Recharging - Field Trip

As I prepared for the next editing pass, I took a field trip to get out of the house and clear my head. The best way to go back to the work in process is to forget about it so I can come back to it "fresh." 

I met up with a long-time friend to walk around the arboretum, which is displaying new sustainable art. The weather was perfect, the company was great. We walked through the hedge maze, climbed the treehouse in the middle, and I found several of my favorite beech trees. I think this is the first time I've been back since I wrote The Garden, and I saw Bryan and Gwen everywhere I looked. 

We found four of the five sculptures on our scavenger hunt around the arboretum. 

Ear to the Ground

Strata 

Stillness in motion

Oculus

Ona (we didn't get to this one, but isn't she beautiful?)
(a reason to go back, eh Janet?)
Photo courtesy of mortonarb.org

A successful diversion! 

In other news, the audio for Horned Owl Hollow seems to be having issues at the distributor end, but I think we've ironed all that out. Now it's just a matter of finding its way to the proper channels again. For my newsletter subscribers, I expect to send your codes by the end of the month. Thank you for your patience. 

Going on a Troll Hunt

What does an author do when she's between stories? Most often she keeps writing! But those are the moments when I find my best sources of inspiration, when I venture out into the world to discover new things.

I'm getting into the mind frame of my next character, who works with plants and trees and such, so what better place to visit than an arboretum? Actually, there is another place that serves as inspiration for my new setting, and I'm also planning a return trip there, but they don't have trolls.

Yes, trolls.


On a very warm day in the middle of the summer, my dear husband agreed to accompany me on a troll hunt. The arboretum covers 1,700 acres of land filled with trails and activities. To complete the troll hunt, we would have had to find six trolls and cover approximately six miles of trails. Some people abbreviate the miles by driving to parking lots that are close by, but as someone who enjoys hiking through dells and glens and meadows and trails, I opted to hoof it. We didn't cover six miles, and we only unearthed four of the trolls. Guess that means I have to make a return trip!

We found an aggressive troll who threw boulders at cars, a sneaky troll who lays in wait for unsuspecting prey to stumble into his trap, and a troll hiding behind a tree. Our fourth troll was actually the troll hideout, complete with giant toothbrush, cooking pot, basket and a wood-frame teepee. Everything in their camp was oversized.

Troll Trap!

Did I find the inspiration I was looking for? Yes! The hedge maze promises to figure prominently in Epitaph 7. The trolls? Not so much inspiration, but what a fun idea. I loved coming around the corner on a trail and finding a troll hiding in the trees.

Troll stew?