HONEYSUCKLE, SWEET HONEYSUCKLE

When I was a young girl growing up in Memphis, a honeysuckle vine grew feverishly outside my bedroom window. I awakened to its sweet, intoxicating fragrance throughout its blooming season. And when the scorching sun of a southern summer seemed exhausting, all I had to do was pluck a colorful green and yellow blossom from the vine and drink its sweet nectar and all was right with the world again. I never tired of its rich elixir.

The cover design for my debut YA-novel, Honeysuckle Holiday, beautifully-rendered by Anna Hartman, captures the sweeping invitation from a honeysuckle branch. And the full moon, which Lucy the main character in the novel looks to more than once for reassurance and conviction, gifts to the reader something even sweeter than the honeysuckle's nectar.