I Promised PIctures!

I'm not a great photographer. In fact, most of the time I forget to take pictures! But here are a few of my favorites from our trip. I never imagined I'd enjoy it so much!

Water Lilies at Queen Elizabeth Botanical Gardens in Grand Cayman

Pedro St. James in Grand Cayman

View from Pedro St. James

Good Hope Plantation in Jamaica

View out the front door of Good Hope plantation house

Our ship at the Pier in Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Haiti

Labadee, Haiti

Sunset

Two happy, rested people! :)

That's My Girl!

I have many author friends who find pictures of famous people or catalog models and use them for reference as they create their characters. I confess I’ve never done this, although I have perused many old photo albums. My characters usually appear in my head and to try to find a picture match of them would be a long waste of time. But as I’ve been researching my next book, my heroine has been a bit fuzzy. Not her character. I see that clearly. But her mannerisms. Her face.

I do often look at newspaper pictures in my research. (That’s the advantage of setting stories in a time where photographs were readily available!) It helps with setting and clothing and other accoutrements of life. But as I said before, rarely with characters.

Until now. While searching through the online database of a research library, my heroine appeared from the pages of the 1915 Chicago Daily News! I love that it isn’t a portrait but a spontaneous shot. And I could just see in her smile and her bearing that she's the one.

I already feel like she is my friend!