Overcoming inertia on the wings of imagination...
My life as an Indie author has “literally” flown over the rainbow. My flight, propelled by the philosophical notion, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life," elaborated on by Oscar Wilde in his 1889 “anti-mimesis” essay, “The Decay of Lying”. Indeed, the wind may blow in a counterclockwise direction at any other juncture. In the here and now, the ruby slippers fit for “Life imitating Art”.
Ironically—by coincidence, or synchronicity of chance, one of my Contemporary Women’s Fiction novels merited a review titled, “There’s no place like home, and Eva Pasco provides the ruby slippers”.
Which brings me to the significance of my rainbow via L. Frank Baum’s ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. My voracious reading appetite and fascination with books are preserved in a memory I’ve retained since third grade. A nine-year old so smitten with the aforementioned book, I signed it out from the school library several weeks in a row to read it again and again.
And, now, a superfluity of years later:
I had originally declined the invitation to write a tale for an upcoming anthology, ‘Once upon a Fabulous Time,’ in collaboration with five other authors who comprise a support group called The Indie Fabs. I happened to be in the midst of compiling my own memoir collection for publication. No excuse, as everyone else had major writing endeavors going on too. My primary reason—I had nothin’ channeling through me that would lend itself to a loose version of a beloved fairy tale.
Several weeks later, after two of the Fabs had already written two tales apiece, a proverbial funnel-shaped cloud lifted me out of my comfort zone. In a matter of minutes, the nuances of “Mr. Wizardo” came to fruition in the genre of Contemporary Women’s Fiction. From September 5th – November 13th, Life imitated Art in conveying the central themes in Baum’s classic, as my characters evolved a “life” of their own and dictated the plot twists as such. My finished work ended up a novella, at 18,535 words--having done my final edits.
Not lost on me, after all those years ago when I fell under the magic spell of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ I followed my own yellow brick road to fly over the rainbow on the wings of my imagination.
|
I believe those red slippers are featured on the cover of my friend, Tommy McNeil's book, Two Left Shoes.
Ron