My novel in progress begins in Naples around 1900, in a palazzo on the bay. So I’m looking at images of the time and found this by Ivan Aivazovsky, an astonishingly prolific Armenian landscape painter who lived from 1817-1900. In my years in Naples I never saw quite such a sunset, but it doesn’t matter. The Tahitian sky, the romance of ruined castle, the plane trees leaning, the sun-fires on Vesuvius, sail boats skimming the silky sea, they’re all things to dream on. And those dimly seen people in the foreground, what’s their story?
Pamela Schoenewaldt, historical novels of immigration and the search for self in new worlds: WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS, SWIMMING IN THE MOON, and UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY (all HarperCollins).
pamelaschoenewaldt.com 
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