When writing I often utilize my imagination, but I also will pull from my own experiences and the details I can recall about certain places I’ve been or people I’ve met. For Take Me Home I was able to use my experience of traveling across the United States on a passenger train.

But I also do a fair bit of research for each of my stories. I used to dread research, but I’ve learned to embrace it and see it as an opportunity for two reasons: 1) to learn something new about whatever I’m researching and 2) to expand my understanding of the world and the characters in which I’m writing about in a particular story.

I’m a visual person. I find pictures and videos helpful to really get into the story. Even if my description ends up nowhere close to the visual, the images create a spark of ideas in my mind that keeps the description from being stale and typical (at least typical for my writing and my usual vocabulary). Through my writing research I’ve learned about places, occupations, animals, symbolism, and more I might never have had a reason to delve into otherwise.

During my research phase of writing Take Me Home, I saved links and images and descriptions in one document for inspiration as I wrote. So I thought I’d share a preview of Take Me Home using only a sampling of the pictures from my research notes. Under each photo is a link where I found the photo and the credit if it’s available.

**Please note: Some may consider the following minor spoilers for the story, but the pictures give away only a few more specifics than the blurb and merely illustrate the story’s premise.

Photo Credit: Yuri_Arcurs

Photo Credit: kupicoo

Image Credit: Amtrak website

Photo Credit: Wigwam Jones

Image Credit: Amtrak

Photo Credit: Amtrak

Photo Credit: Amtrak

Photo Credit: Amtrak

Image Credit: Amtrak

Image Credit: Amtrak

Photo Credit: no body atoll

Photo Credit: pferriola

Photo Credit: Virtual Farm Boy

Photo Credit: The West End

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Photo Credit: Minerva Bloom

Photo Credit: oakmechinsl

Photo Credit: oakmechinsl

Photo Credit: oakmechinsl

Photo Credit: oakmechinsl

Photo Credit: oakmechinsl

Photo Credit: Decarli

Photo Credit: Decarli

Photo Credit: Decarli

Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve

Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve

Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve

Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve

Photo Credit: Loco ( Inactive ) Steve

Photo Credit

Photo Credit: Doug Wornom collection

This one’s a video, you can watch here if it’s not embedded below.

Photo Credit

Read the blurb and preview excerpts for Take Me Home