Fall is my favorite! I’ve loved the cool breeze, the leaves changing colors, cozy sweatshirt & jeans weather, for as long as I can remember. On Saturday morning, I opened the door and discovered several leaves in shades of red on my back steps and it made me really happy. 🙂
This morning, as I was browsing through some old photos of locations from The Truth About Drew, I discovered some wonderful fall photos of Chloe that I had forgotten about. I originally shared some location pictures HERE on Pinterest and there are a couple of her up on Mt. Baldy, one of the most important locations in the book, only the bench she’s on is not the one I pictured while writing the book. So today, when I found these, I was ecstatic.
They were taken in mid-October 2010 when Chloe was 7 at Mt. Baldy Scenic Lookout near Hastings.
The railroad tie steps to the top.
And the very bench from the book. 🙂
I love these so much. Really need to frame the one of her on the bench.
When I look at that bench, I can almost picture Claire and Drew sitting there, her head leaned on his shoulder. This scene comes to mind:
On Sunday afternoon, Claire decided to take a walk up Mt. Baldy. It had been kind of lonely lately without Drew around as much, and she missed his presence. In those quiet moments with him, when no words were necessary, she felt the most like herself. She didn’t really care for the anxious, confused insomniac she had become.
Old leaves from autumns past crunched under her feet as she walked along the familiar path. A squirrel ran across in front of her with a large nut in its mouth. There was rustling in the bushes to her right. Every sound seemed amplified and she was beginning to feel a little paranoid. She had walked this path dozens of times before, but always with Drew. Never alone. Where she normally felt happy and peaceful walking up that hill, now she felt sad and lonely.
She glanced over her shoulder at nothing, then took the old railroad tie steps to the top as quickly as she could. As she pushed past the branches of the big pine tree at the top, she spotted someone sitting on the bench. Her heart nearly burst out of her chest with happiness. She felt like running to embrace him, but she approached slowly, afraid she was dreaming or that it wasn’t actually him. But it was. That sandy blond head of his was bowed forward a bit, his eyes were closed, and it looked as if he was deep in prayer. He opened his eyes and smiled at her without a word.
The Truth About Drew is a young adult novel, but I’ve had so many adults read it and tell me that they were moved to tears. I hope you’ll check it out if you haven’t already. You can get your copy here:
Viewbook.at/TheTruthAboutDrew.
Thanks, guys! Happy reading!