Linda Goodnight here. It’s that time of year again. Spring has come to Oklahoma, and I have a yearning to be out in the
garden playing in the dirt. Below is a photo I took near our pond, an old "home place" where flowers grow untended. Can anyone tell me what that white bush is?
I normally grow little tiny tomato gardens but this year Mr.
G. plowed up a huge garden spot. I hope I can follow through with this
grand idea of growing and preserving my own corn, okra, tomatoes and
so on. One thing I know about gardening. It takes work. Even on days when the
sun is too hot or my body is too tired, a garden won’t wait. Weeds take over.
The plants dry out. The fruit over-ripens and dies. I have to persevere.
Writing a book is a lot like growing a garden. It takes perseverance-from plowing the fertile ground of the imagination to the seed of an idea
that, with careful tending, can take root on the page.
Once the story seed blooms, I must dig out the pesky weeds of too much back
story, overused adverbs and stilted dialogue. Yes, writing a book takes lots of
work, but like the garden harvest, the end result is worth all the sweat and
effort.(Remind me I said this in August when it’s 100 degrees!)
Are
you planting a garden this spring? Have you ever? And please somebody, identify that white bush!
Linda Goodnight’s latest writing “fruit” is The Rain Sparrow, available now anywhere
books are sold.
The Library Journal says:
Tender, haunting, and soul-satisfying, this story of
hope, redemption, and justice skillfully blends romances in two separate time
periods.
Posts
