Monday, October 8, 2012

The Tree of Life

My favourite version of the Tree of Life is that from Egyptian mythology.

If you have read The Year of the Rabbit, you will notice an influence of Egyptian art and mythology as well as a constant and near-obsessive tree theme.  

The Tree of Life could have been a good title for the novel.  Since there was also a strong theme with the Chinese Zodiac, a little girl's evolving belief system and coping methods, I chose to use The Year of the Rabbit instead.

During manic cleanup and re-organization activities in le petit apartment this Thanksgiving weekend, I ventured deep into the storage caverns of our dwelling and retrieved one of my favourite pieces of art.  It now decorates one of our bare, bland living room walls. 


I had purchased this print while on an outing in Gatineau with a friend many years ago.  Unfortunately, it remained wrapped in old blankets along with other paintings in storage after our move to the smaller, safer dwelling.  The print nicely displays the stages of life, represented by five birds perched at different positions in a tree. 

If you tread on the interwoven strands of my ancient web presence, you will become entwined in quite the list of observations, inspirations and poems about trees.   

When you read the novel, you will notice a strong tree theme.  You will be introduced to the cherry tree when Father Gio meets Sera, his newly discovered daughter.  You will encounter several passages featuring this tree - especially  one pivotal day in the lives of the Fletchers.  

If I wrote the final chapters well enough, you will be touched by the full circle, the representation of the cycle of life and death.  

If I wrote those final chapters well enough, I will have made you cry.  Goodness knows I cried enough while writing them!

Have I enticed you to read this bittersweet story or gift it to a loved one?  Visit the novel's page at Smashwords.  You get to set the price when purchasing the eBook. How do you like them apples?  Apples... another theme.

Thanks for dropping by.  Visit the novel's domain for fresh announcements, links and tweets by Florence T Lyon. 

T




Sunday, October 7, 2012

Thanksgiving and Beyond



It is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada.  Sure seems that it took Parliament a while to declare the holiday and actually settle on a date.

This intermittent writer and author is happy and thankful because I have enjoyed my first week of vacation plus I am hosting a small dinner gathering of family and friends.  Soon I will be performing more tidy-up tasks and getting the petit cuisine organized for some preparations from scratch and.. a little cheating by pulling stuffing from a box.  

I was hoping to escape to a restaurant and have someone else serve us dinner - plus clean up afterwards.  One of the resident offspring insisted that we have Thanksgiving dinner at home.  Hmm... I wonder who will be helping out with the preparations and cleanup here? Does anyone remember the story of the Little Red Hen?  

The Red Hare restaurant would have been a nice place to host a family gathering.  Enjoy an excerpt where Sera and her extended family share in a Thanksgiving meal. 



Sera soon learns news that will add to her sadness and feelings of abandonment.  


It's a good thing she had Edgar and Jenny Young to give her some comfort



Drop by the novel's domain for links to other blog entries, reader comments and deep dark secrets.  You will have to dig a little for those...  
 
Giving thanks every day - 
beginning, middle and end.  
Waking from a dreamy state 
The cycle starts all over again.

T

Friday, October 5, 2012