Seven years in the making, I can finally say that 2025 will bring the publication of my story Ash and Feather, about a bird-girl and her parent's cancer.
It will be released on April 25, 2025! (Pre-orders available two weeks prior.)
What a journey it has been... In 2017, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and my dad died from brain cancer. My own cancer treatment took all of 2018-2019, while parenting a tween daughter. I wrote the first version of Ash and FeatherĀ as a series of poem journal entries to process my intense range of emotions. Then I started to imagine the story as a theatrical play. In early 2020, the Purple Crayon Players at Northwestern University produced a staged reading, followed by a podcast co-created with faculty and students from Loyola Marymont University. Ultimately, I wanted to return to the intimacy of the written story and to extend the reach of Ash and FeatherĀ to more tweens, teens and families. So, I adapted and expanded my play/podcast script into a novel-in-verse.
And here we are!
In order to cope with the pain, fear, and confusion of her parentās cancer diagnosis, fourteen year old Phoenix envisions herself and the people around her as birds. Phoenixās perspective is a poetic one: lyrical, subtle, and imbued with magic, yet the vision of her bird self is a concrete way to visualize existential questions. Through her feathery filter, we follow Phoenix as she interacts with her parent, Eagle, and grandparent, Duck, navigates the hospital and middle school, and experiences her first queer love with best friend, Ing. She uses the power of her imagination to take flight from the ashes of her grief, gaining for the first time a sense of her own power.Ā
Ash and Feather is an illustrated novel in verse for upper middle grade and early young adult readers. It is also for ALL who love poetry, stories about adolescence, imagination, magical realism and thriving through difficult times.
Thank you so much for your support.
Please share this post and my website with family and friends.
Encourage them to SIGN UP in the Contact Form, to receive UPDATES AND GIVEAWAYS.
Everyone who signs up will be entered in a DRAWING for a FREE COPY of Ash and Feather.
As a thank you, here is my printmaking process video on how I carve and pull my illustrations. Look out for a future blog announcing my Zoom Workshop on Printmaking and Poetry.
Hugs, Sharon
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