Maybe the secret was in the flight after all. Maybe not just in the flying off, but in the rise from the earth. In the unison.
Rummaging through a box with the unhelpful label “keepsakes and misc” I found a file folder stuffed with the poems and sketches I wrote in high school. One piece, a little poem called I Flew Among the Starsstood right there in the middle between overly earnest and interesting. I read. I smiled. I took a nap.
That’s when Imogen arrived. I started writing, navigating the layers of shared and disparate memories between mothers and daughters, friends and lovers. The layers become a story. The story became a novel, Decoupage.
Deep in the heart of Alabama young Caroline grieves the death of her beloved father the only way she knows how – by running away from the pain. When her mother Jane falls in love with a woman, Caroline ejects Jane from her life and breaks with her best friends, Addy and Del, who are only trying to help. Two decades later, sick and solitary, Caroline learns of Jane’s death.
At the funeral Caroline meets Imogen–the fairy-like child of Del. Guided by Imogen’s innocent clairvoyance, Caroline reconnects with her estranged friends and family. But Caroline’s illness is terminal. Will she confront the trauma of her past and find forgiveness and love before it’s too late?
For publication interest please contact me at: melinda@thehouseholderspath.com
The HouseHolder's Path 