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📚Rosalie’s Apple Tree•Love Me Like October•Fantastical for Real
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Pinned Post • About Writing

Why am I here on IG? Around a decade ago, a story fell into my head and I wrote it down because it wouldn’t shut up until I did so. 🙃 Striving to publish that story—my first novel, Rosalie’s Apple Tree—is what brought me to Twitter and eventually to IG. I have since left Twitter because it was rather cold and heartless (i.e., unhealthy for me).

During the past 10 years, I’ve had a lot of doubt about my skills as a writer. Lots of doubt. But after years of developing my craft and watching other writers succeed and fail, I’ve come to realize that a doubt such as mine is healthy. It is enough doubt to prompt me to learn and improve without growing a big head but not enough doubt to cause me to give up.

Two bits of wisdom for fellow writers and artists:

A) Anyone with a large ego who thinks they’re great or especially gifted in their craft probably still has a lot of learning and skill development they could do. Never compare yourself to others who exude excessive confidence. Better yet: never compare, period.

B) Being traditionally published usually means that an agent or publisher believes they could make enough money off your work to take a chance on signing you. Publishing is a competitive business, and achieving a traditional publishing contract does not necessarily indicate that a writer’s work is great or that they are especially talented; it’s more likely a writer is offered a contract because their work has a decent probability of sale. Creating things that are “too different” may not sell, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have an audience. What’s important is that an unknown writer/artist like me (and like you?) keeps doing what makes them happy. So keep going. 🔥

Anyway, after many years of editing and polishing not only my manuscript but my book cover as well, I’m ready to publish my novel, Rosalie’s Apple Tree. This year, I turn 50 years old (Wow! 😳🥰), and I’m thrilled to celebrate this milestone year by publishing my greatest creative endeavor to date! 🥳🥂 (Release Date: 6-20-23)

#anngarciaauthor by @solaceinraindrops

🌍 This is my 85th poem for the First Line Poets Project run by @emmajanepoetry & @noellewritespoetry. For October, I was partnered with @jyotipoems , who provided me with beautiful lines. (Thank you!) I chose “I’ve lost count of my tears…”.

October was extra heavy this year. I’m looking forward to November. 🤍
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I lost count of my tears between September and my latest breath, each moment all consuming as I shatter on repeat. They say time heals, but it merely forms a scab that life needles until I bleed again. And it’s hard to smile while hyperventilating, so don’t look at me. I’m not the person I used to be.

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Poetry

@solaceinraindrops #anngarciapoetry #firstlinepoets #anngarciaauthor by @solaceinraindrops

$🌍 This is my 84th poem for the First Line Poets Project run by @emmajanepoetry & @noellewritespoetry. For September, we have been given a challenge to write 4 poems. EJ is providing a set of lines for each week. For week one, I selected “This is where I begin…”. It is my hope that I’ll have energy to write four poems this month. We shall see if I can manage it. . This is where I begin and end, within fractals of self, kaleidoscopic and pure. You met me halfway through transition, when I was whole and parted, unaware, yet knowing. Wise were the words I’d yet to learn in a cycle of beginnings that felt like misfires but were really ordained. This is where I begin and end, in today’s haze of possibilities. . Poetry Prose poem @solaceinraindrops #anngarciapoetry #firstlinepoets #anngarciaauthor by @solaceinraindrops$

🌍 This is my 83rd poem for the First Line Poets Project run by @emmajanepoetry & @noellewritespoetry. For August, I was partnered with the lovely @emmajanepoetry , who provided me with many wonderful lines. I chose “Everything ages and changes…”, which inspired this little prose poem about discovering and exploring new aspects of self at middle age within the confines of decisions made when young. Thank you, EJ! 🤍
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Everything ages and changes and dies, but that doesn’t mean now is worthless. I remind myself of my previous lives when a possible self emerges. I’m currently balancing changes of mind as I wander within lines of service. And I pray that I find what I’m destined to seek as an artist who’s growing with purpose.

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Poetry
Prose poem

@solaceinraindrops #anngarciapoetry #firstlinepoets #anngarciaauthor #prosepoem by @solaceinraindrops

🌍 This is my 82nd poem for the First Line Poets Project run by @emmajanepoetry & @noellewritespoetry. For July, I was partnered with @pamelamayauthor , who provided me with many fantastic lines. I chose “Some names taste like unfinished sentences…” Thank you, Pamela!

This prose poem is written for my husband. 🤍

Some names taste like unfinished sentences, and yours has lingered on my tongue for over 36 years. We met when life was analog and virtual insanity was not yet a song. Our wedding tables held disposable cameras and playing cards because we’ve always been real and looked forward to a life as such. Babies came and grew into more than we ever imagined and it’s been hard and worth every moment. And now we are in the aching years and it’s even harder. So many things could have torn us apart, yet we continue to write our story one precious day at a time. Yes, some names taste like unfinished sentences, and yours, my love, has been a blessing to savor.

