| It’s been quite a ride these last few months, hasn’t it? Here’s hoping we’re all getting a chance to catch our breath and enjoy some of nature’s show as we transition to winter – at least here in the US.I got to head north and do some leaf peeping while visiting family. I hit prime-peeping, too. While I love being in Texas, we don’t get an Autumn like they do up there. This is where I grew up and when I was writing my second novel, Expecting to Fly, I was inspired to use Long Island and New York City as part of the setting, while exploring areas in Texas via Google maps. (At the time, I’d still never even visited Texas.) One memory was particularly inspiring. Everyone has heard of the Hamptons, but as a Long Islander, we know what a nightmare it is to get there in the warmer months. A twenty-minute drive turns into two-hours. No lie. But decades ago, before pumpkin-picking became a sport, after those “weekend Long Islanders” went home, in October, I could take an easy drive “out East.” Once such drive, I discovered a quiet little dock sitting on Shinnecock Bay off Dune Road. There was nothing around it except for some beach grass and I would bundle up, get out of my car, and sit on that dock listening to the sounds around me: the grass blades blowing in the salty breeze, the ocean’s roar muffled from the other side of the dunes across the road, birds calling, and occasionally, the blip of the water as a fish jumped. I felt miles and miles away from everything and all the things I was fretting or stressing over were miles and miles away, too. It was this setting Roy Philips runs to in my novel to escape his thoughts, and hope I’ve done it justice. |
