Refilling the Well by Annette Dashofy

My friend, Gigi Pandian, mentioned a while back that she has learned to take one day a week off from writing. I used to do that too, knowing the importance of refilling the well. But when Gigi wrote about it, I started thinking…when was the last time I took a real day off? Oh, I’ve taken a few half days. I would write in the morning and then spend the afternoon watching TV with my husband. But a full day? And somewhere “out?”

 It has to have been almost a year. I mean seriously. Where would we go? Out to eat or see a movie? Not happening. No visiting family or friends either. Last summer, we’d go for a drive and find a place to take a walk. But not far away. And if there was a crowd, we’d turn around and head home.

 It’s been a long year.

 And a long winter. I’ve started to feel the strain.

So I declared last Sunday a mental health day. Fishing season is almost here (which means I won’t see much of my husband on weekends), and he wanted to scout out the river and creeks where he’ll be casting flies. Off we went.

 After a two-hour drive to the Laurel Highlands, I placed a takeout lunch order on my phone. We ate in the parking lot. Then we headed into the wilderness.

I totally understand why my husband loves it here. I’m tempted to come with him and just sit on the bank and read.

 And then we came across this.

There’s a story there. My husband and I started making one up as we strolled back to the car. Neither of us knows the person memorialized by that cross, but we can imagine what he was like.

 And that’s the point of a mental health day. Refilling the well. Finding inspiration for new stories or clearing the cobwebs to better focus on the ones in progress.

 Fellow writers, do you take time away from your pages to refill the well? Dear readers, have you ever stumbled across something that made you wonder about the story behind it? Please share.

A Picture is Worth ...

by Julie Tollefson

In the past couple of weeks, my day job and my fiction writing worlds have collided in the best possible way. My colleagues and I at the Kansas Geological Survey are revamping our online photo library, and I’ve spent hours sorting through hundreds of photos of Kansas landscapes and other geology-related subjects, some of which date back decades.

It’s a task that dovetails nicely with my fiction writing interests. Kansas, the land and its quirks, figures prominently in nearly every story I write. Yeah, I know that when most people think of Kansas, they imagine fields of wheat and corn as far as the eye can see, flat and monotonous. But we also have plenty of unusual, out-of-the way places that inspire dark thoughts of murder and suspense. Over the decades, Survey photographers have documented many of these places.

Take this abandoned house on the High Plains, constructed in the 19th century from local limestone where wood was scarce. Suitable for dumping a body, no?

Or Waconda Spring. Looks like such a refined place, where ladies in summer dresses sip tea in beautiful gardens. But today? The spring is long gone, submerged under Glen Elder Reservoir. Makes you wonder what ghosts lurk there, eh?

The historical photos in the Survey’s collection are my favorite. The cars! The fashion! These guys in fedoras exiting a Pony Express Station in the mid-1960s—they could be old-timey gangsters.

Some of the images inspire with their ingenuity. Here, someone, um, recycled an old truck to secure the opening to an abandoned lead mine.

We have sinkholes…

…and landslides…

…and the occasional flood.

In short, the Survey’s photo archives are a treasure trove of inspiration, and there’s nothing I enjoy more than drawing on these places close to my heart to craft stories of suspense and mystery.

All photos courtesy of Kansas Geological Survey. To see more, visit our photo archives.

Do you have favorite places in your state that you think deserve wider recognition?

Itching to Travel

I'm itching to travel.

I can't imagine a time when I didn't want to go out and explore this great, big world of ours. Different cultures. Different people. Different languages. All of them were fascinating to me.

England, Wales, and Scotland were where I went on my first overseas trip. While there, I discovered my love for interesting architecture. I discovered my love of photographing those buildings at interesting angles on the same trip.

My first few photos (well, to be honest, first couple hundred) were straight-on pics. Then one day I cocked my head and looked at a building in a different way. That photo wound up being my favorite and most interesting one of the entire trip.

Since then, that's about all I do when I go on trips. I will take one or two shots head-on, just so people can easily recognize what they're looking at (myself included), but most of my camera's disk space is chock full of angled pictures.

So, what does this have to do with me being itchy to travel?

I think it's to do with the sameness of my daily life. Each day I get up, head to work, come home and get ready for the next day's business. I do see some cool things along my route that I'd like to take pictures of, but I'm so caught up in making sure I get to work or home, that I don't stop and take the time to do so. Even when I do think I'd take the moment to capture it, I'm not fully prepared, having left my camera at home.

When I go on trips, however, my camera goes with me everywhere. It's wonderful to have it along, so that I can capture a particular glint of sunlight on a building, or shoot a secretive alleyway that most people would simply pass by. Sometimes it's even as simple as the mood I happen to be in at that moment.

Take the two photos above, for example. The next time I'm in London or Paris, I might not even look at Parliament or La Tour Eiffel (respectively) in the same way. Next time, the photos I take will show a different side of the structure, as well as where my mind is that day.

So I'm itching to get out of my daily routine. Ready to explore sights and sounds that I've yet to discover; even if they're in places I've been many times before. Craig and I will be going to Greece this year for our honeymoon, so that will work.

It just means that I’ve got to wait until then to scratch my itch.