At the Water's Edge

by C. Margery Kempe

It's impossible not to think about liminality when you live where the land meets the ocean. Borders are always interesting places: the crossing of borders both compels and impedes. When your border is the ocean, the ebb and flow becomes a part of daily life. Low tide reveals a different world. Things formerly hidden below the surface show their faces for a brief time, emerging like memories nearly forgotten.

What happened here? Intriguing, isn't it. The leftover effects of a Saturday night on the Claddagh? A hasty rendezvous interrupted? Or simply a dare that left one person out of luck? When your eyes are open to the details around you, everything becomes fodder for a story.

Mutton Island: you can reach it from the causeway at low tide. There's a picturesque lighthouse on the island, but you can't actually get there. The island itself is gated from public access. I suppose there are always barriers keeping us from the goals we have before us; sometimes we have to find ways around them, sometimes we find new goals. The stark beauty of Mutton Island was worth a look anyway.

Twilight in Galway: utterly beautiful. The light has the quality of a Magritte painting. Down on the bay where the Corrib empties into the ocean's spur, the colours are so distinct, but as the light fails in the afternoon, there's a different kind of magic. Twilight is a liminal time, full of possibilities and transition. When this posts, I will be on another shore — in Scotland this time, but on the Tay which pours out into the North Sea. There's something about being near a big body of water, looking into the depths and smelling the salt air. Anything could be possible. It's magic.

Filed under: C. Margery Kempe, Characters, contemporary romance, Emotions, erotic romance, inspiration, Kit Marlowe, Noble Romance, Romantic Places, Settings, What inspires you?, Writer's Life