Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

What's Blooming in Your Life? (Guest post and Giveaway)

Some of you may have seen my review of Sand in My Eyes by Christine Lemmon a few days ago.  It was so wonderful to read a book that had shades of some of the mothering experiences in it that I had gone through.  The book dealt with more than that, but I really loved all the ways she used flowers to teach about life.  So I am very excited to bring to you a guest post by none other than Christine Lemmon! 

During the writing of Sand in My Eyes, while pregnant, I would go for a morning ride on my ‘trike’ around Sanibel Island where I live, and continued this after my daughter was born with her sitting on my lap. I would see a morning glory and knowing they open for only one day and then die, I couldn’t help but think that like those morning glories, we won’t live forever so we may as well make each day spectacular.


Some mornings I started my ride feeling bothered by life and the negative things I was hearing in the news and all around me. Daisies were everywhere, growing alongside dumpsters and in fields littered with trash, and I thought even when life gets ugly, there are always glimpses of beauty if only we look. I knew I had to incorporate flowers as a major theme in my story, how they all had something they wanted to tell us. And because a writer doesn’t just pick her themes like apples from a tree; she prepares the ground, plants, harvests, nurtures and processes those themes too, I began to almost eat, sleep, drink flowers, noticing and thinking of them like never before!


In the midst of writing Sand in My Eyes, I experienced extreme morning sickness and clusters of intense three-day headaches. And life picked up speed. I found myself busier than I liked to be. I stopped bike riding and taking walks and felt like I was falling out of shape physically. And because I only wrote while my children were sleeping—during those hours when I could have been catching up on housework—I felt like a disorganized mess. ‘But such is life,’ I wrote, ‘not everything in life can be blooming at once and sometimes it feels as if nothing is blooming at all.’


Because I had become super sensitive to flowers, interweaving them as themes throughout my novel, I would have a challenging mommy moment and tell myself, ‘don’t worry, Christine, what you are doing when your children are small is working on the underground roots, the things not seen, but vital below the earth,’ and I added that to my story.


There was one point where I didn’t like my story and considered giving it up. I started taking long walks around the island and sure enough, flowers were everywhere and I couldn’t help but to think, ‘how should you be talking to yourself when feeling down and out? The same as you would to a flower when wanting it to bloom.’ There were times when I would walk away from the story I was writing and spend my evenings like a couch potato, feeling guilty that I wasn’t writing. It was then I reminded myself that women, like flowers, need rest. We need non-productive periods in order to prepare for our next bloom.

Before writing this story, I used to see an orchid and think, ‘how pretty.’ Now I see one and think, “Orchids are beautiful, but cannot change their variety, whereas a woman has the liberty to constantly adjust who she is, how she thinks, behaves, reacts, what she learns, pursues, talks about, as well as who she wants to be in life. And if she finds she no longer likes parts of herself, she has the ability to change what it is she no longer likes.” I can’t help but look at flowers now and think deeply about them.

Christine Lemmon is the author of Sanibel Scribbles, Portion of the Sea and Sand in My Eyes. She lives on an island off Florida’s Gulf Coast - in a house on stilts! - with her husband and children.

For more on Christine Lemmon and her books, visit: www.christinelemmon.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter.

I am happy to say that thanks to Book Sparks I have 3 copies of this book, Sand in My Eyes to giveaway! 
Just leave a comment below with your email to enter. 
One entry per person. 
Giveaway is open to US/Canada. 
This giveaway will end on Aug 31.

37 comments:

bermudaonion said...

Great post! This reminds me of a flower, I saw growing through a crack in the curb - I felt like there was a great kids story in there somewhere, but I couldn't figure it out. Please enter me! milou2ster(at)gmail.com

Martha Lawson said...

I thoroughly enjoyed the post!! I would love to be entered to win this one!!

I follow

mlawson17 at hotmail dot com

Linda Kish said...

I would love to read this book.

lkish77123 at gmail dot com

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the guest post and would love to read Sand in My Eyes :) *Thanks* for the giveaway!
theluckyladybug[at]gmail[dot]com

ossmcalc said...

I, too, enjoyed the guest post by Christine Lemmon. It reminded me of the George Strait song where he sings, "I saw God today." The song talks about seeing a single flower in the crack of a sidewalk. Sand in My Eyes sounds like a very interesting book. Please enter me into your giveaway.

Thank you,

Christine
womackcm@sbcglobal.net

Margie said...

