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January 2007
A Fresh Pair of Eyes
By: Laura Bradford
Creative Writer
If you’ve been reading my column for the past six months, you know I think New Town is pretty cool. I like the design, I like the details, I like the never-ending imagination that’s at work around every corner.
I come here to write. I come here to regroup. I come here to get inspired when my creativity is in desperate need of a jumpstart.
In fact, New Town—and what it does for me—has made it into one of my weekly blog postings (I, along with four other mystery novelists, blog each week on just about everything and anything) which is frequented by writers and readers from across the country.
Thanks to that blog posting, many of my fellow writers know I come here when I’m stuck on a chapter or a plot point. In fact, most writers have a place or a thing that gets them back on track when their thoughts stop meshing with the story they’re telling. New Town just happens to be my place.
So it really came as no surprise when a local writer expressed curiosity about New Town.
My response?
"Come see for yourself."
And he did. I showed him the Prancing Pony and the benches that line the fountains (two of my favorite spots). I showed him the market and the town hall. I showed him the amphitheater and the little shops. I told him about the organic farm that’s in the works and some of the shops that will be coming in soon.
But what was most fun was seeing that expression on his face—the same one I sport every time I land somewhere in New Town with my computer (the one that says, "Look out, I feel the creativity returning").
He had questions—lots of ’em, which I answered to the best of my ability. But there was one question he never asked.
He never asked me "why."
I didn’t have to explain one word about why New Town is my place, why this is where I come to recharge my creative battery. He didn’t ask, because he didn’t need to. He could see it with his own two eyes.
It is virtually impossible to stand in the middle of this community and not get fired up. It’s an ever-present feeling that’s as tangible as the buildings and the streets, the canals and the fountains, the sidewalks and the parks. It’s the kind of feeling that inspires people to dust off their old dreams and look at them with a fresh pair of eyes.
That, to me, is pretty incredible.
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