Yellow Rain Boots

Almost nine months have passed since our publisher began preparing the Hazel Moon manuscript for publication. The Hazel Moon Magic seemed to begin back then and hasn't let up.

After reading my original manuscript through, early on he suggested the title, Luna, and prepared a working cover based on the opening Prologue where November talks about wearing yellow rain boots to look for salamanders and frogs out in the woods. What you see above was the original working cover he prepared for use on Wattpad, a social media writing platform we used to jointly edit the manuscript.

Yesterday I met with the publisher again to write a press release and happened to be wearing a pair of yellow rain boots, given to me by my sister, Lori, as a recent birthday present. While working on Hazel Moon on Wattpad my sister and I adopted pen names, mine was "Roma" and Lori's was "Venice." If you look closely at the boots you'll see my pen name, "Roma" on the side!! Lori had no idea that name, Roma, would be on the boots when she purchased them!!

In our story, the characters November and Angela are so one-of-a-kind individuals, and prone to display any number of cute quirks as the story unfolds. In one scene, Angela begins coughing while trying to sip a drink and is specific about asking November for a straw to put in a cup. Yesterday I was caught sipping a latte out of a straw and it became all too apparent that so many of our characters traits were drawn from our personal foibles and eccentricities!

But now for the most amazing Magic that happened yesterday. Only hours before, I'd been discussing other authors and other books with our publisher, suggesting he might be interested in Sylvia Plath's, The Bell Jar, as well as Erica Jong's, Fear of Flying. The very next day I went to a series of rummage sales with family not expecting to get anything in particular and what did I find, two hardcover volumes in perfect condition for 50 cents each...and what were the titles...yep, The Bell Jar & Fear of Flying!! 

At our meeting I presented them to our publisher, told him the story, and our mouths both dropped open as we wondered why the Hazel Moon Gods or fairies or angels or whatever is behind such magical synchronicity swirling around our project, continue to remind us that Hazel Moon has taken on a life of its own and is now a Child of the Universe... 

And speaking of "children" on December 8th our Hazel Moon book launch party will take place. The project began, that is our book was conceived, on April 4th 2015 when I experienced a profound moment of synchronicity running into our publisher at a Walgreens on the day before Easter. By December 8th 2015 nine months will have passed...the time it normally takes for a child to develop and be born!