Thanks for the giveaway. I'd like to read this one.
mtakala1 AT yahoo DOT com

Benita said...

What a delightful post! Please count me in.

bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com

ChristyJan said...

I enjoyed reading Christine's guest post. Her book sounds like a great read ~ I'd love to win a copy.

hawkes(at)citlink.net

rubynreba said...

This sounds like an amazing book. Thanks for the chance to win it.
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net

ibeeeg said...

Wow...what a great post! Christine said some great things that really struck me such as...
"‘not everything in life can be blooming at once and sometimes it feels as if nothing is blooming at all.' "
AND
"“Orchids are beautiful, but cannot change their variety, whereas a woman has the liberty to constantly adjust who she is, how she thinks, behaves, reacts, what she learns, pursues, talks about, as well as who she wants to be in life. And if she finds she no longer likes parts of herself, she has the ability to change what it is she no longer likes.”

Those are such poignant words...stuff to think upon.

I would love to read this book.

ibeeeg(at)gmail(dot)com

Steve Capell said...

I haven’t read any of this author’s books, but this review sounds like a book that I would take pleasure in reading. Thanks you so much for hosting this giveaway.

steven(dot)capell(at)gmail(dot)com

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

I totally want Christine to be a friend of mine!

No need to enter me, as usual, Kristi. I'm dropping in to say thanks for the e-mail about this wonderful guest post. I've got it all blurbed and linked up over at Win a Book.

Andrea I said...

I enjoyed the guest post by Christine and your review of Sand in My Eyes. As a mother of four, I can relate to being overwhelmed at times.

I would love to win this book.

andrea.infinger@gmail.com

holdenj said...

What a great post, I really enjoyed it! Thanks for the chance to win!
JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com

Audrey said...

Thanks for the chance to win this book!
acg@gaggle.net

angie said...

Please enter me! Thanks for the great giveaway!!
bangersis(at)msn(dot)com

Anonymous said...

Please enter me in the giveaway.

headlessfowl at jteers dot net

rbooth43 said...

I agree with you there are always glimpses of beauty if only we look, nothing has to be awesome just beautiful in nature such as newly mowed grass, or a deer standing under the apple tree, or the peaceful clouds in the sky.
Sand in My Eyes sounds like such a book, well worth reading.

rbooth43(at)yahoo(dot)com

Nancye said...

This sounds like a book I would truly enjoy and cherish. My fingers are crossed that I will be one of the lucky winners! Thanks for the chance.

nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net

Leslie (Under My Apple Tree) said...

I enjoy discovering new authors... would love to win a copy.

undermyappletree at gmail dot com

Teresa said...

Thank you for the giveaway
mstlee2000 @ hotmail.com

k_sunshine1977 said...

this author is new to me - i look forward to reading this!

k_sunshine1977 at yahoo dot com

Cindy W. said...

I would love to win a copy of this book. Thank you for the opportunity.

Smiles,
Cindy W.

countrybear52[at]yahoo[dot]com

Ruthie said...

Love that...take time to stop & smell the roses!
Please enter me, thanks.

ruthiekb72@yahoo.com

Sarah said...

Thanks for the chance to win:)

foxchick0323@live.com

Jenna said...

Looks like a great read! Id love to win

papajm25{AT}gmail{DOT}com

Bingo said...

After reading your review and now this post, I want to read this book more than ever. Living in Florida also makes it appealing to me as well. Thanks for the chance

kdhaney at gmail dot com

Moridin said...

Thanks for the giveaway!
iii.141592653589793238462643383[at]gmail[dot]com

Audrey said...

Thanks for the giveaway! This looks like an interesting read.
twigerina[at]hotmail[dot]com

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a good book!

rhoneygtn at yahoo dot com

Misusedinnocence said...

This sounds wonderful. :) I'd love to be entered.

misusedinnocence@aol.com

Jill said...

This sounds like an Awesome Read!

Thanks for the Great Interview as well :)

PoCoKat said...

Would love to win! Thanks for the opportunity!

littleone AT shaw DOT ca

Sandee61 said...

Really nice post, I enjoyed very much. I'd love to read this book, it looks wonderful. Please enter me in your giveaway. Thank you!

Blessings,
Sandee61

Muzzley56[at]aol[dot]com

traveler said...

Thanks for this lovely giveaway. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

petite said...

This book sounds great. thanks. rojosho(at)hotmail(dot)com

Linda Henderson said...

This sounds like a charming book, I'd love to read it.

seriousreader at live dot com

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