Wandering Wednesday: From Georgia to Germany with Patricia Beal + a Giveaway

By Patricia Beal  @bealpat

Yesterday Narelle Atkins posted about my debut novel, A Season to Dance. A Season is the heart-wrenching journey of a small town professional ballerina who dreams of dancing at the Met in New York. It's about her, the two men who love her, the God who loves her even more, and the forbidden kiss that changed everything.

I hope you'll read Narelle's review (if you haven't yet) and participate in our giveaway. You can comment on either post to enter to win a signed copy of A Season to Dance. More details at the end of this post.

Today I want to take you behind the scenes into the real life settings of the book. 

Welcome to the world of A Season to Dance!

Brazil in the seventies. The beginning.

This is the real theater and the real marquee in Columbus, Georgia. I had to take some architectural freedoms to make the marquee scene work. I danced at that theater when my husband was stationed at Fort Benning. My daughter was nursing when I participated in the advertised shows. I learned nursing pads and snow costumes don't go well together :)

The RiverCenter in Columbus, Georgia

This would be the view during on-stage classes and rehearsals. This is also what Ana and Claus see when they go over corrections and before climbing the wobbly steps to Juliet's balcony. "I ran down to him. The melody became fully established. Luminous. Exalted. Beautiful. We locked eyes. We locked hands. We locked hearts. And then we danced." 

RiverCenter for the Performing Arts - Bill Heard Theatre

This is the sign Ana sees at the entrance of Callaway Gardens when she's looking for Peter. "If I wasn’t going to Mom’s and wasn’t going to Peter’s office, why was I still driving toward the park? Because I have nowhere else to go. That’s why…"

Callaway Gardens

Here's the Callaway Gardens chapel. "Tomorrow, I think. Today, I remember. I remembered the first day I’d met Peter. The chapel, the organist playing Vivaldi’s 'The Four Seasons,' and the little girl with the white sandals that showed her cute little toes, her dress flowing as she ran. I remembered the warmth and the sweet scents of that beautiful spring day. Turning the corner, my eyes looked for the bridge where we’d first seen each other." 

Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel exterior

Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel interior

Peter's bridge. "He stood on the bridge looking out at the lake. He was cuter than I’d imagined, and anything resembling quiet reverence departed from me fast. I just wanted to go behind an azalea bush and squeal. I started walking toward him. He turned to me and smiled. The scruff on his face and his tan made him look surprisingly boyish, and his dark blue eyes were even bluer than in the pictures from his profile. 'Hi.' I reached out for the metal rail to steady myself and breathed in his soapy smell. Everything about him was warm and inviting." 

Callaway Gardens

Callaway Gardens

Callaway Gardens

The real Barysh was a girl and a boxer. "My tan border collie, Barysh, scooted toward me when I opened the balcony doors. 'Here, let me help you.' Soon I would have to do something about him too. He hadn’t stood on his own in weeks and wasn’t getting any younger. I picked up his hips and helped him get outside."

Kyllian at Callaway Gardens the year before she died

Wiesbaden. "A white heron stood on the bank of the rain-swollen river, looking in the direction of the submerged rocks where he normally stood. Germany, huh?"

Wiesbaden was so fun to write. I lived there as a single public affairs officer in 2003. These images are from a visit in 2012. "Downstairs, a narrow stone driveway, edged by clusters of miniature roses, ended at a dark iron gate that led to quiet Blumenstraße, two long blocks from the downtown attractions and from the Warmer Damm Park, a large English landscape garden with a lake and a fountain, which bordered the southern façade of the state theater where Claus danced."

The real Di Gregorio

The theater

The neighborhood

Rüdesheim."Most restaurants and hotels by the water had the charming half-timbered architecture generally associated with Germany. Lush vegetation and vibrant flowers shaded outdoor tables, and window boxes overflowed with bright geraniums, petunias, and begonias. At a restaurant with a large courtyard and a fountain, a group of women— three generations for sure—danced the polka, accompanied by a live accordion, and a teenage boy who was watching them from the sidewalk picked up his girlfriend and spun her around to her giggles and protests. Everybody looked happy and relaxed, and I noticed that even though we were surrounded by vineyards, most people were drinking beer—vom Fass."

I love this place :)

Europe and the double-decker stroller

View from Germania

In the footsteps of Claus

A side trip to Prague for a performance. "We didn’t sleep. Instead, we watched the sunrise from the Charles Bridge, and his tender kisses were as precious to me as the pedestrian-only stone bridge in the soft light of the morning sun’s rays."

