Author Matt Meyer, guest poster in a Writer's Digest ezine (do they even call it that anymore?), wrote that a successful writer must be disciplined and establish a daily schedule. To get the fingers and writing brain warmed up, he suggested posting on the writer's blog for about thirty minutes before turning to the writer's current WIP (that's Work in Progress, in my case, a novel). At this point, crickets quietly chirped in my ear.
Writer's blog? Oh, yeah. It's that ... uh ... thing that I set up well over a year ago and have ... uh ... well, pretty much ignored after posting a whopping three times.
Matt said that the writer could pick a topic, any topic, and just write away. Writers usually do not lack for topics. So here is mine for today: Florida.
I think it's funny that I've lived in Florida nearly twenty years--reasons explained below, which, after you read, you'll find even funnier--and have chosen as my setting(s) for my first novel, Seattle, Washington, and Aspen, Colorado.
Although the northern portion of the United States seems to be experiencing way warmer-than-normal temps for this time of year (December), usually it's cold. As in, very cold. Topped by white frosting most folks call snow. We moved from South Bend, Indiana, to Indianapolis, Indiana, before our final move to the sunshine state of Florida. Our main reason for moving to Florida, we eventually learned, is the main reason most people move here. The warm weather and sunshine. Oh, and the beautiful beaches, can't forget the beaches.
Because I suffer from seasonal affective disorder, we've never regretted our move. Not once. There are places we'd love to visit for a month or two or three, but we don't see ourselves outside of Florida for any great length of time. The weather and sunny days are literally my medication. We all have some experience about what happens when someone is off their meds for too long. Yeah, that's me.
Morning light filtered through a palm in my backyard.
It's Florida. We're all about the palm trees.
Even when it's overcast, the waves and sand are beautiful.
And you can't beat decorating a Christmas tree with all the large sliding glass doors wide open and seventy-degree light breezes.
It also didn't hurt that my daughter's school field trips took us to places like Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, etc., and the school always needed chaperones. Well, someone had to accompany the kids on all those thrill rides, especially the coasters.
So why have I set my novel in Seattle and Aspen?
I first visited Seattle in 2009 with my youngest daughter on what we now refer to as "The Epic Journey." Let me translate: a 5000-mile car trip, Tampa, Florida to Los Angeles, then up to Seattle, before finally heading down to Provo, Utah. Also lovingly referred to as our trip of sea-to-shining-sea and coast-to-coast.
Pike's Place Market, does not include daughter's cheesy grin.
Sports Arenas. I snapped this photo because I loved the architecture. Only when I uploaded the photos to my computer at home did I realize I had captured Mt. Rainier in the background.
Who could pass up getting a shot of all this color? Not this artist.
It's SEATTLE! If you need further explanation, you've been living under a rock and I can't help you.
My husband, youngest daughter and I visited Aspen for a week back in July of 2000. We rode a gondola to the top of Aspen Mountain, hiked that same mountain, drove up to Maroon Bells, rented bicycles for an afternoon and biked all over the beautiful town of Aspen (elevation: 9000+ feet; can we all say "thin air"), went horseback riding in the mountains around Snowmass, and white water rafting in third class rapids down the Colorado River. We also walked extensively. The three of us agreed it was one of the most beautiful places we'd visited and wouldn't hesitate to visit again.
(Unfortunately, all our Aspen and Snowmass photos are in print form as we didn't have a digital camera at the time. Not sure if they had digital cameras then, but we always seem to be behind the technology curveball.)
In fifteen years, we haven't been back. Insert sad face here. What better way to revisit a favorite place, though, than to put it in a novel and bring the place to life for others to enjoy? Seriously, before I polish my novel further, husband and I plan to take a trip to Aspen in February 2016, just to get the details right in the book. Wink, wink.
Yet beautiful Florida, with its (mostly) sunny days, swaying palms, flowers in bloom year-round, gorgeous bays, waterways and the gulf, will be my home for the remainder of my days here on earth. All those other places? I'll visit and write about them.
