Many people have asked me where I got my ideas for some of the
short stories found in Tales Unleashed.
It's not unusual for me to grab my backpack, my camera and my
notepad and go for a ride on a country road. Not just any country
road, but rather maybe one of those seasonal roads..you know the
ones...just dirt highlighted by good size chuck holes, maybe even
some wild grass growing in the middle of it.
So many times I'll come upon an abandoned house and/or barn...
sitting silently as sentinels over what was their domains so many
year before. I'll sit...watch... ponder...and try to envision the people
and their circumstances within such a place...how they lived, raised
their families, then moved on or even passed away there.
Many times one of those structures will 'speak' to me...trying to
draw me in for a closer look...as if to bait me into their sometimes
dark and mysterious spaces.
As trees and briers and black berry bushels take over a landscape...
they can't hide what the true identity of the property once was.
Alas, all things come to pass...and Mother nature eventually takes
back unto herself boards, glass, concrete..and returns them to
whence they came.
I take these walks and rides quite frequently...and new stories always
come to mind...at least partials for me to take home, embellish,
organize and put to paper...or rather a hard drive now.
Tales Unleashed has many stories born from being 'out there'... on
that country road.
The House upon the Hill, Discovering Dr. John, The Lantern,
Jessie's Find, A walk in Fog and Time....all fictional stories, but
to me, not really.
Maybe at one time, in one realm or another I was actually a resident
at one of those visited places....it's worth contemplating I guess.
Take yourself on one of those country roads sometime soon.
Stop, look, listen.....see if anything comes back to you...
you might be surprised.
Thanks for stopping in. SS
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