Next weekend, I’m taking a little journey back home. It’s a short one but will be jam-packed with fun stuff. You see, one of the things I’ll be doing is checking out some public art I’m currently writing about for one of my new book’s short stories. Whenever I go in person and experience something I’m trying to capture for readers, it’s thrilling to me. Gives me goosebumps. It makes it all so real and enables me to bottle up the emotions the place or object evokes in me so I can (if I do my job right) re-create it for others.
One of my short stories will spotlight two pieces of art in the Ft. Myers area, and while it appears I may be unable to see one of them in person this time around, I’m going to pop by the park to experience the other and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Look for photos next weekend at Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest (which I’ll finally be returning to again very soon…yea!) Lots planned for the Pinterest page. So looking forward to diving in and meeting up with my friends over there, too.
I’m also excited to share that I’ll have some news very soon about another location where you can pick up my first book THE MUSE UNLOCKED. And that, too, is related to my little journey down to Southwest Florida. Can’t wait to share that news announcement very soon!
I’ll probably use some of the time during our short visit to see some of my old stomping grounds. Swing by my high school to see how different it looks, check out an old neighborhood or two, as well as visit the city’s signature pier and a nearby city park and playground where I spent so many hours as a kid. We’ll probably toodle along the swanky downtown shopping district which looks different every time I’ve gone back. Naples, Fla. was a place where I complained a lot while growing up… about the heat, the humidity and the mosquitos of summer. And the tourists and traffic and tourists…did I mention tourists?… of winter. But this is also a place where a view like this was accessible every day. I wish I’d bothered to look up once in a while from my books and homework to notice it.
I feel like it’s been light years since I lived there but it was only 26 years ago I moved away and started life elsewhere and on my own. I look forward to seeing it again even if only for a short stay. I suspect it will be one flooded with a lot of old memories and intrigue at how much the area that surrounds me has evolved. I have happy times and not-so-happy times I associate with that part of the world where I grew up, as most of us probably do with our hometowns. And each visit I’ve made since I left permanently back in 1989 has been better at helping me cherish the good memories and move on from any sadness or bad memories.
I guess I’m growing up. About damn time.
Next weekend is designed to help me continue conducting research for my book and establish some new connections for the collection of books I hope to build over time. But it’s about something else, too. It’s about going home and seeing a big part of my past and accepting it with 45-year-old eyes. ~ Chris
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