Charles Bridge in Prague

A Side trip to Mallorca. " 'Are you mocking me, Jody Sawyer?' Claus held his chest as if heartbroken. 'Shut up, Cooper.' The sound of our conspiring laughter rolled through the night air like the gentle waves that rolled into our Cala Romantica beach, rhythmic and unassuming. 'Can I speak seriously now?' His brows drew together. 'If you must.' Claus held my hands and looked into my eyes. He did look serious. I hadn’t seen him that serious since the day we left Georgia."

Cala Romantica in Mallorca

From Mallorca to Ibiza to Barcelona during a month in Spain

I wrote most of the Callaway Gardens chapters at Callaway Gardens but finished the first draft of A Season to Dance in Germany, at this square in Idar-Oberstein (after many trips to Rüdesheim). 

Idar-Oberstein

In a million ways, my ballerina dreams didn't work out. I was in pre-professional companies in three different continents. Never went pro, though. But now that A Season to Dance exists, it all makes sense. Every twist and turn of my life is in this story to one extent or another. Had my path been different, the novel would have been different. And it is exactly what it needs to be, I'm confident in that. God knew that A Season to Dance was the only way to my heart.

Because of A Season to Dance

Also because of A Season to Dance

Maybe there will be other published books, but if this is the only one I ever publish, if A Season to Dance is my life's work, I'm okay with that. I now know that I was born to write it and I did.

Thank you, Narelle, for loving the story and for feeling it intensely, like I do :)

I will close with the words of my protagonist:

"The studio was old—the best always were. The dark marley floor had seen years of pointe work, and the wooden barres looked worn—worn by sweaty hands holding tight to big dreams. 'You are so beautiful,' the girl cast as Dew Drop whispered. 'Thank you.' I grinned. 'Your variation is looking beautiful too.' Her cheeks turned pink, hiding most of her small freckles. A newer generation was dreaming now, but the ballet studio still was what it should be: a bastion of civility in an everything-goes world."

 

My little girl - the real Dew Drop :)

Love,
Patricia

*Remember to comment to participate in the giveaway. The prize is one autographed print copy of A Season to Dance (open worldwide, void where prohibited). The deadline to comment is 11 p.m. EST on Friday, January 12. Participants can comment on the A Season to Dance review posted by Narelle Atkins on January 9 and/or on Patricia Beal's Wandering Wednesday real life settings post of January 10. People who comment on both posts get two entries. Winner will be selected via random.org and announced on Saturday via comment on both blog posts. Thanks!

About Patricia Beal

Patricia Beal has danced ballet her whole life. She is from Brazil and fell in love with the English language while washing dishes at a McDonald's in Indianapolis. She put herself through college working at a BP gas station and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in English Literature. She then worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army for seven years.

 She now writes contemporary fiction and is represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her debut novel, A Season to Dance, came out in May (Bling! / Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas 2017). 

Patricia is a 2015 Genesis semi-finalist and First Impressions finalist. She and her husband live in North Carolina with their two children.

Goodreads - www.goodreads.com/bealpat
Facebook - www.facebook.com/patricia.beal.author
Pinterest - www.pinterest.com/patriciasbeal
Twitter - www.twitter.com/bealpat
Web - www.patriciabeal.com

"Escape to the Country" and Write!

By Morgan Tarpley Smith

These past two weeks have been a little rough for this writer. I woke up one morning with a sore throat, and it quickly progressed into a really bad summer cold complete with runny nose and coughing until my whole head and neck were sore. I usually get hit pretty hard by these type things, but I usually can take some strong meds and knock it out.

Not this time though because I am currently 11 weeks pregnant, and there are not many strong meds you can take. Therefore, I found myself home from work several days and over the whole weekend. All I could do was take the meds I could, drink hot tea, and lie on the couch. By day two, it was taking its toll on me.

I tried to write. I tried to read. I could not focus on anything. I could barely get up off the couch. My head pounded, and I coughed nearly constantly. What was I to do?

Enter Netflix. I don’t watch many movies or television programs. I tend to write and read with my spare time. But scanning through Netflix’s offerings, I spotted a show that ended up saving my sanity and my writer’s mind over the course of nearly two weeks. It’s called “Escape to the Country,” and it truly was the escape I needed at the time.

It’s the neatest show – a combo of house hunting meets rural documentary. The show focuses on helping prospective buyers view three country home options in the U.K. with most of the shows filmed all over England. The buyers view the houses during the episode but also have a local experience with something of interest to them and the show’s host also experiences something that’s locally noted.

There is only one season on Netflix with 22 episodes. Each episode is 43 minutes in length – and I have now watched them all in just under two weeks. It was the escape I needed from my illness, and it also was what I needed to engage my writer’s mind – even if my mind was bit muddled at the time.

