happiness

The picture above comes from the actual sketchbook that inspired me to write my novel, The Bird That Sang in Color. In fact, all of the drawings I’ve been featuring in this latest blog series come from this same sketchbook. This drawing

Although Vincent played a variety of instruments, his favorite was the guitar. When Donna sees this picture, she thinks of all the times he played the guitar for her and remembers him saying his favorite phrase, “I’ve been

“Creativity can be repetitive and boring until it’s transcendent.” I truly love this quote from a recent New York Times article on Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary. I’ve experienced the repetitive and boring

Vincent’s sketchbook was a sort of pictorial autobiography with drawings conveying the simple, but rich life he led. During much of his lifetime, Donna encouraged him to do more in terms of pursuing a career but he chose to live life on

In chapter two of The Bird that Sang in Color, Donna sees Vincent playing a dulcimer in his room while listening to one of his favorite bands, The Incredible String Band. Several years later, she sees the above picture in the sketchbook of his

In the third chapter of The Bird that Sang in Color, Donna challenges Vincent’s decision to accept a baking job, saying that he could do so much more. About a week later, she tastes homemade bread that he baked and marvels and “how

I chose to use this image as the cover of my book because I believed that more than any other picture in the sketchbook, it most closely captured the true essence of my brother. He was a simple person, but not in the sense that he wasn’t

Some of the pictures in Vincent’s sketchbook, like the one featured here, were uncolored and Donna wondered if her brother had eventually intended to color them in. When Donna sees this picture, she recalls the night she, Frank, and

This is the third picture Donna sees in Vincent’s book of sketches. She remembers a time after Vincent began working at the bakery in town when he bought a telescope and invited her over to look through it while he guided her star gazing.

In the beginning of Discovery of an Eagle, Cosmo sees the beauty of the autumn leaves: “And even though he knew that the leaves changing colors meant that they were dying, he never felt death in the air. He felt life, renewal, and