Moving Forward

So, the time has come.  In the previous thirty-something posts on this blog, we have looked into the sights ... that inspired the thoughts ... that set the tone ... that drove the action ... in my recently-released book, Deep Disparity.

For those who have already read the book, I hope that the photos embellish the story in your mind's eye.

For those who have not read the book, maybe the photos will entice you to read the story to linger a bit longer in the settings displayed by them.

In any case, for me it is the time to move forward.  To consider the next story, the next inspirations, the next tones, the next actions that will ensue.  The next book ...

I have made a start.  But the publication of more blog posts related to the development of the new story will wait for a time.  Most fiction authors say that, though they have the general concept of a story's progression in mind when they begin, the story and characters often develop lives of their own during the writing.  

Places expected and unexpected are visited, as a result.  For now, one small, pictorial preview for you of a place that will likely figure strongly in the next story:

TGV High-Speed Train, Gare de l'Est, Paris, France

I wonder where this train will take us ...

Peaceful Remembrances

Huang Sculpture Garden, Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, California

The Memorial Day weekend is here.  Does it bring images of the repercussions related to soldiers, uniforms, weapons and military prowess?

Or perhaps, now and then, does it convey visions of peace, the sounds of gently flowing water, the caress of sun-touched breezes.  As here, in the peaceful sculpture garden at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California.

Battlefields or peaceful gardens.  The eternal question and dilemma ...

Visitor's Visions

Aliso Creek Beach, South Laguna, California

A young visitor from Germany was amazed by this little beach, at the southern end of Laguna Beach.  How could it be so peaceful.  So empty.  So available to everyone.  

Day after day the visitor returned, eventually choosing one of the houses along the hillside as the one that she would choose as hers, if she had the opportunity.  Later, the young visitor's mother would paint a picture of that house, captured in her own view by her daughter's photo of it.  

How many visitors, one wonders, have viewed that same house with the same thoughts.  How many photos have been taken.  How many pictures painted.  Do the owners of the house realize the wonder ...

Museum -- Gone Global

Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, California

It began as it should.  Art and artifacts from the southwestern United States merged beautifully with similar objects from Central and South America within the spaces of the gem-like Bowers Museum.  

Little by little, it happened.  The world reached in toward Santa Ana's charming museum.  And the museum reached outward to the world.  The permanent collections grew and expanded in their geographic orientations.  Visiting exhibitions arrived from other continents.  A growing range of visitors accompanied these changes and they were accommodated as spacious, new galleries were built.  A peaceful sculpture garden was added.  Entertainment performances and educational presentations expanded the opportunities for an ever-growing audience.

That is how knowledge should be.  Growing, migrating, expanding and reaching out for new avenues.  People responding and reaching for the understanding paired with knowledge that improves us all.

Or should ...

An Impressive Playlist

Mockingbird in Springtime

"Oh!  I think I heard a robin!"

No, false alarm, it was a mockingbird.

High atop a tree or a chimney or a light pole, the mockingbird broadcasts his repertoire in a robust voice.  Segment after segment, each song is a replica of that of a different bird.  Then the same playlist begins again.  And again.

In Spring, the serenade may continue for hours -- sometimes with a brief pause around mid day.  Perhaps this is the time of the mockingbird's siesta?  Or maybe this is the time that he races to a nearby water source and wets his whistle for the afternoon concert.  

Surely his potential mates are as impressed as I am by his vocal prowess.  And as eager for him to return ...