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Grow, Evolve, and Blossom
Garden Quartz and Paper Flowers is a collection of stories and poems centered around a girl navigating the trauma of abuse and the healing process. Why was this an important book for you to write?
It was important for me to write, Garden Quartz and Paper Flowers as a way to finally close a chapter of my own life. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember: poetry, music, and short stories but I lost all my original works in a very traumatic incident. That use to haunt me, endlessly.
I don’t know of many stories that tell the tale of resilience, that transcends through time with authentic but healthy coping mechanisms. In this story, the main character Calla recognizes that self-work was required to set her free. For you never have to be your childhood or adulthood circumstances. Those moments will shape you but you should not allow them to break you.
My fondness for precious gemstones and flowers with inspirational meaning were the metaphorical tools necessary to breathe life into this piece. Stones are shaped by their environment. Flowers can weather the storm. Both survive under tough pressure.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in putting together this collection?
My biggest challenge was simply starting. For years, I dwelled on it subconsciously, should I pick up my pen again and recreate what was destroyed. Eventually, I got to a place where I said this is going to be therapeutic for you and it’s time to get it done. My second challenge was struggling with remembering much of what I originally wrote, but once I started to complete the individual pieces one by one, I was able to weave them together into one fluid story. You can delay the inevitable but it’s still has to get done, even when it’s overdue. I also needed to live a little bit longer, to complete this work of art in full circle.
Have you received any feedback from readers that surprised or moved you?
I’ve received a lot of positive feedback on this piece of art. I’m honestly VERY surprised. I didn’t think it would move so many people to connect with it so deeply, especially since it’s a fiction. I know Art imitates life, and I know that some of the things I wrote could align as a lived experience rather than a collection of different occurrences. I just didn’t know it would resonate with some many people.
“Not for the faint of heart,” was the common themed remark. Which to me, shows I planted a seed and I hope it grows. Uncomfort as it relates to knowledge, has always been a sign that I’m headed in the proper direction. I remind myself every day, learn something new, try something different and feel something real.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from Garden Quartz and Paper Flowers?
I want readers to know that it’s okay to feel every emotion in the moment—but it’s not okay to live in the negative ones. We have to find the strength to rise, overcome pain, and to keep pushing forward. It’s not easy, but NOTHING in life is simple. After the all hard work, aches and pains, I promise greatness is waiting on the other side, ready to greet you.
You’re not your past. You’re not even your present. And you’re not even alone. Continue to actively grow, evolve, and blossom into who you’re meant to be. It’s time to do your due diligence. It’s time to rediscover your resilience. It’s time to heal. Let’s do this!
Pain has Transformed me. . .
Step into this immersive garden of ruin and bloom— a memoir told in fragments of memory, poetry, and survival.
This is the story of a girl named Calla, rooted in silence, shaped by shadow, and determined to rise.
Because not all wounds bleed. Not all truths are spoken.
And you never have to become what tried to break you.
Garden Quartz and Paper Flowers
T.L. Garrett’s Garden Quartz & Paper Flowers is a raw and unflinching collection of stories and poems that trace the life of Calla, a girl navigating the deep scars of trauma, abuse, and healing. The book reads like a patchwork of memory. Each chapter a petal torn from her past, revealing a life marked by generational pain, silence, and survival. Garrett writes in a style that blends memoir and fiction, pulling readers into scenes that feel heartbreakingly real. The imagery of flowers, roots, and stones threads through the work, symbolizing growth from ruin and the fragile beauty that comes from endurance.
The writing is heavy with emotion, but there’s a strange softness to it too. A tenderness that lingers even in the ugliest moments. Garrett doesn’t hold back, and it shows. The prose feels like a scream written into poetry. I found myself pausing often, sometimes just to process. There’s a rhythm in her storytelling that’s both jarring and intimate. Her voice feels lived-in, like someone telling a truth they carried for too long. Some passages are uncomfortable to read, not because of how they’re written, but because of how real they are. You can feel the child’s confusion, the teenager’s anger, and the adult’s reckoning all colliding in one soul. It’s unsettling. It’s human.
What struck me most was Garrett’s way of turning pain into purpose. She doesn’t ask for pity. She asks for understanding. The book dives into spiritual themes like healing, intuition, and forgiveness, but never in a way that feels forced. Her honesty feels sacred. I loved how she wove resilience through the narrative like a vine wrapping around broken glass. It’s not a perfect book in a technical sense, but that’s exactly what makes it so powerful. Her writing feels like it’s bleeding onto the page, and yet, there’s beauty in every wound.
Garden Quartz & Paper Flowers isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s for readers who have lived through darkness and clawed their way toward light, or for those who want to understand what that fight looks like. It’s for anyone who believes survival itself is an art form. If you want something real, something that cracks you open and reminds you what it means to be alive, this book is worth every page.
Pages: 258 | ASIN : B0FJ4XM2JL
LITERARY TITAN 