I have been a writer since I was a child. I came in with a great need to communicate. I have always known that the ability of a story to transform ourselves and the world, word by word is truly powerful. In my 64th year I am grateful for such a rich life and creative path. I have been lucky to have a 35 year marriage, 5 children, grandchildren and a lifestyle lived in such a beautiful and natural environment, that it takes my breath away.
My creative path traveled through many different genres; poetry, short stories, decks of wisdom cards for young women, mothers and grandmothers, and now my debut novel, True. Women, their role on the planet at this amazing time in history, their ways of coping with a worldwide patriarchal society and their generous enduring nurturing spirit, frustration and anger have always been at the center of my work. Perhaps this is because I had no sisters, and my mother died when I was just 18. With no strong female role models I was required to trail blaze my way through the female passages of life, such as young womanhood, relationships, marriage, birth, mothering, menopause and the great mystery of death. I have been gifted though with incredibly supportive women friends and later with a wildly "young at heart" step-mother. I have learned so much from my daughters, who haven't had to experience the limitations that my generation and generations before me dealt with.
The story of True had possessed me for nine years. Animals have always given me a sense of comfort and kinship. I was a girl-child obsessed with horses, and my relationships with them have been magical. The female characters in True, who are extraordinary women leading ordinary lives came through me so to speak, literally if you will, revealing themselves, even as I slept. I would awake to Cat demanding that, "I need to say this and I have to do that." or half awake in the morning I'd hear Lilly talking to her horse, Joe. While walking in the mountains near my home, I'd suddenly "see" Midnight on the path ahead of me...and the men, I have learned so much from my male characters, even the bad ones. They showed me that they could be both gentle and masculine in the rough world of rural life. My characters had meetings without me! I'd be in the flow of writing and read back a sentence or paragraph shocked by what I saw, saying out loud to myself, "What? You are going to do that?". "Really?"...I suppose all writers become attached to the characters they create, but when I finally finished the book, I felt so sad and missed them, as if they were real people. As they struggle and rejoice and are taken in by the human condition of love, loss, fear, birth, death and beyond, I am grateful that although they are totally fictional, they somehow do justice to some of the fine people and animals I have been so fortunate know... Melinda Star Apple Farm September 9th 2011