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Poetry
Prose poem

@solaceinraindrops #anngarciapoetry #firstlinepoets #anngarciaauthor #prosepoetry by @solaceinraindrops

🌍 This is my 81st poem for the First Line Poets Project run by @emmajanepoetry & @noellewritespoetry. For June, I was partnered with @pragya.writing , who provided me with the wonderful line “I feel the wind sorting through my thoughts…” Thank you, Pragya!

on neuroticism (or letting go)

I feel the wind sorting my thoughts, and I thank heaven. This flurry of mind shall remove the part of me that frets and fumbles. You see, I stumbled a few years ago and broke, and that’s when the parasite awoke. My prayers for the peace I knew will be answered through this storm as the wind sorts my thoughts into what matters
and what matters not.

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Poetry
Prose poem

@solaceinraindrops #anngarciapoetry #firstlinepoets #anngarciaauthor #prosepoem #prosepoetry by @solaceinraindrops

Did you know @solaceinraindrops published a novel?

My review of Rosalie's Apple Tree by Ann Garcia.

@poeticrainbow9

#bookstagram #readersofinstagram #reader #fiction #booklover by @solaceinraindrops

🌍 This is my 80th poem for the First Line Poets Project run by @emmajanepoetry & @noellewritespoetry. For April, our challenge was to rewrite or somehow respond to a poem that we had previously written for the project. I selected a poem based on the line “See the bending light…”, which was provided to me many months ago by gentlewordspoetry.

My original poem is slide 2. I used the same rhythm and structure for the new poem (slide 1), and I used a similar theme. I prefer the original poem, but the new poem has a place in my heart as well. Here is the new poem…

See the bending light as it guides me through the black; its ceaseless optimism keeps me on my fated path. I step into its vision even though my mind is blind, allowing for the knowing that will come in its own time. Yes, a hope lives in me on days that whisper none; it keeps me searching when it’s dark, for insight always comes.
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Poetry
Prose poem

@solaceinraindrops #anngarciapoetry #firstlinepoets #anngarciaauthor #prosepoetry by @solaceinraindrops

One of my plum trees…a couple of weeks ago. 🤍

Photo by Ann Garcia. by @solaceinraindrops

🌍 This is my 79th poem for the First Line Poets Project run by @emmajanepoetry & @noellewritespoetry. For March, I was partnered with the wonderful @triciasfollowingherheart, who sent me several beautiful lines from which to choose. I selected “I ponder the meaning of life…”
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I ponder the meaning of life, which I’d buried in the place decisions were made.

Back then I was sure, as if I knew the answer. Heaven was in my grasp because I believed the right way, but life has taught me it’s not that simple.

I’ve shifted over time, grateful for the wisdom of remaining open and learning that love knows no boundaries—it is a kind hello, an accepting smile, a pure wish for good things to happen for the benefit of others. And it is sure, as unwavering as spring blossoming after the storm.

This world may be crippled, but life goes on. And if love isn’t the balm that will heal humanity—if love isn’t the meaning of life—I cannot fathom what is.
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Poetry
Prose poem

@solaceinraindrops #anngarciapoetry #firstlinepoets #anngarciaauthor #prosepoem #poetry by @solaceinraindrops

🌍 This is my 78th poem for the First Line Poets Project run by @emmajanepoetry & @noellewritespoetry. For February, I was partnered with the lovely @pragya.writing , who sent me several fantastic lines from which to choose. I selected “Love entered the cracks slowly…”
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Love entered the cracks slowly,
unsure it would survive the dark,
and nestled next to my mistrust.

The walls were built when I was a child and the injustice of that should’ve made me cry but all I did was build higher.

Love entered the cracks slowly and remained inside, even when I was
hollow.
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Poetry
Prose poem

@solaceinraindrops #anngarciapoetry #firstlinepoets #anngarciaauthor #prosepoem by @solaceinraindrops

🌍 This is my 77th poem for the First Line Poets Project run by @emmajanepoetry & @noellewritespoetry. For January, I was partnered with the lovely @poemsandparis , who sent me several beautiful lines from which to choose. I selected “The first breaths of this new year…”
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My first breaths of this new year were violet, and I was shaken by their modesty. Wisdom curled around my tongue as I inhaled my past, and my exhale remained silent as I stepped into this next revolution of me.

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Poetry

@solaceinraindrops #anngarciapoetry #firstlinepoets #anngarciaauthor #poem by @solaceinraindrops

Ann Garcia | photography • poetry • fiction

@solaceinraindrops