Summer of Discovery: Ignoring the One-Way Signs
Welcome to this week's guest, Elena Santangelo. Elena and I go way back–I think we met about 11 years ago? Something like that. She's always been a steady buddy and I thoroughly enjoy her ghostly mysteries.
Elena writes the Pat Montella mystery series, which includes Agatha Award finalist By Blood Possessed and continues most recently with Fear Itself. The series combines ghosts, history, a protagonist brought up on Italian cooking and superstitions, and a 91-year-old sidekick. Her nonfiction book, Dame Agatha's Shorts, a Christie Short Story Companion, won the Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction, and earned nominations for Macavity and Anthony Awards. Elena is also the author of 16 published short stories, available for Kindle. Follow her blog, contact her at her website, or become a fan of Miss Maggie Shelby's on Facebook.
Take it away, Elena!
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Explorers have to be creative and those who create need to explore. As explorers go, I emulate my paesan', Columbus. I always think I know where I'm going, but instead of following conventional wisdom, I tend to head out the opposite way. Like Columbus, I rarely reach my original destination, but usually discover something interesting en route.
Most of the writers I know have minds that explore not only when they're doing research, but all the time, out of habit. Discoveries are out there for the taking, so why not bring a few home as souvenirs? Someday you might draw on them for a story.
The best discoveries are the ones that give me new perspective. Back before any of my writing was published, I went hiking with my brother in Utah's Arches National Park. On one trail, we came out onto a high flat rock. The views were gorgeous. We stopped to take pictures. My brother always takes four times as many photos as I do, so while I waited, I sat, drank water, enjoyed the view. Something bothered me about the place, but I couldn't pinpoint it right away. Then I realized that I couldn't hear anything. No birds, insects, traffic, airplanes, no other hikers, nothing. There wasn't even a breeze that day. The place was profoundly silent. So much so that I desperately wanted to whistle or tap my foot—anything to create sound. Of course, doing so would have been the equivalent to Columbus forcing his religious beliefs on the natives. The silence was an integral part of that piece of wilderness. I've never experienced a silence so perfect since, and probably never will again.
A few years later, when I wrote By Blood Possessed, the first novel in my Pat Montella series, I used that discovery to try to instill an equally vivid sense of place by using all of my senses. That one hike is likely responsible for half my writing style.
In the last five years, I've been a hospice caregiver twice. I discovered what the dying process is actually like. For someone who writes death into every book, this practical knowledge is bound to come in handy (not that I would wish the circumstances on my fellow writers). I also discovered that caregivers often get Post-Traumatic Stress, the chemical outcome in a brain pumped up with too much adrenaline for too long, on too few hours sleep. More than that, though, I found how far society, with all our technology and medicines, has moved away from compassionate care for the dying. We insist that a corpse be treated with respect, but we're willing to let a dying person be alone and neglected. A family in the eighteenth century wouldn't have let that happen.
You can bet all of this will find its way into my writing if it hasn't already.
Of course, few discoveries are that extreme. Writers need small finds, too. My protagonist is an avid cook, so I'm always on the lookout for recipes. Another series character, Beth Ann Lee, is an amateur environmentalist. When I come across do-it-yourself green projects, I stow the info on my PC. My novels feature history and ghosts. My favorite vacation destinations include historic sites. Once there, I collect local ghost stories.
It boils down to being open to all experiences, whether you're actively doing research for a story or not. And, like Columbus, sometimes you have to ignore the "One-Way" signs.
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Elena, thanks so much! I think we writers tend to be explorers, even if it's just of the armchair kind! How about you, readers? What have you stumbled across that you've later used in your own writing or in some aspect of your life? What senses were brought into play?
Comment below for a chance to win your choice of one of Elena's latest, Fear Itself or a copy of By Blood Possessed.
