SkyShots

When I write one of the things I have gotten in the habit of doing is using the internet to remind me of the places I write about. Usually they are places I have spent time in or at least visited but there are times, too, when I need to familiarize myself with a new area. One of the best tools I have found for doing this is Google Earth. I love to spend time studying the shape of the land and its features as I am writing. It gives such a different perspective. And the thing I am most struck by is how very artistic much of our world is when viewed from above --- maybe that's why God stays with us even when we are screwing up big time.

I started a short story this week and part of it is set out on the tip of Cape Cod. A place I have spent a few weekends at in the off-season and love when it is quiet and not crawling with people. I was looking at it on Google Earth and was so struck by the gracefulness of the land and the water surrounding it that is seemed more like a piece of art.

So, because it was a cold and rainy evening and I was tired and felt like wasting some time, I started flying around to a few other beloved places and found many more pieces of aerial art that just astonished me with their beauty. Of course, one of the main characters in The Old Mermaid's Tale is Lake Erie itself, a place I have known and loved all my life. This image is Long Point, a peninsula that juts into the lake on the Canadian side. When Baptiste seduces Clair on the top of a lighthouse he has taken her up there to look at the lights of Long Point.

There is something so mesmerizing about the way water shapes land and land shapes water. I have loved Niagara Falls all my life. I haven't been there in fifteen years now. I remember that because I was with my sister Lisa the last time I was there and she was pregnant with Cal at the time. He just turned fifteen. This is the Horseshoe Falls from the air. So lovely. The pattern of the water as it splashes into the river is something I would like to develop into a background pattern sometime.

Of course this is just a little taste of such beauties. There are so many more. But it is a good way to revel in the beauties of the place I am attempting to write about --- it reminds me of why I write.

Thanks for reading.