It’s strange what little thing will spark an idea.
I’m driving along, minding my own business…well…on a trip…looking out the window
I have, several times now, had hidden canyons in my books. I’m not sure why the idea appeals to me, but it does. Hidden Canyons or high mountain meadows that no one realized were there.
I once had sisters living on a mountain top, in The Brides of Hope Mountain. The trail down caved off, and they were up there for years and years before they saw another human being.
I had a caldera once, in the Kincaid Brides Series. A caldera is a long gone volcano that blows the top off a mountain and leaves behind this valley…again, hidden. Over the centuries, the valley grows up to grass and trees and becomes this beautiful, lost paradise.
There was a canyon where outlaws hid stolen cattle in Wild Flower Bride.
Calico Canyon was a canyon with a hidden entrance that snowed shut all winter long, trapping the family inside…which to the boys meant NO SCHOOL! They loved it.
I usually have this image in my head of a solid rock wall, or a jumbled of rocks that look impassable.
But driving along. I saw this dip between two mountains. I think it can be called a DRAW. Although a draw may be something else, but this makes me think of that word.
I looked at this and the land seems to just be difficult to cross and nothing to see here folks…move along.
And this….
And this…this one looks especially difficult. Could a horse climb that? A mountain bred mustang?
I’ve often pictured my hidden canyons as having a hidden entrance but not one you needed to climb. I guess in The Husband Tree she had to climb into her high mountain ranch.
But seeing this gave me a different angle on the next series I’m planning to write. I’m going to send my hero home. He needs help and he’s in big trouble. Wounded, with other wounded men with him and with trouble coming after him. And home is up a slope like this. A slope most people wouldn’t even think of climbing. But I looked at that and wondered, ‘What’s on top of that mountain? What’s on the other side of that mountain?’
Now, I’m going to find out.
I’m thinking the second picture is more what I have in mind, but this third one is so daunting. Who would think that, on top of this steep slope is a lush spread of acres with a stream and belly deep grass. Where the eagles soar and the wind makes the tall grass bend and dance as if God Himself is running his hand across it.
Ah, yes. I’m doing it.
This is for the next series, somewhat inspired by the Hidden Canyon my hero and heroine in Toward the Dawn are desperate to escape from.
Do you ever see places like this that spark ideas or dreams, even if you aren’t a writer? Tell me about places you’ve been that take hold of your heart and live with you forever.
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Yes. I once saw a specific log cabin, and it was the inspiration for a home in a story I wrote.
I love that, Denise. I went to a log cabin village museum once in southern Oklahoma. I still think of those cabins.
Eastern Kansas has the Flint Hills and is nothing like western Kansas’ flat plains. Montana, where I live now, has a lot of places. I love Giant Springs in Great Falls.
I’ve heard of the Flint Hills, David. I had no idea it was in eastern Kansas. I’m not that far from eastern Kansas. One state away. Of course they are BIG states…so it’s still a distance. Now I want to see them.
I have amazing views just looking outside my house. I live in the country in the mountains in Maine. Different times of the day, different times of the year, all can be breathtaking. The one moment The will stay with me though will be from Mother’s Day weekend from this year(Friday night), when I finally saw the Northern Lights. They were so stunning and better than I could have imagined and I was able to experience it with my daughters and my mom, it truly was priceless.
Ah, Joannie, that sounds so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that!
When I was a little girl, my father used to love walking with the whole family (my mom, my sister, and two brothers) in the woods, on the railroad tracks, or in the hills. I loved every minute of it, but one special place we went more than once was a path between two hills covered with white, broken oysters’ shells. It just led to a dead end with hundreds of more shells, but I thought it was one of the most beautiful and quietest places (even with all of us kids) that I ever seen. My thoughts often go back to that place and the time spent with my whole family.
That is such a wonderful story. I love that your family went walking together.
Walking through a neighborhood not far from me that have home built in the 20’s and 30’s always makes me think of ideas.
My house was built about 1923-ish. That makes it one hundred years old now. And still, it stands.
While four wheeling the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming, we discover homesteads located on top of bluffs, in the valleys by streams, and in the deepest part of the mountains. Amazing! And my imagination just takes off! I have pictures to keep my memories alive in my heart.
Wow, Kathy. Four wheeling in the Big Horn Mountains. Wow. How cool. Love the remote homesteads in such beautiful settings.
Hey Mary! Sounds intriguing! I grew up on a farm so there was always something to explore or do. But, I find the sink holes which have caves in them a mystery worth exploring! We weren’t allowed to go in them and was told snakes were in them! LOL Anything to keep my brothers and I out of them! But, we did climb down in a few and saw the entrances. We had a dog, Frisky, who went missing in one. No telling what he was chasing! He showed up after a day or two. No telling how far he went in it! But, I always wondered! Still do!
Congrats on your award for your new book!
Tracy I love this whole story. Sink holes. If you come back, talk more about that. Glad your dog came home.
Since I am so in love with Hawaii and have been there once, it takes very little for me to see many of those views again and again in my mind. I would love to revisit. The other location is the Smoky Mountains from Townsend, TN. I have lived here and traveled through the park and several back roads as I drove to work for many years. It is the most beautiful place to be fortunate enough to live. My heart remains back there always. One’s mind is very good at bringing back their cherished memories to revisit often.
Judy, I love the idea of Hawaii, but doubt I’ll ever get there. That long, long plane ride is daunting these days. I’ve always wanted to see the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains. I drove through the mountains of Pennsylvania twice. Is that the Adirondacks? So beautiful. With my western books and a daughter in Denver, I’m more focused on the Rocky’s but all those eastern ranges are spectacular.
I love visiting the mountains in North Carolina. Riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway I can see plenty of hills, valleys, little tiny dirt roads leading to somewhere and wonder about what might be just around the corner. Sometimes you pass by old barns or log cabins that you wonder about the ones that lived there and how their day to day living was. These are special places to me.
More eastern mountains. I really need to go there and see those places. I love how they awaken in your dreams about other people and places.
I love driving through the countryside in Wyoming. One time we were heading to Rob Roy Dam in Wyoming when we rounded this curve. There sat a little house in a grove if trees with a little creek running along side. I told my hubby, our children were still really young, to pull over and tell the people they had to move out. I wanted to live there. He just shook his head and the children were laughing hysterically at my begging him to stop. It was so beautiful!
Barbara, I took a drive from Cheyenne, WY to Laramie OFF the interstate on a highway they called Happy Jack Road. We just watched the plains turn to rugged, broken hills, then the mountains grow. Wonderful drive.
I’d’ve thrown in on your side. 🙂
Driving through the Smoky Mountains makes me think ‘what’s at the top of that mountain, who lives there, and the way of life of a hundred-two hundred years ago’.
Another for the Great Smoky Mountains. I want to go there so badly. I spent some time in Atlanta once and we saw some mountains. I don’t think I appreciated them enough.
Mountains and log cabins inspire me. I grew up in the country with woods all around me. Was snowed in for a week several times. Loved the beauty of God’s creation. So yes, I would love to live in a log cabin by a creek or river and mountains around me.
A little museum village near me has an old log cabin. The story is, someone found it, all collapsed somewhere and they brought it in and recreated it like a jigsaw puzzle. Very cool.
This sounds like it would be a very interesting book,and thank you for the giveaway!
Hi Bridgette. I’m going to try and make it interesting. Always the goal. You’re in the drawing.
On our last road trip we drove through the badlands in South Dakota. My husband and I were amazed at what we saw and thought about who could hide in these….outlaws? Indians? People running away? It is an amazing site. I love all your books especially the Trouble in Texas series.
I went to Deadwood SD a year ago for a book event and met a lot of my Petticoats and Pistols sisters there. What a wild land. It’s spectacular.
My husband and I honeymooned in the Sedona, Red Rocks region of Northern Arizona. It is beautiful by Oak Creek Canyon.
I’ve been through Arizona but not Sedona. Those Red Rocks are so famous. I need to see them.
I live in Arizona where there are a lot of areas that are scenic and would lend themselves to stories of the West.
Joye, I did New Mexico once in the Cimarron Legacy Series and brushed through eastern New Mexico in Doctor in Petticoats. And I did the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde once in Deep Trouble. But I need to go to Arizona in a book again.
Oh, yes! I LOVE the NW GA mountains! For this FL girl, where all you see is flat land, it’s great! Also, the mountains of NC around Ridgecrest. Of course, much closer to home, the beach with the waves crashing onto the shore. A friend and I made a trip to Micanopy for a weekend once, and as we were sitting out on the balcony across the front of the second story, it was soooo nice to look out across the street at the trees draped with Spanish moss, and to actually be able to see stars when we looked up at the night sky!! At home, there are so many lights, you sometimes can’t see the stars!
Trudy, isn’t that cool how you remember that weekend and sitting on the balcony and the draped trees. Those things can be so vivid years later.
sometimes
?? 🙂
I love the mountains as you travel through Tennessee and North Carolina and I can see myself living there in a log cabin. Places like that stick in my head forever. Its just beautiful country.
I need to go see that. Travel around. I’ve been to Nashville, Tennessee but not the Carolinas. I need to add that to the bucket list.
What a fascinating glimpse into the backstory of your book settings! Even though I now live in a metropolitan area in the Southwest, I love the mountains and hills. A place that stays with me is the Cades Cove area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with the mix of historic cabins and beautiful mountain scenery. I visited about ten years ago on a combined recreational vacation and genealogy study trip. I had family come from Virginia to the general region back in the 1830’s. Actually, my GGGG-Grandfather’s home still stands, restored, with a historic marker in the same county that also contains some of the National Park property. Can you just imagine the stories?
Wow, Catherine. Your roots are DEEP. I love that your (wow) GGGG-Grandfather’s home is standing and a marker!!!
A memorable road trip which we took through Colorado several years ago gave me insight into the historic town of Leadville. Absolutely amazing, fascinating and extraordinary to visit and experience this small town with its own old opera house, amidst the beauty of the Rockies.
I should see Leadville. I go to Denver to see my daughter and we try and add something to the trip. Why not Leadville? Sounds fascinating.
Living in the Southwest has definitely broadened my horizons. You can literally see forever and the sky is a beautiful shade of deep blue. The mesas and the unique formations are striking.
So cool, Pearl. I often look around the Nebraska place I live, in the hills and bluffs near the Missouri River and think of the fuss people make over how GREEN Ireland is and wonder…….how could anything be greener than this?
congratulations on Toward the Dawn. Oh but cant wait for these pictures to become reality in your books. for many years I lived an hour away from Death Valley. visited many times. dad had business there, so we got to go along. there were so many places that just made my imagination sing. LOL there was an old lady that loved to have mom and us five kids come visit while dad was on business. she would take us to many places that stories could be incorporated around. SOOOO COOOL
Death Valley, I heard of a place, an oasis there, that is a true place that they based Death Valley days on. It sounded beautiful. Built on the money from transporting Borax. Twenty Mule Team Borax.
I’m fascinated by ghost towns, I’m not sure of the name, maybe Jerome in AZ that has the ghost town above and the current town below. I always thought it would be cool to visit and see it.
Jerome AZ. I’m keeping a list of all these places, Naomi. No real ghosts, I suppose. That’d be interesting!!!!!!!!!!!
We go camping near Hocking Hills in Ohio. There are caves and forests to hike. The forests especially make me feel as if I am in some fairy tale or hobbit adventure.
Wow, Deb. What I love about all these comments is the poetry of the memories. You all make the places you love sound so charming and lovely.
So many beautiful things to see… there is a path like that in the distance where I live… you can see a path carved out… my sister and I have made up stories about who created that and walked that path…. 🙂
Colleen, I started smiling to read your creating stories words. LOVE it!
Yes. A
I’d love to live in an old log cabin in the middle of the woods.
I used to say to my husband, I want to find a simple cabin, deep in the woods and in a beautiful spot and just sit there and soak it in. He thought that sounded stupid. I told him he could find trails and hike around. He’s an energizer bunny.
Block Island, Rhode Island and the beautiful smell of the sweet pea flowers that covered the ground when I made my first visit as a 10 year old. Many years later I still hold that pleasant memory.
Block Island, Rhode Island. I’ve never heard of it, but you made it sound beautiful.
I remember the first time I visited downtown Fairhope, Alabama. I thought it had such a quaint small town feel to it and would be a great setting for a romance or cozy mystery.
Fairhope What a terrific name for a town! I love it!
We were recently at the ruins of a hotel WAY up on a mountain in Colorado, I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would’ve really been like during its four years of being open. ?
Where was it, Kristi? If you come back, tell me.
For me it’s driving through the mountains, typically in the fall where all the trees have lost or are loosing their leaves and being able to look through the woods for old abandoned houses or big trees where a homestead might have been. It definitely piques my imagination! ?
I grew up on a small, forty-acre farm on the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains. I remember playing in the hard red clay, running through the forest, and jumping over saw-briars. I build moss playhouses and make stick-figure dolls with leaf dresses to occupy them. I picked wild strawberries, blackberries, and huckleberries in the spring and summer, and set rabbit gums (traps) in the winter. My dog and I roamed our kingdom with the hill behind the house so high it looked more like a mountain and ended up at a railroad. I’ve used the description of this property many times as I’ve written scenes for stories.
Love it, Janice. We ate mulberries. Turned out lips blue and just feasted on those wild trees.
I’m not a writer, but sometimes I think I’d enjoy it. 🙂
One place that holds a huge part of my heart is West Virginia. We lived in Pocahontas County for six years when I was a girl growing up, in little bitty towns that are hardly a speck on the map, but the area, the people, & the simple way of life still call to me. We lived close to the NRAO in Green Bank, a place that’s called a quiet-zone with no cell phone service, so it is a peaceful, restful place that’s missing the rat-race of so much of our society.
Pictures of beaches, islands, and hidden sea caves always inspire me.
Also, stories about the tunnels (secret tunnels and mining tunnels) under Butte, MT (where I currently live).
I visited Colorado in my early 20s, and I felt like it was home. My soul was meant to be in the mountains!
Sounds like a great series. Can’t wait to see what you come up with. Thanks for the chance to win a prize.
Congratulations on Toward the Dawn making the ECPA Bestseller list.
When we lived inColorado, I remember driving through a pass on a narrow road. Off to the side was a wide cut in the mountain side and what appeared to be a narrow canyon. You couldn’t see too far up because there were trees. Not too far in, there was a cabin built in the middle of the opening. It was a lovely spot. My thought has always been that the cut opened up into a nice valley with a small lake/big pond. The cabin was placed to prevent anyone from entering unless the owners wanted them to. Of course it could have been a shallow box canyon that didn’t go back far at all. I like my vision better. A beautiful place to graze your horses and cattle, not having to worry about anyone stealing them.