Wandering Wales
When talking to readers about Should Have Told You Sooner, I always begin by telling them I started writing the novel in 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, when all I wanted to do was travel but, of course, could not. The next best thing was traveling in my imagination to places I loved and missed. So, it’s anything but random that Noel goes to London for a secondment and that Bryn Jones lives and paints in Wales: I, myself, longed to be in both of those places.
But writing about places where I am a visitor rather than a resident requires research to make the locations feel present and real for the reader, while at the same time getting the details right for those more knowledgeable about these places than I am. On my trips, my camera is my best friend, and I use it to capture the feel, the sights, and the colors of a place. Fortunately, Noel is also a visitor at the start of the novel, and I felt she would be looking at and understanding these spots in the same way I do. (Or is it that I am seeing them as she would? Oh, the existential questions of a writer inhabiting fictional bodies and minds.)
I’ve treated you to a London photo spread. This month, I thought you might enjoy seeing photos from my trips through counties in the southern half of Wales: Swansea (both a county and a city), Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Monmouthshire, and Powys. Let’s go!
To follow my path, double-click and hover on each photo for details & captions; you can also double-click the first photo, then scroll and hover.
