Nothing but Ghosts, Chanticleer Garden, and Reflections on Place

Sunday, September 14, 2008


I'm thinking out loud about place today on this vlog. I'm also sharing some recent photos of that most-exquisite Chanticleer garden, where my fifth memoir was rooted, and where many scenes from Nothing but Ghosts, due out next June, take place. Nothing but Ghosts is fiction; Chanticleer is, on those pages, correspondingly transformed. What matters is the first impulse—the shadows and bird song and watercress creek that fired my imagination, the details that only geography and terrain can yield.

4 comments:

PJ Hoover said...

I'll totally come your way! I love this vlog! And hearing about how important place is to you really inspires me to want to make sure I place the right emphasis on it.
This is great! Thanks so much!
And what great pics.

Melissa Walker said...

Place is hugely important in rich novels, as yours are. Thanks for the photos.

Beth Kephart said...

Hey, PJ — Meet you at the front gate, beneath the green canopy... :)

Melissa — thank you for taking the time to take a look. Photography is such a release for me. Perhaps I should have been a photographer instead of a writer....

Em said...

All this talk about photography makes me wonder, have you read Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond? I think you'd like it...it has a nice conversation about memory versus photography. Although I should warn you that I've heard from people who are mothers that they found the story to be way too frightening to enjoy. It's got an interesting ending though so if you can make it that far, I think you'll enjoy it. Plus, it reads quickly.

I have been home probably all of 5 minutes these last two weeks but I'll be back in blogging mode shortly. :)

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