ATLANTA – “There is no ordinary. All flowers are extraordinary.”
So says Ellie, the protagonist of New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry’s novel COMING UP FOR AIR. Ellie utters these words because she is devastated that her mother has ripped out the wildflowers she scattered in a carefully manicured garden.
Suppressing her wild nature, Ellie grows up to find herself in a suffocating marriage and an unfulfilling life – until at last she is able to reclaim the spirit of a wildflower.
Now fans of the novel (and anyone who has or appreciates someone with an untamed spirit) can also claim Ellie’s spirit and send virtual wildflowers to their friends with the WILDFLOWERS mobile app, available for the iPhone and in the App Store starting May 15. Every wildflower sent through the app has its own meaning and includes a personal message from the sender, allowing users to convey wishes of hope, love, encouragement, inspiration, and more.
With original, “extraordinary” illustrations by award-winning illustrator Stefan Kjartansson, based on a fusion of Japanese woodcuts and Scandinavian design tradition, WILDFLOWERS is the first collaboration between Henry and the creative powers at Armchair Media (armchairmedia.com) and Chronicle (thisischronicle.com).
The first mobile app social game inspired by a novel, WILDFLOWERS expands the universe of COMING UP FOR AIR, currently available in hard cover and due out in paperback on May 22. Through the novel, readers learn an appreciation for a life that blossoms in unexpected ways. The WILDFLOWERS app takes the novel’s ecosystem and themes, and brings it to life in the real world.
Henry helped develop the app from conception. A busy mom of three and a wife in addition to a NYT bestselling novelist – not to mention a heavy user of mobile apps herself – she knows well the hectic life of many of her readers, so she wanted the app to be quick and simple to use.
“I told the developers that you should be able to send a wildflower to a friend while standing in the grocery store line,” she says. “It should be that easy to reach out and let a friend or loved one know you are thinking of them.”
WILDFLOWERS is just that easy, passing the grocery line test with flying colors while allowing users to send wildflowers via email, Facebook, or, for those friends who also have WILDFLOWERS installed, app-to-app. An in-app meadow allows users to look back over all the wildflowers they have received, reminders of the vitality that others see in them.
For more information about WILDFLOWERS and for a link to the app in the App Store, visit Patti Callahan Henry’s website.
Here’s some images from the app: