HOME (HOLLY SCHINDLER)
I won't lie--my hometown (in SW Missouri) has been hit hard economically the past few years. Jobs are leaving. I've seen crime go up in my immediate vicinity. We really don't have the same opportunities (economic or cultural) that other areas have.
It's also occurred to me recently that in addition to the economic changes, maybe we really never did have the same opportunities in this area. Maybe my perspective has just changed.
But one thing we do have--one thing I love and don't know how I'd ever live without--is the wide-openness. When we have decent weather, I'm outside with my laptop. I swear there's something about being in a place with no walls. It's like you suddenly have no walls on your imagination.
It's a miraculous thing. It makes amazing things happen on the page. And no matter how my perspective (and the years) change, I can't imagine my love of the wide-openness will ever weaken...
I love this picture, Holly. It makes me think of your Junction book. Also, it just occurred to me that it would be really cool to see the physical view each one of us has as we write. I suspect that no one else on YA Outside the Lines has yours!
ReplyDeleteWonderful view! That spaciousness makes me think of freedom -- a little like your idea of no walls on our imagination. I live rurally, but our home is closely bordered by the woods so when I write on our back deck I have a more limited view.
ReplyDeleteThat is definitely spacious!
ReplyDeleteThe writer Susan Allen Toth wrote of feeling vaguely anxious when she went to college in New England. Later she concluded that it was partly claustrophobia, and being away from the vast spaces of Iowa in which she'd grown up. The landscape does affect us.
Thanks, guys--it's a pretty nice view, I must say. That's fascinating about the landscape!
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