Two Saturdays ago, we went to Elmwood for the Twilight Walking Tour. Had a wonderful time. Later, we drove across town and went through a scary Haunted House thingie. It was called The Tormented, a kind of haunted asylum put on each year at Halloween. I almost had a panic attack getting through that dark maze of zombies and crazy people.
However, Elmwood was absolutely beautiful BUT full of insects. They were very bad this year and I had an allergic reaction to some bites and ended up at the doctor four days later. I am still recovering. The reason I am writing this is the book I am writing was inspired by both Elmwood and insects, and today's chapter was full of talk about bugs. I kept thinking about how thick the air was with flying insects that Saturday. It's no wonder that Memphis was constantly plagued by the Yellow Fever during the 19th century, and though this is an old project getting a make-over, my experiences with the bug bites did help me describe how bad the insects were in my fictional piece.
I would not have believed what I wrote today if I had not experienced it in reality.
(More on insects later)
