Wow. It's been a while since I've posted anything. I guess that means I've been busy. And truly, I have. I spent most of the summer traveling to libraries (29 to be exact) with my company, Impressions Theatre, performing Tom Sawyer. You can watch some videos we posted on Youtube here. I also spent quite a bit of time writing when I could. The word count for STOLEN is now at about 50K, with a projected count of 60K. So the first draft is almost finished! Furthermore, an audiobook version of MISSING is in production. Woo-hoo! But that's not what I really want to talk about today. Recently, I picked up watching ALONE on the History Channel. If you haven't seen it, you should. Start with season one. It's pretty amazing. There's a part of me that has always wanted to be a contestant, to try my hand at living completely alone in some far-flung wilderness. Granted, I have absolutely no training in wilderness survival and I have a wife and four children that I can't imagine leaving for more than a week at a time. I would probably tap out after the first night of sleeping on the hard ground or wondering what firsts I was missing from my two year old son. However, it got me thinking. I inherited a large piece of property from my grandparents. It was their homestead. It was where my father was born and raised. As a child, I visited at least once a month and spent a lot of time wandering the woods. My father taught me what woodcraft he could, though I wasn't the best student. I tried, unsuccessfully, to look after the place and keep it up after their passing, but it was an uphill battle. The house fell into disrepair, it was broken into several times, the vegetation grew out of control, and I couldn't maintain it. Because I live two hours away, it isn't a trip I can take lightly, and I haven't had anyone willing to help with the work in a number of years. So, for a while I have been wondering what I could do with the property. Leasing it was an option, but I haven't found any takers. I can't bring myself to sell it, mainly because I buried my father there. I also want my children to have the opportunity to explore and understand and come to love the outdoors as I did, though none seem very interested in the lack of indoor plumbing. After watching several episodes of ALONE, an idea began to form. Just as my grandparents built a home with their own hands, using the materials and tools that were available to them, perhaps I should so the same. The difference being that I won't be building a full-time home, nor do I have the same tools and manpower they had. While I do have certain advantages they lacked, such as powertools, the thought of using them doesn't sit well. Instead, I am thinking of taking a more basic approach. Using only simple hand tools, my goal is to build a suitable shelter that will sleep two or three people and allow a fire for warmth and cooking. Now, I have absolutely no idea how to accomplish this or what sort of structure to build, though I am leaning toward a wigwam or longhouse type construction that the Woodland Indians once used. I will be taking a wilderness survival class for starters, possibly followed by other bushcraft courses. My hope is to begin working on plans this fall and documenting the process through video posted to Youtube. But what does this have to do with Writing? I'm glad you asked. I have several book ideas that I'd like to work on in the future. One is the traditional fantasy I have posted snippets of before. Having an understanding of how someone would live in the wilderness would be helpful for parts of that. Especially if I can learn some herbalism. I also really like post-apocalyptic survival fiction. I have a story idea for one of those as well, and this knowledge would be a great help in writing that one. So, depending on how this idea progresses and the course it takes, I will continue to post about it here. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
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