A Little Piece of the Past Today

Yesterday I visited a blog site in Erie, Pennsylvania and came across a wonderful video about that town. As most of my readers know I spent a great deal of my early life in Erie and there is a part of my heart that is always there. When I was writing The Old Mermaid's Tale I originally intended to set it in Erie but then, because I didn't want t cause any conflict over the placement of certain features and little details of history, I created a fictional town, Port Presque Isle. Still, readers familiar with Erie will recognize much of what I have written about.


This is the video. It is 27 minutes long and brought back many memories. The colleges it talks about especially - I attended Behrend (which I call Chesterton in my book), I dated a boy from Gannon (Hamilton in the book). My sister Anne attended Mercyhurst and my sister Chris Edinborough. So we have the colleges there pretty much covered.

But in the video there is a good deal of talk about the maritime history of Lake Erie and this is something that was very important to me when I was writing. I wanted to get it right and watching the video yesterday was reinforcing. I especially loved the photographs of the Old Customs House which is now a museum. Several scenes in my book are set in it. It is where Baptiste works while they are together and it plays a role in the ending.

So Ihope you will watch and enjoy this video. I love Gloucester --- but I love Erie, too...

Thanks for reading (an watching.)