Winter Gardens
Inspiration – Following the Thread
Welcome to Author Lya Badgley’ s monthly newsletter that explores culture and creativity.
The rain is back. I cringe as my daughter navigates the messy drive north on the interstate from Seattle to my little town.
“Oh, January,” she growls as the old prius trembles in the cross draft of a passing semi-truck.
Where I live, winter gardens aren’t hard with frost.
They flood.
Beds disappear in the deluge. Seeds lie in the dark—sodden, but intact.
So I let January be that.
A muddy winter garden.
Waterlogged. Waiting.
Holding what matters, for later.
Lilacs In Winter
In 1985, I released an album titled Lilacs in Winter. I was—and am—a terrible singer, but I remain proud of my lyrics. Lately, as winter storms and recent flooding have reshaped the landscape around us, one song in particular—Can’t Push the River—has been returning to me. It still resonates in my heart, especially during this bleak, waterlogged season.
Tonight I’ll take a rest,
From worries that I’m prone
The world must take care of itself,
Nothing more to be done.
Think I’ll take a walk someday,
To some place far away
Up the mountain to the source,
Learn to keep trouble at bay.
We walked beneath a cypress tree,
Down to the edge of a sea
You said the shells were treasure,
Hidden there just for me.
We stand in silence, so alone,
How to fill it, I don’t know
But without dreams built on trust,
Hopeless, we wander lost.
For we can’t push the river
Any faster than we do
For everything’s got its own time,
Hidden secrets with no clue.
Good News To Share
I’m happy to share that The Thirty-Fifth Page has advanced to the Short List for the 2025 Somerset Book Awards.
The Somerset Book Awards recognize emerging voices and outstanding works of literary and contemporary fiction, with an emphasis on stories shaped by literary themes, adventure, magical realism, and women’s lives. The awards are a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.
From here, Short-Listed titles move on to compete for Semi-Finalist status, with Finalists ultimately recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference.
Author’s Life – Early Influences
Discovering French author Violette Leduc was formative to my growth as a storyteller and poet. Her willingness to write from the rawest places—desire, humiliation, yearning, solitude—gave me permission to trust emotional truth over polish, and to believe that darkness itself could be a kind of beauty.
Like Marguerite Duras, Djuna Barnes, and poet Louise Bogan, Leduc showed me that language could be delicate yet ferocious.
Like a stiletto switchblade.
Her work helped shape my understanding that the most compelling stories often emerge from the shadows—where vulnerability sharpens the voice and transforms lived experience into art.
Thank you for reading…