Sunday, November 11, 2007

Floral Motif: Have camera, will click it.



I love flowers, especially those growing in gardens, on hillsides, by the river, among old gravestones... you get the picture. This is probably an inheritance from my grandmother, Elsie Florence May, who was a great gardener. Whether it is in the blood or simply childhood conditioning, I don't know, but I love them.

Quite a lot of my books have a floral motif. My w.i.p., Garlands of Thorn and May, has a hawthorn motif. Translations in Celadon, (HarperCollins 1998), had willow. A long short story, published under one of my pen-names, has roses. Replay has oak leaves. Two other books, to date unpublished, had roses and heath. Another w.i.p. has flax.

Flowers turn up, time and time again, even in the illustrations. Since I've had a digital camera, I can take pot-shots at any flowers that please me, which helps when I'm writing out of season. Yesterday, I potted buttercups by the river, river rose, and hawthorn and guelder rose.

Of course, I usually have no influence on my book covers, but for Replay, I designed the cover myself. Flowers again! I have no particular talent in design, but I was quite pleased with the way this one turned out. For the record, the daisies are from a photo of our lawn, under the plum trees, the oak leaves are from the oak that hangs over our fence, the girl is our daughter, Tegan, and the schnauzer is a chance-met charmer named Zac. I encountered him with his human friend outside the post office once, and asked permission to capture his image for a book cover... I wonder if the owner believed me?

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