We're pleased to welcome Rosey Lee to CLC today. She's here to talk about her Beautiful, Complicated Family series and she has a special prize for a lucky reader as part of her blog tour.
Rosey Lee writes uplifting fiction stories about family and friendship. A native of the Westbank of New Orleans, Louisiana, Rosey is a fan of good food and a good time. As a child, she dreamed of a career in writing, fashion design, and acting. She uses the pen name Rosey Lee as she pursues her passion for writing. Her alter ego is a physician who has dedicated her career to individual and community-based approaches to health equity. She enjoys cooking, flower arranging, listening to live music, and occasional bursts of fanatical bargain shopping.
Rosey Lee writes uplifting fiction stories about family and friendship. A native of the Westbank of New Orleans, Louisiana, Rosey is a fan of good food and a good time. As a child, she dreamed of a career in writing, fashion design, and acting. She uses the pen name Rosey Lee as she pursues her passion for writing. Her alter ego is a physician who has dedicated her career to individual and community-based approaches to health equity. She enjoys cooking, flower arranging, listening to live music, and occasional bursts of fanatical bargain shopping.
Rosey’s flash fiction has appeared in Necessary Fiction, Bending Genres, Barren Magazine, Turnpike Magazine, The Wellington Street Review, and elsewhere. Her work has also been nominated for the 2019 Best of the Net anthology. Connect with Rosey at her website and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Beautiful, Complicated Family: Volume 1 and Beautiful, Complicated Family: Volume 2 explore the connections that can hold people together or tear them apart. The stories in this collection capture struggles that are common in today’s families—secrets, mother-daughter conflicts, coping with aging family members, and a more subtle question of what makes a family. The issues will seem familiar to you, but there are unexpected twists when you least expect them. The relatable characters and endings may pull at your heartstrings, so don’t be surprised if you laugh or cry along the way. Like most families, the relationships in this uplifting collection consist of intricate elements. Sometimes things get messy, but it’s always beautiful. Each volume contains five flash fiction stories (very short stories of 1000 words or less each). Read each story in about 5 minutes and get Volume 2 of the collection for free using a link within Volume 1.
Purchase Beautiful, Complicated Family: Volume 1:
Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Apple Books * Kobo
I write about the relationships women have with their families–the ups, the downs, and everything in between. Whether it’s a family that a character was born into or one she cultivated over time, families can provide endless material for a writer. The families in my newly released Beautiful, Complicated Family series deal with secrets and mother-daughter conflicts, cope with aging family members and death, and grapple with a more subtle question of what makes a family.
Similar to real life, it’s not unusual for the women in my stories to be the center of their families. Frequently, women hold families together. But that also means that we could be responsible for tearing them apart. There’s lots of drama in my stories, and things get messy for my characters. But my stories are uplifting because my characters work through complicated family issues and grow through them. Through forgiveness, acceptance, and compassion, the characters have an opportunity to emerge stronger if they can find ways to grow together.
“Blossom in the Snow” is one of my favorite stories in the collection. I stumbled upon the inspiration for it while on Twitter one day. Someone posted a quote by Alice M. Sawim, and I was deeply touched by it.
“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go;
it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.”
I’m from New Orleans, and I live in Atlanta. Though I spent a few years living in New England, I’d never heard of a flower that blossoms in the snow. I struggled to understand how such a thing could exist. Then I began to wonder how that might translate into a human quality and what it would look like as a character interacted with her family. Answering this question helped me to select the setting for my story, the somber circumstance encountered by the main character, as well as her personality, backstory, and family dilemma.
I don’t want to spoil the story, so I won’t reveal much about the plot here. But I will tell you that most of the answers are based on a 15 to 20-foot tall, vase-shaped shrub called a Jelena witch hazel. The plant is striking, particularly against a winter landscape. It has woody branches topped by
bright, coppery blossoms with petals that look like spiders. The massive shrubs are frequently planted next to sidewalks so that passersby can enjoy their sweet fragrance. Also, an extract from the bark and leaves of witch hazel plants has been used in the cosmetics industry for the astringent also called witch hazel.
Are you curious about the story yet? I hope so. You can download Beautiful, Complicated Family: Volume 1 for free from several ebook retailers. You can also subscribe to my website or use the link in Volume 1 to get Beautiful, Complicated Family: Volume 2 for free.
Thanks to Rosey for visiting with us and for hosting a giveaway!
Giveaway: The prize for my blog tour reader giveaway is a Kindle (If winner is outside the US: $50 in books from Book Depository).
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Visit all the stops on Rosey's tour (click the picture to enlarge it):
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