Where Lilacs Bloom was first published in 2000. This year a number of astute friends suggested that I republish it, which I’ve now done. This is the second edition, changed somewhat, but not drastically.
It predicted that people would be imprisoned without due process of law. Since that time, it has happened. It raises questions in my mind about whether Americans have the absolute right to a trial when charged with breaking the law.
Anyone interested in the political future of the United States may find this book intriguing and thought provoking. If you read it and have comments, they would be welcome here. Everyone will not like the book. I do ask that anyone who posts do so in a respectful manner.
Where Lilacs Bloom 
This link is to the Benicia Herald article about my book signing: http://beniciaheraldonline.com/author-to-hold-signing-for-new-edition-of-2000-political-novel-at-bookshop-benicia/
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When Lois Requist first published her book in 2000, I told her I thought she was prescient. Little did I know how right I was! In 2017, the definition of freedom of speech is hotly disputed and free speech itself is threatened on both the left and right of the political spectrum. Free speech and whether one can be imprisoned if the side in power determines it is subversive is at the heart of Lois’ book. One of the characters in the book says, “It’s quite a different matter when the federal government stops speech which is neither pornographic or violent. Doesn’t that scare you?” Yes, it does scare me, and it probably scares you too, reader, listening to today’s news where people who criticize the current government are subjected to scathing public tweets.
The plot concerns the presidential campaign of the GOD candidate. “If every Christian broadcast endorses us and the churches pay our fees and costs wherever we go…” muses one of the characters. This also is a very current issue, where our sitting Supreme Court is considering whether churches can give financially to candidates, eroding our country’s long definition of separation of church and state.
Don’t let the title, “Where Lilacs Bloom,” fool you. This isn’t a quiet beach read about flowers. It’s about preserving our freedoms through non-violent protest.
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Thanks, Gail. I feel like we all need to pay attention and listen carefully to what is said, whoever says it, and respond when appropriate. We even need to try to understand where those who disagree with us are coming from.
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I learned last evening of a formatting problem with the ebook. Spent a couple of hours this morning correcting and uploading a different file, so the problem is on the way to being fixed. I believe amazon is going to send a notice to everyone who bought the ebook.
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We’re at 1346 in a certain category of sales at amazon! I’m excited about that! Thanks to friends who bought on Saturday. And, it’s never too late.
Lois
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I’m excited to have the Second Edition on the market today. Amazon hasn’t quite got it right yet, in spite of emails and phone calls. If you buy the paperback, you should be able to get the ebook for $.99. Otherwise, the ebook is $5.00.
For those in this area, I’m going to do a reading at Bookshop Benicia on Sunday, October 8th at 4:30 pm.
Let me know if you have problems.
Lois
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The actual quote, by Wendell Phillips, (1811-1884) is “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
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“Vigilance is the price of liberty.”
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Looking forward to reading your posts about this unfortunately timely book.
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I was so touched to see the following review by a former poet laureate in Benicia. Unfortunately, I didn’t see it while he was alive, so didn’t have a chance to acknowledge it.
Thank you to Robert Shelby for writing the following review:
1-26-13.
Lois Larrance Requist’s WHERE LILACS BLOOM, 2000, 1stBooks.
ISBN 1-58721-929-8
A Review by Robert M. Shelby.
This book deserves five stars on Amazon. I hope it will be picked up by a fine publisher. Lois Requist is the fourth and current, Poet Laureate of Benicia. Without regard to poetry she has written or will write, her title has been earned by this work alone.
In this short novel are gathered the important issues plagueing our world today. It is no less important to read now than it could have been the day it was finished. I strongly recommend it to every thinking adult, particularly to those of religious or conservative persuasions. Drawing inspiration, as it were, from the fact that flowers cannot lie, a serendipitous value rises in the choice of lilacs. These, as their name suggests, utterly lack a facility for telling lies. To say that this author “lives in the light” would lack substance and gravity. The metaphor of light has been too much abused. She radiates truth beyond hackneyed polarities of dapple. Conveying a brilliance of literary genius, the book suffers only from lack of better printing in a new edition.
Her style took several pages to mold me into a comfortable state with it, but then it “took off” with me aboard, and I finished it in two sittings. The heroine/protagonist survives wrongful and inhumane incarceration by escaping from the cage of language and common conceptuality into a realm of existential will no longer conditioned by rules and associations ambiguously called mind or awareness. Out there, the known limits do not apply. “Out there” is as “in here” as one can get (save both at once) where no one knows what powers lurk or what can happen. In short, this book has been composed from “outside the box” in more ways than could have been accomplished by anyone not free from the web of superstition. Only given this freedom could the story veer so nearly over the edge into surrealism and survive a critical and considerate view.
More than survive, it earns my resonant empathy and admiration. She has communed with that universal freedom from limits which the word “divinity” can only diminish. She demonstrates here the highest character of persistence in channeling our creation, for none of us with only a mind is anywhere near complete. Great heart is required.
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