambered out to check the gauge on the propane tank last week, my legs broke through the weakening crust of snow to reveal how thin and "hollow" the snow actually is. It's not as solid and daunting as it appears!
And beneath that hollow, snowy crust, I know the Lenten Roses in my garden must be stirring silently, pushing up the buds of their hardy, wax-like flowers. The picture I use on this blog and on the back of my novel, The Flower Eater, is of those Lenten Roses. I took the photo several years before I finished writing The Flower Eater, never imagining that I'd connect it with the book, but now it seems a perfect emblem -- taking that photo was one of several serendipitous happenings along my journey as an author.
Like the hidden yet uncoiling flowers of the Lenten Rose beneath the snow, a pivotal and dramatic scene in the sequel to The Flower Eater is forming in my mind and breaking through the crust of my subconscious to blossom on the written page. Today I'll be delving into my garden of imagination with heated attention, to continue the thaw and reveal that lovely blossom of scene in colorful, splendid detail. (With luck and the help of the flower-spirits!)

I recently gave a friend the to-date pages of the sequel I'm writing, for her feedback. She was one of my first readers for The Flower Eater, and was always very eager to read more of that story, so I was curious to see what she'd think of the in-progress sequel (which I guesstimate is 1/6th complete at this point).
Good news: she likes the beginning of the sequel, especially the erotic scenes (good to know, because those are fun but tricky to write) AND she loves the last scene written so far, where the real drama begins. Encouraged by her approval, I'm hoping to amp up the speed of my writing. I've had some real-world distractions, but now that the snow is gone and the outdoor flowers are forming and flowering, I hope my imagination will push the flowers of the sequel out onto the pages to blossom properly.
I've also gotten some very positive feedback from a professional agent on the sequel's opening pages. Spring's optimism is in the air.

I'm back to this blog after lapsing for a while. My writing has been hampered by technical glitches for the last few months. While I've struggled with home issues and pending excavation around our home, my writing has been dampened, as well: like a garden too waterlogged and sun-deprived to blossom. The buds of story have been compressed within my psyche like malnourished flower buds. Literally and figuratively, there's been too much rain, and I've felt bogged-down.
However, things are improving. My laptop has been purged of viruses and files that would not open have been recovered. Story scenes are forming and soon will find life on the page. Please bear with me if you follow this blog. Soon I'll write something more interesting!
Progress: My book, The Flower Eater, is being re-issued, with a much improved back cover which will now include snippets from the wonderful Kirkus Review I got. Also, the back cover will now have a briefer description and will give away less of the plot detail. I feel a huge relief to finally have the cover corrected! It will take 10-15 days for the new version to be available through the various outlets, but if anyone owns the book, you have a first-edition copy. Those copies may someday be worth something as collectors' editions. Here's hoping!
Also: my website has been in limbo, but I'm addressing that soon. Meanwhile, the plot of the sequel is forming unseen within my mind. The sodden earth is warming under the sun's encouraging rays, and soon those flower-buds of story will unfold again. My thanks to those who sometimes stop, in the midst of their own journeys, to view the garden of my words. You are like the sunshine!