Welcome Back!
Today, in Roots & Branches, I invite you to the start of a story I’ve been growing for a lifetime. My debut novella, “Through the Yew Hedge: A Tale of Identity Magic” is threaded with questions of loss, secrecy, truth, belonging, and the right to know one’s origins, all stuck in the psyche of this adopted person. The fabric of fairy tales, fables, and myth is firmly in place, held by the glue of memory and belief in forbidding forests and friendly gardens. Humans fashion manageable versions of the natural world in the microcosms that hold us securely and powerfully. We all hope for happy endings.
In another lifetime, I planted and cared for estate gardens. Never giving up my passion for plants, I reached for literature to carry the burden of sudden disability. Since my late fifties, I tend a landscape of words and images. Thank you for being with me for the start of this new chapter, as I venture from Memoir to Magical Realism.
I’ll publish a new installment of my novella Through The Yew Hedge: A Tale of Identity Magic each Wednesday. I hope you’ll enjoy the garden tour, and that a rare flower blooms for you.
With gratitude,
Mary Ellen (Mel) Gambutti writing fiction as Islay Corwin
Looking forward to it!