“Love recognises no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leap fences and penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
— Maya Angelou.
Here we go. Blog number one. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
For those that don’t know me, I’m Jane, and this year, I self-published my first book, ‘Love, Life and Lemons’. I’ve started this blog to promote my book, to provide some additional insights into the ‘Lemons’ universe and to keep you updated on the progress of book number two! You heard it here first.
To kick things off, I thought I’d start with the quote used in the opening pages of my book (the start seems like a good place to me!)
I chose to begin my book with this quote as love is one of the themes; hence the title ‘Love, Life and Lemons’. It is explored in its many different forms: familial love, spiritual love, sexual love and friendship. Many of the characters fight to enable their love to endure and grow. They have to overcome the barriers and remain full of hope.
Maya Angelou is an inspirational woman. While reading her first autobiographical novel, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, it quickly became one of my favourite books. If you haven’t read it I suggest you do. It charts her childhood growing up in Arkansas, in the deep south of America. Her family and friends dealt with entrenched racism and she endured being raped as a child which culminated in her becoming a mute for five years. It sounds depressing; however, she manages to intersperse these ordeals with humour and paints a picture of their life giving the reader the essence of the community she lived in. She certainly found her voice again as she writes to describe her family, particularly the grandmother she adored.
Aside from being a strong woman who wrote several books, Maya also wrote beautiful poetry – such as: ‘Still I Rise’. Using her writer’s voice as a sword, she was a staunch fighter for racial equality and a feminist, who throughout her life broke barriers and campaigned for change.
I cried the day she died.
So please do get involved! Leave comments, write reviews, follow me on Instagram and Facebook, Tweet Us – I’d love to hear from you.
Jane
Love, Life and Lemons 