All the special little tidbits of British history and that county’s way of life definitely inspired me for future novels and trips to the U.K. You never know where inspiration will come from next.

Do you have a movie or television show that has inspired you recently in your writing or just in general? I’d love to hear about it.

Morgan Tarpley Smith

Morgan Tarpley Smith is an award-winning newspaper reporter and photographer in Louisiana. She is also an aspiring inspirational novelist for adults and middle grade students. 

Besides writing and traveling to over a dozen countries, her interests include acting in her local theater, genealogy, photography, and singing. She resides in Louisiana with her husband.

Resemblances of Real Life Locations

Sometimes the settings in my head for fictive stories are strictly the product of my imagination, though it’s been said there’s nothing new under the sun. Other times I’m fully aware that I’ve been inspired by real life locations. In fact, I will occasionally have a place in mind where I’ve visited or have seen before via photographs that captured my attention and deepened my interest.

I recently undertook a genre swap from romantic political intrigue set in Argentina to a work of fantasy romance. Working on an eNovella series with six installments, the first soon to be published by Soul Mate Publishing, the location from which to draw inspiration for eNovella #1, Wind’s Aria, came to mind near the beginning of the venture.

Have you ever seen pictures of the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia? Or perhaps you live in the region; after all, we are a very international group here. Needless to say, it’s gorgeous—and naturally looks like a realm that belongs in a delightful fairy-tale.

As once a member of an internationally acclaimed Croatian dance ensemble, I was first introduced to the Plitvice Lakes National Park twenty years ago. It made such an impression on me that I knew someday it would stir something more, further awakening the creative aspect in my life.

So as I started writing Wind’s Aria, it dawned on me that I was painting a picture resembling this real life location that made such an imprint on me many years ago. Once I realized this, I studied the images of the Croatian lakes online, clipped out photos from magazines, and examined travel logs. I stretched the region out on my mental canvas and then began adding more of my own embellishments, such as a bridge here, a dock there, a cottage or garden, livestock, the people, form of dress and culture for a timeless generation in a literary sphere of fantasy.

One thing I noticed . . . if a touch of writer’s block hit me I only had to pull out those images of the real life region, take a deep breath while admiring the beauty, and I was on my way to plotting the story again.

What about you? In the world of fiction, in whichever genre you dwell, do you find your inspiration from real life locations, basing stories around places and settings that actually exist? How do you keep these locales fresh in your mind?

As someone who appreciates other places and cultures, and who loves the world of fiction—both as a writer and a reader—I’d love to hear about the regional resemblances in your work-in-progress stories!

Tessa is a veteran of the performing arts and worldwide missions, having come from a long line of musical arts professionals. She loved seeing the world and absorbing the beauty of other cultures . . . an enriching life full of dance, music, faith, and interesting cuisine. She’d always dreamed of becoming a romance writer, conveying words that inspire and the thrill that occurs when two destined souls meet. www.TessaStockton.com
 

When Inspiration Knocks

I write in my sleep.

And when I awake, I think in paragraphs.

For I'm a writer, an observer of the world. Though I carve out time daily to scratch out my thoughts, inspiration knocks at the most unexpected times.

photo credit: flickr creative commons

I hear the rap when I'm peeling potatoes, boiling eggs, spooning mushy carrots into my baby, or telling my preschooler to eat his broccoli. At those moments, I search for bits of paper. Anything. Even a crumpled napkin will do. I must answer the door even if water spills over or the kitchen is left amiss.

Inspiration enters when I'm plucking tomatoes from my garden, folding laundry, driving to play date, or seeping tea for my hubby. And sometimes the tea never makes it to the table, because the idea speaks louder than the whistling kettle.

When I rest my head on my pillow, a light bulb illuminates my mind. I've got the answer to my protagonist's dilemma. I know if I roll over, or push the muse away, I'll lose the thought. My hero will die. So, I ransack the room for a journal. A writing instrument.

And where are the pens when I'm in dire need?

Oh, I love to bake, put meals on the table, and spend time with loved ones. And if you come over, I'll even make tea.

But, if a sliver of light falls on your cheek, forgive me if I ask you for the back of the receipt in your pocket or purse.

For I'm a scribe.

And when inspiration knocks, I'm compelled to answer.

When does inspiration knock for you? Do you answer? When do you get your best writing ideas?

*this post first appeared on Hoosier Ink, August, 2011

Melanie N. Brasher is a full time mama of two boys and wife to an incredible husband who understands her bicultural background. She moonlights as a fiction and freelance writer, crafting stories and articles toward justice and change. She's a member of American Christian Fiction writers and a contributing blogger for Ungrind & Hoosier Ink. Though she's an aspiring author, she'll never quit her day job.