Sometimes inspiration strikes and hits you so hard, you have no choice but to sit up and pay attention. Well, inspiration struck. I’m pretty sure I have an “inspiration-shaped” shoe print on my forehead. I’ve been toying with doing a somewhat silly series for a while now, and I think it’s time.
Today, I’ve been sitting here drawing up plans, laying out a fictitious town called Roaring Fork. I keep wanting to type Roarking Fork, which… well, it’s funny. I may keep it but probably not. At any rate, I have most of the town laid out, and it looks like an interesting place to say the least. There are churches, banks, restaurants, book stores, a café, a dairy bar, some hair salons, a trailer park. Four banks, three mattress stores, two storage barn rental places. Dance halls and bingo halls and a place called Mack’s Seafood Shack. That’s just for starters—I probably have close to a hundred businesses and structures on this map. Lord help me when it comes time to read it all.
Where is Roarking (dang it) Fork? Somewhere in central Appalachia. That’s as specific as I plan to get. The “where” doesn’t matter. The people and their stories do.
I’m not particularly feeling Easton’s story right now. I hate to say that. It’s just been such a difficult couple of months, and his book does delve into some pretty deep emotions. I think I need to play with something light and silly and fun and intense, step away from the more serious business of romance, and see what I can come up with. I’ll get back to him, and I’m not abandoning the series. Not at all. I wouldn’t do that to Owen and Sarah and their family, and certainly wouldn’t do that to you all.
But I’m going to play for a bit and see how outrageous I can get with this new thing. I’m shaking my head as I look over this map… it’s something else. Probably wouldn’t make a lick of sense to anyone else, but to me, it’s something of a goldmine. I hope what I can produce based off of this map is worth reading. If not, at least it’ll be fun.
Happy Reading!
T. L.