What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? I began writing Scarlet Oak, a magical realism novel, in September 2017. After suffering a concussion in 2018, I had to take a break from the novel to recuperate. During that time, I began writing short nature quotes to satisfy the callings of an overactive mind—I wasn’t supposed to be thinking too much!
A couple of years later, I returned to Scarlet Oak after creating a blog, Mom Soul Soothers, and building a following on Pinterest and Instagram for my quotes.
I queried my novel to agents for a short time and received feedback on commercializing the work and turning it into fantasy. In my heart, I knew that I needed to keep the story intact and that I would find the audience for it slowly but surely.
I chose to self-publish, and I created my own LLC, Autumn Rising Press. I hired a fabulous local editor, Leah Weiss, and she worked her magic. We completed the editorial process in November 2021.
Click on the link to go to Leah Weiss’s Website.
http://www.weissedits.com/?fbclid=IwAR1wUfqNl-cdbUmK8DxJgGsarKrP_ltRhlGhJkliHY7xiQgAyxdPsQ7wfT0
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? I wrote Scarlet Oak partly in my backyard near an old oak tree, partly in my soothing study, and partly on meditative evening walks. Whichever modality spoke to me in the moment and nudged my creativity, I was there!
My novel was inspired by my daughter’s profound connection to the old oak in our backyard.
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? I adopted many habits as I wrote this book. While working on my computer, I always listened to Native American flute music, mostly by Marina Raye.
Click on the link below to visit the Website of Marina Raye
Click on the link below to listen to “In Harmony” by Marine Raye.
This placed me in a meditative state, and the words flowed. I wrote primarily in the mornings, sipping coffee, drinking water, and taking breaks to walk my writing buddy, my lovable Labrador retriever, Cali.
When I wrote outside, in my backyard, I used a good old-fashioned pen and notebook. I wrote the more poetic sections in this way—the Horace-Speak and Smis-Speak parts. I also wrote some of the most powerful scenes in the novel using pen and paper.
When I walked in the evenings, I took a voice recorder with me. I plotted some of the story in this way. Movement always jars my mind and activates my imagination.
Before I began to write this novel, I conceived of the story’s catalyst. I knew that a tree sprite would witness a boy’s death on her tree and then integrate into his family. I didn’t yet know why the boy hanged himself or any of the particularities.
As I wrote, I let the characters direct me on a journey. Organically, the story flowed from them and came together.
I wrote many drafts to refine the work, as I am not a writer who sticks to an outline.
Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference. This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer. You can find this excerpt on pages 20–21. It’s from the perspective of Horace, an oak tree.
My hollow aches the most. My branches can find companionship with the wind. My leaves come and go without much distress. I know they’ll return. Perhaps not in the same way as before. But a return is inevitable. Part of Nature’s extraordinary madness. My hollow, though, it’s meant only for Scarlet, and now she’s gone.
How can a thing born from within grow limbs that then carry it so far away? And how is this natural or Nature? I stand and wonder because there’s nothing left to do. And also, because the boy’s spirit isn’t the most engaging distraction. It rocks and mourns—nothing more, nothing less. And I’m stuck beside it, no escape. Loyal to my word, I’ll look after it. At least offer my shade, as fate would have it. But to give more?
Oh, I wish I wasn’t so much a giving tree as a taking tree. I’d take Scarlet back. Then I’d give the boy-spirit to Nature, thrust it backwards into her void or Smis’s shadow (whomever will take it first), so that circumstances weren’t as they were. I miss her. Scarlet.
True, she’s only just left. But my hollow’s a burning lonely cavern of memory. The feel of what she felt inside of it—gone. The air of her breath. The whisper of her rustle-hums, for good or bad. The essence of the only tree sprite—and, in human-speak, child—I’ve ever known.
Scarlet’s all there is and was to begin with, I now know. Be well, Scarlet. Be brave. If words can’t find you, speak from the soul.
Click on the link below to order Scarlet Oak from Amazon
Why is this excerpt so emotional for you as a writer to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? As I wrote this excerpt in a notebook, on my pier near the old oak tree in my backyard, I was feeling a good deal of grief, that day. I am a mom to a daughter with autism, and the journey has provided a portal to see the best and worst in humanity, at times. Without being too specific, I was experiencing the latter.
I needed an outlet in which to pour some of my emotion and to heal. I also needed a space to show the world who my daughter was at her core—a beautiful, unique soul in her own right. This sentiment extends to all children with special needs, and I braided that into the book.
Click to read What is Autism Spectrum Disorder
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html
Although the novel opens darkly, it takes the reader through many realms, both real and imaginary. The most powerful realm is that of Love, the fierce love that parents of children with special needs encompass. I adore the way one reader, Cathy Jones, spoke of the book: “A magical novel that introduces a sad undertone early that gradually becomes a flowing composition of love, joy, understanding and forgiveness.”
For reference sake, my novel is written from three perspectives, those of wingless tree sprite Scarlet Oak, her birth oak tree, Horace, and Southern Maryland’s Grim Reaper, Smis. The Horace and Smis parts are short, poetic, and free flowing, whereas the rest of the narrative is in more traditional fictional cadence. It reflects an atypical journey that parents of children with special needs travel, one that holds a spectrum of emotion as well as beauty.
This excerpt is something I wrote through many tears; it helped shape the characters more clearly, and the novel grew from it. I still can’t read it without crying. In the passage, Horace, father to Scarlet, is dealing with the pain of a goodbye as Scarlet sets out to the human realm to try to save a boy’s broken spirit, and to heal his family, too.
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. I didn’t delete the bones of this passage because it served as the raw crux and emotional beginnings of the story. There is an arc that unfolds from this passage to the last, and I wanted to keep it pure.
I deleted some phrasings, and I changed the name Willow to Scarlet. In the first draft, Horace names his sprite Willow, but, as the character of Scarlet evolved during revisions, it felt like a natural progression that she took ownership of her identity. The scene in which she names herself Willow Brook in the human realm is one of my favorites!
Click on the link below to visit Angie Weiland-Crosby’s Website
Most of the INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links can be found at the very end of the below feature:
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2021/03/stephenson-holts-arranged-marriage-is.html