Skip to main content

Changes in the Air

I resonate with this image of a butterfly in an ambiguous field of color depicted on this art card because I am on a journey of transformation and changes as well.  I'm excited about so many things.  One of them is that I have started a novel.  It is about 1/3 of the way to being finished, so I have a lot of work to go.  It centers around a 14 year old African American girl who has many trials and tribulations many of which are in the spirit realm.  You might call the book paranormal fiction or alternative spiritual fiction; though the main character if young the book is not a young adult reader, it is meant for adults.  Set in two locations, the New Jersey Pine Barrens, my original home, and the outback of Australia.  Not just a backdrop, the landscape plays an important role, it is lush, mysterious and interactive with the story.  In some ways it reminds me of "the Color Purple" and in others, "Girl Interrupted." I have definitely been influenced by the magical films directed by M. Knight Shymalan. At her young age she already knows she is bisexual, she has been molested and she might have an eating disorder.  She has also been possessed by a spirit.  I am having a lot of fun writing my first novel, enjoying all of its twists and turns.  It is so different from nonfiction, it feels more in line with the type of creative process I go through making my paintings. I wrote, flat out and nonstop for a couple of weeks.  Then on chapters 8 through 12 things slowed down with my muse.  I'm planning to get back at it today.  Yolanda, my character, is traveling from Sydney back to the forest in New Jersey, begrudgingly.  She loves Australia and doesn't really want to return to the states and her troubles there. The muse has been an important part of the development of this novel. When she is with me, words just flow like water but when she leaves my pen dries up.  I think I'm going to have to fetch her and not wait for her to return on her own.  How I will do that, I'm not certain. Maybe I will call on some of Yolanda's powers.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. carol l mckennaOctober 8, 2012 at 5:49 AM

    Wow! and so you are becoming a butterfly ~ spreading your wings and soaring to create a novel ~ Wonderful ~ very creative post ~ (A Creative Harbor)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Paula - Buenos AiresOctober 8, 2012 at 9:57 AM

    Interesting plot, loads of energy moving there.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Go ahead. Make my day by leaving a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Tree Whispers

Tree Whispers Shinrin-yoku is a complementary medicine modality, designed to up-lift sub-par health conditions, through lifestyle changes that involve immersion in nature, specifically the wildness, we call a forest, where the senses, including our intuitive sense and ability to heal ourselves through it, is ignited. Forest bathing, as Shinrin-yoku is popularly called, has come to our attention, at a time when the scientific community is abuzz about the ability of trees - be it in stands, groves, or forests, to build community. This, at a time, when we as humans, struggle hard to build and sustain healthy in-person communities, in the face of Online communications. Books like “The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate Discoveries from a Secret World,” (Wohlleben 2016) by Peter Wohlleben is a Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post bestseller. It makes readers privy to trees’ communication skills and social networks, that is, it helps us entertain...
Post a Comment
Read more

Art of Motherland Herbal

 Motherland Herbal is my latest book, set to be released June 11th by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins. It is a cross-genre work, primarily an herbal guide, with elements of memoir, and creative nonfiction. It encompasses my passion for folklore and mythology, from the African diaspora. I’m back here to begin a series of posts built around the art within its pages. Today, I share my inspiration for the book cover art. One of my favorite houseplants is our Money Tree. Rich in lore, intimately connected to abundance, prosperity and luck, I adore this plant. It is plentiful, in its growth habit, beautiful in its variety of green leaves and becomes luminous in the morning, when it catches light, hence the yellow-orange negative space around the leaves on the cover.  I enjoy the playful way the art director at Harper, inserted the text, showing the title, subtitle and my name. The cover was a wonderful collaborative effort. It is designed to be inviting, informative and lumin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Press Release: New Moon Collection

  SRB Botanica Announces New Moon Collection December 15, 2020 Noted Author, Artist Stephanie Rose Bird Teams Up with Actress Daughter to Craft Healing, Responsibly Sourced Body and  December 15, 2020  - Herbal product company SRB Botanica, led by mother-daughter duo Stephanie Rose Bird and Olivia Bird, has announced the release of their New Moon Collection of body and hair products, timed to coincide with December’s new moon. The products in the collection make fabulous holiday gifts!  Loco for Coco is a simple, old-fashioned handmade cold-processed soap handcrafted from chocolate, cocoa butter and coconut oil with distilled water and lye, and featuring a patchouli lavender scent. Cacao has many phytonutrients and minerals that are great for the skin. Hair potion Palm-made was crafted with four words in mind: modern, healthy, strong, hair. Palm-made yields better hair health through the skilled combination of venerable essential oils such as ylang ylang and rosemary...
Post a Comment
Read more