CHILDREN OF THE FLOWER POWER was my first published book. It took six months to write. I worked on it just about every day during those six months while working a part time job for Goodwill Industries. On average, I spent about six hours per day. Sometimes I would spend a couple of hours and others, I would work on it for ten to twelve and even up to about 16 hours on certain days. It depended on how much time I had on my hands.
My parents said I was obsessed with it. They may be right. I had so many good ideas streaming through my brain. Most of which I didn't even bother writing down. In fact, when I started writing it, I had about ten sheets of paper, both sides filled, of characters and scenes and things that were going to happen in the book. Many characters got left out. And many of the things I thought would happen, didn't. I only used about half of the notes. Once I got going with it, different things started to occur in the story. One thing always led to the next. I could see it in my mind like I was watching a movie or something. The characters really took on a life of their own. It was quite the challenge to work all of them into the book and to give them all a job. I think this is important to stories. Your characters must all have a job to do in the book. Or as I like to call it, a purpose. I really do not like putting characters into my stories who serve no purpose. I think this is one of the things many new authors do, they have characters in their stories that can leave the reader scratching their head and asking, "Why was this character in the story?" It also makes the story appear to be missing something.
The original idea of the book started one afternoon when I went to take a shower. I had a radio in the bathroom and I liked to turn it on and listen to it while doing so. The dial was set to an oldies station that played mostly 70's music and some 60's. No sooner did I step into the shower when the song, "Come And Get Your Love" by the musical group, Redbone, came on. The opening riff of the bass kicked it off and just as I stepped in the tub, with water splashing down on my face, I closed my eyes and saw the words flash CHILDREN OF THE FLOWER POWER.
I opened them quickly and boom! I got the idea to write about a thriving commune in the summer of 1969. The idea lingered in the back of my head for several years. During which time I was feeling uncomfortable about writing a book with nothing but hippies. I thought it would isolate my audience. Not to mention, I just couldn't put a story together that I liked. I wanted to showcase the "hippy" generation and their ideals without stuffing it down people's throat. I also thought it would be a good idea to introduce a new generation to those idea's left behind. This is when it occured to me that I could write about "old hippies". From there, Wesley Morris and Jennifer Kapshaw were created. Then came their daughter, Christine.
"But why stop there?" I began asking myself. Why not make them older and Christine could have a teenaged daughter of her own? This way, I could get yet another generation into the story. This idea appealed to me because it opened the door for some funny generation gap conversations and such. Then to make it even more snappier, I decided to throw in the fact that Christine grew up to be "anti-hippy" and move her to New York after high school where she could attend college and go into modeling. A most superficial job that would surely irk the mother, Jennifer Kapshaw. So that's what I did. This also made it more interesting for when Christine's daughter, Sally, would have to go there for the summer. Not only did I have the generation gap to play with, but the culture gap as well because Sally was born and raised in New York City, a far cry from the sleepy little town of Beddington, Maine.
It didn't take long for everything to start coming together. One character at a time, I saw them all coming to life in my head. The crazy antics everyone would be a part of, but most of all, the camaraderie of friends and family. The many different issues they each had to face and deal with. The manner in which they dealt with them. It soon became more than just giving the young generation a glimpse of the past, and turned into a three generation romantic comedy of fussing with each other and bumping heads. 400 pages of pure fun. By the time I finished, I realized, I wrote something more of a chick book than a hippy book.
Of all the books I have written to this point, Children Of The Flower Power remains the mosty enjoyable for me to write despite how long it took to do so. There were times when even I was surprised at what happened next. The characters took me for a ride. In the end, I think it came out great. A story that makes you laugh, cry and think. Not to mention, you get to learn a little bit about the "hippy" movement without it being slammed into your face. Everything just flows with the story through the characters themselves.
If you own an E-Reader, then by all means, you should check out Children Of The Flower Power. Feel free to let me know what you think if you do. I priced it at $2.99 so it could be affordable to everyone. Just click on one of the following links of the E-Reader that you own.
For
Amazon Kindle users. Or maybe you own a
Nook from Barnes and Noble. Some people may own a
Sony Reader or perhaps you like to download your E-Books from
Kobo or
Copia. Or better yet, maybe from
E-Book Pie. The choice is up to you. You may also use your i-Pad from APPLE if you own one of them. While some prefer to buy their books online from GARDNER'S BOOKS or BAKER AND TAYLOR. That is fine because you will also find my books there too.
Happy Reading!
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