An Author Field Trip, For Real

As a former teacher, I planned plenty of field trips - a nature walk in the arboretum, a visit to the zoo, or an afternoon spent at a health museum learning about the digestive system.  But on those trips, though they were fun, my role as the teacher was to be the one responsible.  For everyone.  Students, room parents, and bus drivers.  Yes, learning something was paramount; but, to be realistic, returning to school with the same number of students I had left with was absolutely the ONLY way the day would be a success.  :) That's a big responsibility, even on a good day when everything goes as planned, and as we know, life doesn't always go as planned.

That's why, when I become an author and planned field trips that were just for me, field trips took on a whole new meaning.  Responsible only for myself (and my husband if he happened to like whatever adventure I was going on), I got to head out into the world in search of first-hand knowledge and experiences that would help me be more inspired and authentic in my writing.

The trips I took to the Okefenokee Swamp for my most recent book, Elsie Mae Has Something to Say, are perfect examples of how amazing author field trips can be.  And though I wouldn't really want to be responsible for you, especially in a place like the Okefenokee Swamp, I wish everyone could visit this hidden-gem-of-a-place.  To give you a little taste of how amazing my trips to the swamp were, here are some photos:

The Okefenokee Swamp is in the southeastern part of the state of Georgia. There are three places where visitors can enter the swamp and experience its wonders.

The Okefenokee has plenty of adventure.

And it's for real!

Before the Okefenokee became a national wildlife refuge, settlers, called swampers, lived there. Some of the park volunteers grew up in and around the swamp. They happily shared tidbits and stories of the lives they lived as swampers.

Several swamper homesteads have been preserved so that visitors can see what swamper life was really like.

To me, the Okefenokee is a wonderful and mysterious place with a rich and unique history - the perfect setting for a story. My author field trips provided inspiration and firsthand experience about the Okefenokee and the swampers who lived there so that I could tell an authentic story.

Elsie Mae Has Something to Say is the story of how one girl, on the way to becoming a hero, finds out that even when you succeed in saving something for the good of all, there still might be a price everyone has to pay; and sometimes in the end, it might be hard to know if it was all worth it.

So if there's something you'd like to write about, or maybe just something you want to experience or know more about, plan a field trip of your own because field trips aren't just for kids.

Travel on,

Nancy