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Lily and I would love to visit your book club. Just contact me, Margaret Cunningham via this site with your contact information. We can set up a time for a phone chat with your members or if you are close enough, I would be delighted to be there in person.
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When questioned about my prime motivation in writing Lily in Bloom, I would have to say nostalgia.
I grew up in Mobile, Alabama in a big house on what had been the site of my father’s nursery. Flowers (camellias and azaleas for the most part) played a big part in my childhood.
I also grew up on old movies – you know, those romantic comedies with a bit of adventure and mystery thrown in. The protagonist was lovely and lovable and “spunky”. The hero was “tall, dark and handsome” with a sense of humor to boot. There was always a “zany” friend or two at the heroine’s side to get her in or out of trouble and act as matchmaker. The whole too-good-to-be-true thing took place in beautiful settings. Oh, and everybody had great clothes.
I’m still a sucker for a romantic comedy – whether it is a fun movie or a fun book. So I figured if I was going to spend a year or so creating a novel, it would be a contemporary version of all those things I love. The characters would be people who really live life – the kind of people I’d like to know, and of course, it would be set in a garden.
Whenever I write a short story or novel, I get very attached to the characters – so much so that I worry about them languishing and bored in a folder on my desk until they are published. It is so exciting (and such a relief) to set them free, to finally get them out of the drawer.
I hope you have as much fun reading about Lily and her friends (and enemies) as I had dreaming them up.
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The following are some questions my readers thought would be fun to discuss.
1. The theme of Lily in Bloom is one of optimism – you just can’t keep a good woman down! What personality traits kept Lily blooming through her “category five domestic disaster?”
2. Lily has friends, faith in herself, the ability to see humor in the bleakest of situations, and a big boost in the confidence department in the form of Will, the hunky gardener with the mysterious past. Of these, which was Lily’s greatest asset in establishing a new, independent life for herself?
3. Lily must suddenly see almost everything in her life from a different viewpoint. What effect does her ability to do this have on her finding happiness?
4. What roles do loyalty, fortitude and forgiveness play in Lily’s story?
5. It has been said that good friends and a sense of humor assure a happy life. Do you agree?
6. How does this apply to Lily in Bloom?
7. Lily in Bloom has been called a “coming of age all over again story with insight borne of life already lived.” Do you think that at age 50 Lily is better or less able to cope with being left for another woman?
8. Will said his aunt refereed to him as an old soul. What do you think this means? Did this trait make his relationship with Lily more meaningful and believable?
9. Age is a constant undercurrent in this story. Lily signs her divorce papers on her fiftieth birthday and has a relationship with a person much younger (as does Howard). She was never able to forge a relationship with Mrs. McVay (aka old McVay), yet becomes best friends with the octogenarian, Maisy Downy. She and Helen and Marilee discuss and deal with the realities of getting older. So…
10. Is age just a number?
11. Is 60 really the new 40?
12. Can a 50-year-old woman find happiness with a 34-year-old man?
13. Compare Howard’s and Heather’s relationship to that of Lily and Will.
14. How does keeping secrets harm relationships among the McVays and between Will and Lily?
15. Lily and Helen and Marilee are very different, yet are the best of friends. Discuss their relationship.
16. Do you agree with Lily’s decision to sell the house to Howard and Heather?
17. Was old Mrs. McVay really haunting the house or was it Lily’s imagination?
18. Lily in Bloom is “southern” through and through from setting to characters to situations. Could it have taken place in another part of the country? In another country?
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Purchase Lily In Bloom
from Black Lyon Publishing,
Amazon.com or through
your local bookstore. |
