A Prickly Passion
Berry Thorns has been dormant for several months while new roots spread beneath the surface. During this time, I have been like someone carried downstream by a current so rapid that it’s impossible to swim to the shore. When I decided to start Berry Thorns a couple of years ago, I pondered the thing called passion. I believed I should write about something that stirs my passion, and I chose to focus on nature, enjoying its beauty and lamenting the harm it suffers from human behavior.
Over the past five months, another passion has preoccupied me, to say the least.
I received an unexpected message about a family I had worked with many years ago when they were refugees. Soon we were in touch with each other. The reconnection ignited my passion for refugees, migrants, asylum-seekers, and all whose lives are uprooted by war or other catastrophes.
All of my writing energy since early February has been channeled into writing a book of stories about such people. There are plenty of lives to portray — over 35 million. I don’t know who can write stories about millions. My stories include about a dozen main characters.
My book is nearly finished if a book ever is. Once writing and revising end, formatting begins. Once the book has a cover and a design, my goal is to make it available by September. The title, From the Lives We Knew, comes from a line in a hymn by the British Methodist, Andrew Pratt. This past April, an estimated 800 migrants and refugees drowned because the fishing boat they had hoped would carry them from Libya to Europe capsized. In response, Pratt wrote a hymn, “The Challenge of Migration,” which honors the memory of “the ones who fled from lives they knew.” Pratt’s hymn helped me discover what to call this collection of stories told by and about characters about fleeing From the Lives We Knew.
During the weeks between now and September, I plan to discuss nine reasons for reading my book, for caring about the issues found in these stories, and for joining me in this passion. This passion may lean toward the “Jabbing the Conscience” side of my Berry Thorns slogan, but there’s also beauty to savor in the characters you’ll meet when you read the book. Please “tune in” to Berry Thorns to learn more.
