Planning Our Next Camping Trip

November 11, 2009 by Chris · Comments Off
Filed under: Research

As a diversion from the writing, I started planning our next camping trip. The trip has special significance since I’m using our destination as a setting for my next mystery. The tax write off is nice, but it’s also a place of which I’m well-acquainted. I’m going to enjoy trying to view the destination from an insider’s point-of-view.

The primary reason I love Door County is its close proximity with the outdoors. It doesn’t matter if you never hike the trails or boat on Lake Michigan. When you’re camping, the weather dictates everything. It decides if you’re going to have a campfire or go to a restaurant. You may end up hiking on a trail or shopping to avoid the rain. I enjoy being so close to Nature.

The weather then, becomes the main topic of conversation. Each year, we place friendly bets about whether it’ll be too cold, too warm, or just right. My mom typically won the bets, saying it’d be too cold. No matter. A cold, rainy day in Door County is better than a day at work anytime.

My challenge next year will be not to look like a tourist. No Door County t-shirts. No maps. No camera. A camera phone, fortunately, is easily concealed. What a treat–to try and absorb a place I truly love and enter its soul.

Tags: Door County, Research

Vacation Days

June 24, 2008 by Chris · Comments Off
Filed under: Lessons Learned

There’s nothing like a vacation to tune in to the present and tune out the present. I traveled to Door County, Wisconsin because I wanted peace. I printed out my rough draft for a fresh look, my first look actually on paper. All of my editing prior had been done as I read on the computer screen. How refreshing to read one’s words in print.

What a great feeling it was too, to hold all 246 pages of my manuscript. Only by seeing the physical manifestation of hours of thinking, debating, writing, searching can one truly appreciate one’s own work. I certainly did. While the editing went well, the Muse was not idle.

Our vacation destination will be the setting of my next work. Thinking ahead already. I came there with new eyes. I noticed the nuances that 18 years of visits have rendered. I appreciated the insider point-of-view that I had cultivated unwittingly through the years. How wonderful it felt to have the clearest picture in my mind of place that I wanted to capture so that it could be forever for me.