Elaine Bonnell asked Susan Gabriel:

I just finished, The Secret Sense of Wildflower. Now I want to read every book you've written. Wildflower's story kept me engrossed right to the end. In fact, I was saddened when I finished, but thrilled to learn there is a sequel. This book should be read and studied in a social class...there is so much to discuss. Your writing style fascinates me. How did you come up with the perfect name: Wildflower?

Susan Gabriel Hi Elaine. Thanks so much for your question! I am so glad you enjoyed The Secret Sense of Wildflower and that the story kept you engrossed until the end. That's a great compliment to a writer. It is also nice to hear that my writing style fascinates you and that you now want to read more of my books! Yay! I'm honored.

As for Wildflower's name, I got that directly from Wildflower. She told me.

I think the story of how the book came to me is in the back of the book, but the short version is that I woke up in the middle of the night hearing a voice that was clear as a mountain stream. It was a young girl's voice and she said to me: "There are two things I am afraid of. One is dying young and the other is Johnny Monroe."

When writing fiction, if you can get the "voice," it is a really good thing, and so I got up at 4 am and began writing down the story that Wildflower was telling me. What got me out of bed was the belief that if I didn't write her story, she might go find some other writer to do it. All these years later, I am still honored that she chose me to tell her story.

Something else you might find interesting is that after The Secret Sense of Wildflower was published, I had no idea that I would write a sequel. But I kept hearing from readers over and over again that they wanted to hear more of her story. So I wanted to give my readers more.

The wonderful surprise with writing the sequel was that when I sat down to tell more of the story it was as if the lives of the characters had kept going and they were ready to tell me more. The sequel is the story of Wildflower's daughter, Lily, and is called Lily's Song. Wildflower and Lily both narrate the sequel.

Now, again to my surprise, it turns out that there will be a third and final book. So what I thought was a stand-alone book many years ago, has become a trilogy. Since I love Wildflower so much, I am happy to continue her story with this final book.

Feel free to let me know what you think of Lily's Song, Elaine. I love hearing from readers. And also feel free to ask more questions.

Thanks so much for reading! :) xo

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