How I accidentally stumbled into the real-life setting of my storyJoe Jarvis - August 25, 2019
I had an extra few days in Italy without much planned. So I decided to take the fast train from Rome to Venice.
For some reason, I hadn’t made the connection before… Venice is possibly the best place in the world to climb into my fiction.
I even described the “seastead” in my latest story, The Gulf, as somewhat reminiscent of Venice. Although I had never been before, pictures of the canals and arched bridges were an old-timey version of how I pictured Gulf Sails in 2099.
The man-made floating island allows hexagonal platforms to dock to it. They fit into the next like a honeycomb but don’t quite touch. This leaves canals of ocean between.
When I got to Venice, I realized what should have been obvious– the options for transportation in the city are walking, or boating. So I took a water taxi through the canals until I was just a few blocks from my Airbnb.
|
|
|
And to explore the rest of the city, I walked.
I walked through narrow alleyways of inconsistent width. I stumbled across squares lined with shops and restaurants. I stepped over staircase-bridges that take pedestrians high enough so gondolas and water taxis can pass beneath.
I dead-ended more than a few times at a canal. And the whole time, there was not a car in sight.
|
| | Boats glided through the busiest five-way intersections without slowing down, without an obvious–to me at least–traffic pattern… no yellow painted center lines.
This was as close as I could come to stepping into the seastead in my mind.
I have always naturally tended to set my fiction in places I am familiar with. My first book was set in New England, and the second in the woods of Vermont.
But now I think I’ll make it habit to find places that can serve as surrogates for my futuristic settings.
Strangely enough, I just heard there is a club in Atlanta, Georgia that used to be a church.
A cathedral turned club just so happens to be the setting of a Halloween party in the first episode of The Gulf.
I’m in the city now, so I know where my next stop will be…
Click here to check out my Instagram story from Venice.
The Gulf, Episode 5, will be out next Sunday!
Meanwhile, the audio for episodes 1-3 are now live.
Have a great week! |
|
|
