To write a Sarah Addison Allen novel.
I just finished THE SUGAR QUEEN, which has a fabulous cover, btw. I mean this cover — I know there are other editions, but this is the cover I like:
And this morning I read the first two paragraphs of GARDEN SPELLS. Love it!
“Every smiley moon, without fail, Claire dreamed of her childhood. She always tried to stay awake those nights when the stars winked and the moon was just a cresting sliver smiling provocatively down at the world, the way pretty women on vintage billboards used to smile as they sold cigarettes and limeade. On those nights in the summer, Claire would garden by the light of the solar-powered footpath lamps, weeding and trimming the night bloomers — the moon vine and the angel’s trumpet, the night jasmine and the flowering tobacco. These weren’t a part of the Waverly legacy of edible flowers, but sleepless as she often was, Claire had added flowers to the garden to give herself something to do at night when she was so wound up that frustration singed the edge of her nightgown and she set tiny fires with her fingertips.”
Okay, can you imagine a more perfect beginning to a novel? I am dying to write a novel where frustration makes your fingertips catch fire, where the scent of baking cakes whispers an invitation to lost loves, where the wallpaper changes according to your mood . . . and where the mistakes you made in high school can be redeemed, rather than ruining your adult life.
Maybe I’ll take a stab at it one of these years.
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