 | 12 Nov 09 |
There are days when you’re killing yourself to get it all done, and you think that if you just keep working harder, you’ll get there, but it piles up as fast as you finish a task. That’s when ya gotta check out, take time off, and just be. It’s the best thing in the world to recharge your creative batteries. I don’t get to do this very often; if you’re anything like me, you’re constantly working sixteen billion problems at the same time, juggling family, friends, kids, activities, bills, deadlines, and career objectives, not to mention characters, motivations, plot problems, and chronic overexposure to the web.
Sometimes, you go out into the big world and you’re amazed. I don’t think I could be in a landscape more different than the one I’m used to on a daily basis, and that helps me really see the landscape–both my own, and this new one. Juxtaposition not only helps with attitude, it’s a great writing technique–look for the contrasts, look for the differences, the small things or the large, that fully encapsulate the world, and give us those in firm, fine brushstrokes when you write. I needed this week just to see what it was about my world that was unique. By seeing this world, I can better see my own.
We had a plan to visit our oldest son in Vail, and from there, we’ve gone to Moab, Utah, in the national park where you can see the Arches. Here are a few snapshots from hiking around today:
From the magnificent, the large scale, to the small, it’s the juxtaposition that creates this world.
So where have you been lately, or where would you like to go? For readers, what location do you love to visit in books? Have a favorite place that, if you see it in the description, makes it an automatic buy?
© 2009 Toni McGee Causey. All rights reserved.
Toni McGee Causey lives in Baton Rouge, LA, and is the best-selling author of the BOBBIE FAYE trilogy. She has contributed a critically acclaimed short story to the KILLER YEAR: STORIES TO DIE FOR anthology edited by Lee Child and an essay in DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO MISS NEW ORLEANS. Additionally, she recently produced an indie film, LA 308. She and her husband, Carl, are licensed general contractors and, in order to support her writing addiction, they run their own company, specializing in civil construction.
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Gorgeous – we recently were in the Bahamas, and in Quebec City, but give me mountains and desert scenery any day. In college, I worked at Yosemite one summer. Didn’t matter that the jub sucked – you could look up and see Half Dome and El Cap.
2 of our kids live within spitting distance of Garden of the Gods in Colorado. Love it!
Thanks for sharing.
by Terry Odell November 12th, 2009 at 5:04 amI love that area of the country, Toni. I’m a high desert/mountain girl at heart. Lately, though, I’ve gone the opposite direction–New Orleans in September (LOVE N’Awlins!!!) and at the moment, I’m sitting in central Florida.
Terry, I bet I know exactly where your kids live. I grew up not far from there–within spitting distance of 7 Falls.
by Silver James November 12th, 2009 at 6:41 amSilver, I LIVE in Central Florida. Where the heck are you? Time to hook up?
by Terry Odell November 12th, 2009 at 6:48 amI’m in a little place just south of Lakeland. I thought you were over in the Orlando area, Terry.
by Silver James November 12th, 2009 at 10:02 amYep, that’s where I am. Guess it’s a bit of a schlep to meet for coffee.
by Terry Odell November 12th, 2009 at 10:15 amYeah…a bit of a drive.
I hope to get over that way in the spring after my book releases for a book signing. Will definitely see you then!
by Silver James November 12th, 2009 at 10:20 amSnapshots? Those pics are gorgeous! For our honeymoon, we spent time in Utah and Colorado. Absolutely gorgeous, but I vote for western Colorado because I really am not a fan of the desert :/
by Allison Brennan November 12th, 2009 at 7:02 amI love to coast/beach for vacations. I love the beach, there is something about it that is relaxing to me. My favorite vacations spot is Fire Island, a barrier beach off of Long Island, New York. I am also a fan of the New England area – especially in the fall with the change of the leaves.
by Tiffany November 12th, 2009 at 7:08 amI have never really spent any time in the desert or the mountians, just not really a fan.
Toni, I think you already know my answer.
The photos are amazing! Glad you taking some time for yourself finally.
by Brandee November 12th, 2009 at 9:43 amGreat photos, Toni! Being stuck down here in the Flat Land of Endless Summer (Fla), it’s really a treat to change the landscape and the weather. On our dogwalk the other day, my daughter told me that when she grows up, she just wants to live in a place where there are no palm trees. (We counted about fifteen different species that day.) This made me laugh, since I grew up in Pittsburgh and thought the Palm Tree was the symbol of all things exotic. But it reminded me how important (for a writer, especially) it is to get out and see other scenery, no matter how gorgeous the view you see every day may be.
Thanks for sharing!
by Roxanne St. Claire November 12th, 2009 at 10:23 amI will buy any book set in Scotland. I will get there some day. If not, the books make me feel like I’m there.
I’m going to Disneyland this month with nephew and grandson for their birthdays. I love Dizzyland (son used to call it that) but it is super special through the eyes of a child.
by Jill James November 12th, 2009 at 12:08 pmI love seeing all of your answers. I just got out of Canyonland National Park… absolutely stunning!
Thanks for the compliments on the photos. I’m having a blast shooting. We’re on our way to some vineyards(!!) didn’t even know there were vineyards inthis part ofthe country. I’ll check back in this evening.
by toni mcgee causey November 12th, 2009 at 12:31 pmI love these photos. We spent a portion of our vacation last month in Utah, but didn’t make it up that far. How beautiful.
Jill you will love Scotland.
by Cele November 12th, 2009 at 3:39 pmOoo, Arches National Park! We spent Easter there back in ’03. Very pretty, and since it was a holiday, it was very quiet. Thanks for sharing the awesome pics, Toni.
I haven’t been anywhere lately. The last trip we took was Estes Park and a bit of The Rockies a few years back. Allison’s right, western Colorado is so much less deserty. If I had my choice of vacation spots, I’d pick Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. :sigh: I really miss the place.
by B.E. Sanderson November 13th, 2009 at 5:17 amI want to be with you!!!!
by Debra Webb November 13th, 2009 at 6:16 amAh, your photos are beautiful! Almost got to Arches – made it to Zion and Cedar Breaks. I love Zion! And speaking of Utah–one New Year we spent on a houseboat on Lake Powell – we only saw two other boats in five days, and the water in those finger canyons was so calm it mirrored every nook and crinkle of the towering red rocks above. Heaven!
Fortunately, living in Tucson, there’s plenty of natural beauty all over the place, from the saguaros in the Sonoran Desert to Canadian Spruce at the top of our 9000-ft-high mountain a 40-minute drive away.
I played hooky from the desert southwest and wrote a book set on the Florida panhandle. Between Google Earth and websites and my own photographs, it was so much fun being back there in my mind. But now I long for the desert again, so this next one’s going to be set here.
by J. JCarson Black November 13th, 2009 at 7:05 amWe’ve done some major traveling this year… Went to Disney World, Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, Branson, Missouri, and Wisconsin Dells.
Biz wise, I went to Washington DC and that was a lot of fun.
by Shiloh Walker November 13th, 2009 at 9:00 am