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Monday, September 28, 2015

The Inspiration of Autumn

Fall is my favorite season. I'm deliriously exuberant in the spring, and as busy as a mad hen with all my many gardening endeavors, but fall is a wonderful wind down time. Sure, there's tidying up to do in the garden and flower beds,  bulbs to plant, some acorn squash and pumpkins to get in...but the weeds don't drive me as insane as they did earlier in the year. Like the season, I'm more mellow now. I can breathe, and gaze about my lovely farm and valley, admire the spectacular color in the hazy ridges. We live in one of the most heavenly places on earth. I call our valley 'the Shire.' Fall is a sumptuous feast for the senses.

With few exceptions, I've set my stories in autumn.  My new YA fantasy romance series, Secret Warrior, takes place in the fall in our misty mountains. Traitor's Curse, my upcoming ghostly Gothic historical romance release, is set in late autumn. Unless the time period for a story needs to be spring or summer, or winter for a Christmas theme, I always choose fall. There's coziness in front of a crackling hearth, while outdoors, foggy tendrils entwine the scarlet leaves and obscure the darkening path through the woods. Fall is an intriguing combination of coziness and mystery.

Recently, I showed my six-year-old grandson, and eight year-old granddaughter some of my book covers. Little Owen misunderstood and thought we were looking at viewing options. He pointed to the cover of The Hunter's Moon (Book One in my YA series) and said, "I want to watch THAT movie!" His sister also liked it, and thought the cover of Traitor's Curse looked like an interesting story. So, I have two potential fans.

If you don't live where fall is glorious, and can't tap into the inspiration all around you, then share in mine.~

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all."
~Stanley Horowitz
 
"Autumn’s the mellow time."
~William Allingham


(Images by my mom, Pat Churchman)

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." ~George Eliot

"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower."~Albert Camus
 
"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
 


"Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees."
~Faith Baldwin

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree."
~Emily Bronte



(Our farm. Image by daughter Elise. She's pictured above as a child with her little friend hiding by a tree in the woods behind our farm.)

For more on me visit my blog: https://bethtrissel.wordpress.com/

 

6 comments:

  1. Beth, your posts are as wonderful as your books. And it seems everyone in your family is creative at photography and/or writing. Such a pleasure to read your posts and see the lovely photos.

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  2. Suzanne Rossi here, Beth. I was born and raised in Indiana and loved Autumn. Brown County near Bloomington is well-known for its magnificent foliage at this time of year. Living now in Florida, I don't even see a change in the seasons. I miss all the vibrant colors. Thanks for posting this.

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  3. Thanks Susan. Guess you need to head back East for fall leaf visits.

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  4. After living in Florida for many years, my husband and I moved to the Pacific Northwest. I didn't realize how much I had missed autumn! Your mom's photos are gorgeous, and I enjoyed your post.

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  5. Thanks Sandra. Don't think I could live without fall.

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