This is the scene from the Valhalla B & B,
near L’anse aux Meadows where Annie Proulx stayed for a year and wrote Shipping News. After a long drive, and a quick visit to the viking ruins at the national park historical site, we felt cold and tired and I spontaneously and unknowingly chose this special place to stay. A magical coincidence. While sitting in the bedroom that could have been hers, I looked over some 30 copy edit notes on this book: 
I can’t say the creative spirit was really needed or used for this job. Still will Newfoundland inspire any new
stories?
Who can tell? What I can say is that I wanted to be a different person after visiting. Someone heartier, more entrepreneurial, I wanted to plant rhubarb and potatoes, to knit mittens and hats, make jam from wild berries, and paint the outside of my clapboard sunroom pink.
Instead, I read more, threw myself into a locally set story I’m writing and ignored all those physical tasks that Newfoundland inspired me into wanting to accomplish. The rock made me want to be a different person. Writing makes me become someone else. Travel connects the writer into the possibility of an another identity.
And really, how can I not be affected by images such as this:
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