{"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":363,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=363","url_meta":{"origin":778,"position":3},"title":"A bump in the road","date":"June 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Sadly we didn't place in the Inkitt 'Epic Worlds' competition. As the most reviewed 5-star fantasy on the site, 5th most popular fantasy on the entire website in the last month, second most-voted story in the competition, it is hard not to feel a bit let down in this decision.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","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":503,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=503","url_meta":{"origin":778,"position":5},"title":"Some *rough* writings about my grandpa I did 8 years ago WITH TYPOS","date":"October 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"What follows are rough drafts of some biographical work a friend and I did on Arthur Rowland, my grandfather. I've left the writing the way I found it - flawed and authentic. Maybe there's a story here, who knows. Enjoy Arthur J. Rowland was born on (Insert date) in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","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}]}}