Stop and Smell the Lilacs

In 2016 I saw the Broadway musical, “If/Then” starring Idina Menzel. I loved this musical because it is about the choice of paths we take in this life. A lot of times we do not get the privilege of seeing what happens if we decide to go one way instead of another, like in the musical.

This idea stayed with me for some time until one day I sat down and begin to write a story about a young girl named Mabel and the plans she had to study the stars in the early 1970s. Of course her plans are thrown off course by a vibrant and artistic new girl in school named Bonnie.

A Scent of Lilac is my first novel that explores what happens when forbidden love gets Mabel institutionalized and how she fights to live life on her terms in a world that has declared her love for Bonnie a mental illness.