{"id":778,"date":"2016-03-14T19:09:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T19:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=778"},"modified":"2016-03-14T19:09:41","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T19:09:41","slug":"gratitude-and-humility-following-the-release-of-consolation-of-the-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=778","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude and humility following the release of “Consolation of the Rose”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I blinked away the tears as I drove. It took two days before I realized what I had just shared with everyone.<\/p>\n

I had taken a healthy chunk of my pain and rendered it into a small magical pill exceeding no more than 1000 words. I hadn’t sugarcoated it or disguised it. I didn’t put a disclaimer. Maybe I should’ve. But hell, the cover of the story offered a hint, no? <\/p>\n

I woke up the other day with Consolation of the Rose<\/em> in my head. I found it there — I didn’t seek it out, brainstorm it or anything of the like. The idea merged with a Celtic myth (The Magic Rose) I had read about earlier and voila! A quick read with an emotional punch. <\/p>\n

I have been accompanied throughout my writerly interests by an unwavering conviction that it is extremely difficult to write about things that have hurt you deeply<\/em>. I still believe this to a fair extent, but I was able to circumvent this problem by evoking the point of view of my father instead of myself. He’s a simple man with complicated pain. Apparently the device worked well. <\/p>\n

What you are saying<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two words keep coming up: “Capture” and “Beauty”. If I’ve managed captured beauty, then consider this story an evocative success.<\/p>\n

It consoles me to be told that I captured so much in so little. The impact seems to have been heavy and immediate for readers who know me personally and for those who don’t. We all seem to know the same pain and share the same hopes. <\/p>\n

If you enjoyed Consolation of the Rose, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads<\/a> (you can log on with Facebook). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I blinked away the tears as I drove. It took two days before I realized what I had just shared with everyone. I had taken a healthy chunk of my pain and rendered it into a small magical pill exceeding no more than 1000 words. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,14,13],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6aT9B-cy","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":774,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=774","url_meta":{"origin":778,"position":0},"title":"Consolation of the Rose -- A new, free urban fantasy drama #flashfiction","date":"March 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I am (happy? sad?) to release a new flash fiction, urban fantasy drama. This story is the closest I've come to writing about myself and what's going on in my life. Many families are decimated by cancer each day. Yeah, this story goes there. The read is under 1000 words\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1064,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=1064","url_meta":{"origin":778,"position":1},"title":"A Tale of Two Women","date":"September 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I know two women. They are great and strong in their own ways, but they both need my help. I help them up the stairs. I help them into and out of cars. I help them to the bathroom. I help them eat. I help keep them motivated. They have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":473,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=473","url_meta":{"origin":778,"position":2},"title":"Make a difference - #Review what you #read.","date":"September 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi all, There are many authors out there like myself who have forgone the traditional publishing route in favor of independently distributing our work. I made the decision to publish independently because smaller presses couldn't do much for me that I couldn't do myself. Instead of waiting years to catch\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":972,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=972","url_meta":{"origin":778,"position":3},"title":"Q & A with Ghouliana Stories","date":"June 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Ghouliana Stories (Bess Sturgis) writes tales for young readers that are spooky but not too scary. She is one of the hardest working writers I know and also one of the most optimistic. She is a champion of literacy for children, and uses costumes and props to enact her stories.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Author Interviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":422,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=422","url_meta":{"origin":778,"position":4},"title":"Don't Feed the Trolls! (A Fantasy Writer and Reader Prompt) #amwriting #trolls #writingadvice","date":"September 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Do not engage reviewers who leave a bad review. Accept it and move on.\" Dani-Lyn Alexander I have had mixed luck engaging critics with thoughtful discussion. Many will appreciate the author considering their gripes and suggestions. Others -- many others -- will treat any engagement with their critical view as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books, Novellas, and Stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1032,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=1032","url_meta":{"origin":778,"position":5},"title":"5 Questions with Fantasy Author Heather Love Fitzgerald","date":"August 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a chance to have a chat with Heather Fitzgerald, author of The Tethered World and the upcoming The Flaming Sword. I have always been impressed with\u00a0her writing and the amount of effort she puts into the outreach to her readers. We talk about Facebook promotion, what it means\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Author Interviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions\/781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}