Picture Monday - Great Smoky Mountains Tennessee

So, this is the second blog in two days. It must be the sign of the apocalypse.  I'm not one to talk much online as you can tell, I prefer to talk in person. I don't even get on the phone much. But I've decided to try and make more of an effort. When I find pictures that inspire me to write stories I figured I'd try to post them on Mondays. Since I'm currently working on Eli and Ash's Christmas short, which is set in the Great Smoky Mountains and introduces Eli's best friend and cousin Gareth, I thought I'd start with pictures taken from where the story is set. Eli is taking Ash to Tennessee to meet his parents. Eli's never taken a man home to meet his parents so it's a big deal for him and Ash, well, Ash is holding onto a surprise of his own.
 

About twelve years ago my husband and I went to Alabama for his cousin's wedding.  On the way down we passed through a portion of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Now I'm a mountain girl. I was born in New Hampshire and for me the mountains always equate home and for me the mountains in New Hampshire are the most beautiful. But I have to admit when we drove through the Great Smoky Mountains that morning I was awed. They were such a dark green and they soared high and close, wreathed in the mists that give the mountains their name.  In all this time I've never forgotten how they looked in the brief time that I was traveling through there. I don't think anyone got a word out of me then, I was too busy staring out the window and dreaming of coming back someday.

I've been waiting for a long time to write a story set in those mountains. When I created Eli's family and history I knew that I might get a chance to do a story there as well. I had toyed with the idea of one day writing Gareth's story. I'd known it was in the back of my mind, but I was uncertain over the idea of writing one full length contemporary, two was in the category of we'll see if I survive the first.  The idea of a second story persisted and Gareth is not the type of man to remain quiet so he's been in the back of my mind a lot. Maybe soon I'll tell his story. I'm already dropping hints to my husband that we need to head to the Great Smoky Mountains for a research trip. I suspect he knows that what I really want to do is sit on a cabin porch for a week, drinking coffee and writing in my notebook while he heads into town to shop and explore, but that's why we get along so well.

I tried finding a picture that captured how they looked that morning drive and I didn't have any luck, so here are some pictures of the mountains in the winter. Eli insists that they aren't as pretty as back home, but Gareth would disagree with him.