The words of Robert Frost have long been a muse for artists. He is one of my literary heroes. His words, even just a few of them, inspire thought and creativity and memory and vision for the future. His work feels; therefore, so do I, as I read him. I meet new characters. His emotion connects. His themes inspire deeply. He makes me want to write things that invite the same honest connection.
His poetry, his essays, quotes from his interviews and day-to-day life… They are glimpses into what he saw and thought and felt. They challenge me to search for new and uncharted discoveries of my own.
So much of RF’s soul lives on in what he’s shared…
I’ve read him so often, I knew exactly which quotes from his works I wanted to use in my second Seasons of the Heart novel. I was inspired by concepts, first, and then by the characters they helped me bring to life. And even though the quotes couldn’t remain in the published novel, each one still lives within the pages I penned with them in mind.
Three Days on Mimosa Lane, at its heart, is about teachers and learning. It’s about waking up to the world you have now, instead of allowing difficulties from the past, no matter how great, to define who and what you can be. It’s about learning from those we surround ourselves with, and letting our lives become something others draw strength from in return. It’s about sharing. It’s about heart.
No matter our challenges, we can learn and teach and help others do the same. And the more we live, instead of just getting by, the more we can learn and bring something new and inspiring into someone else’s world. We wake ourselves up to possibilities. We’re honest about the work and thought that go into difficult choices. We move forward. And others will, too. That’s the journey of an awakened life well lived.
Readers will enjoy these deeper themes I write about, in the midst of my love stories, or they won’t. They will embrace the community, the cast of characters, the setting and symbolism, or they won’t. They will fall in love with the lives I paint onto the page, and hopefully in love with their own a little more deeply, or they won’t. But my goal as I write, is that every reader will feel something from their experience with me, something lasting beyond the page.
The above RF quote was the lead for Chapter Three in my latest novel–a chapter when the unspeakable happens, a trauma that our already fragile heroine shouldn’t be able to cope with.And for a while, she can’t. But then something amazing happens.
Though Sam Perry’s fractured and isolated and troubled, she begins to heal; not just from this recent incident, but from the long-ago pain she’s been hiding from. And because she’s been to the darker places in her mind before, she understands how to reach those around her who are dealing with loss and fear for the first time. She’s the teacher who, through her own difficult and halting journey to the light, helps others find their way.
I write flawed characters, and not all readers want that for their protagonist. But these same flaws are amazing opportunities for us to see true change and heroic sacrifice. These characters’ awakenings are closer to our own journeys,. These stories, I hope, are the ones that resonate the deepest.
Who teaches us?
Whom do we awaken in return?
If in some small way you find an answer to either of these questions in any of my work, as I have in a master’s like RF, then I’d be thrilled and contented, wannabe awakener…
Tags: Anna DeStefano, anna’s world, creativity & inspiration, Families, family, family drama, fighters, heroes, hope, inspiration, Love on Mimosa Lane, Mimosa Lane, Montlake Romance, poetry, promise, relationships, Robert Frost, Seasons of the Heart Series, Three Days on Mimosa Lane, Women’s Fiction
Anna, I think that involving your readers in the challenges and journeys of your characters is what a writer could only hope for. It’s what draws us into your story and encourages us to read on to the end. So carry on wannabe awakener! I think that’s a wonderful title!