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| Fort Lauderdale |
We all have our places that we love and feel are our second home. Fort Lauderdale became that place for me twelve years ago. Now that Terminal Wake is published I can get away, swim, do nothing and not think for a little bit. I have not been down from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale in six months, immediately after I published Dweller On The Boundary.
The last six months have been nothing but nonstop writing, thinking and editing this book. I locked myself away except for my walks in nature and a day trip to Alabama. I took extreme measures to write this book and have utter silence and isolation. Part of it was written in the closet of my office so I could achieve complete silence and without windows for distraction. Silence and sound are significant facets of this book and I wanted to capture that isolation as best I could living in the city. Much of this book was written between the hours of midnight to six in the morning. I am not a nocturnal person, I like mornings, but I needed silence to write this. I am glad it is finished and I am proud of it. This book means a lot to me and I hope that readers will enjoy it and perhaps think some about what is written.
Some may not think of South Florida as relaxing as it can be rather hectic and it is a large metropolis between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, but it fits me. Fort Lauderdale more so than Miami, which I only visit once or twice while I am in South Florida. Fort Lauderdale is the more laid back side of South Florida with still enough energy, glitz and glamour to not feel sleepy. I walk before breakfast, swim, loaf, and walk again at night in safety. In my younger years I did plenty of partying in Wilton Manors, but that is long behind me.
Fort Lauderdale has been called and marketed as "The Venice of America" because of the extensive canal system. I do enjoy the canals in the city for riding the water taxi, waterside dining and simply watching the water. The landscape is different from the the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast of Florida, which I enjoy too in places like Navarre, St. George Island, Mexico Beach and the St. Joseph Peninsula. I feel like I am some place far away and special in Fort Lauderdale and it is a ten hour drive from Atlanta, so it is not exactly nearby.
Crossing Alligator Alley in the Everglades on I-75 marks the spot where I know each time that I am almost there and that Atlanta is in the past.
Mostly I appreciate not having to think and living in the moment.
Thank you to readers of Terminal Wake and Dweller On The Boundary. I will be writing a 90s novel and some of it is already written. I finally get to write about my favorite decade, radio, more about Paulding County, Decatur County and living in an old factory.
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