50 years ago this coming fall, John Steinbeck embarked on a road trip with his French poodle Charley, on a tour to “find America” in 1960.
Steinbeck traveled the U.S. in a specially built pickup truck with a camper attachment in the bed of the truck. He dubbed it “Rocinante” – after the hapless Don Quixote’s horse (written by Cervantes).
I recently visited our library and found they had an original 1962 issue of Travels with Charley: In Search of America. It showed every one of it 48 years of being on the shelf.
I first read Travels with Charley some twenty years ago. After re-reading it I felt like I saw it with new eyes from a whole new perspective and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Although I can’t take 3 months off to travel the route Steinbeck did, I am planning a long weekend trip to follow the same route Steinbeck did, at least through the New England portion of the trip.
I don’t think I’ll go all the way down to Long Island and start from Sag Harbor, taking the ferry back. I think I’ll just go down to Groton, CT, and start from there. I’ll follow his route through Massachusetts, up into Maine and to Deere Isle of course. Then I’ll go up to the northern most part of Maine, over to NH and through VT. If I have the time (and the inclination) I might head over to Niagara, New York.
In beginning my research to try and replicate Steinbeck’s route as closely as possible, I found an original vintage 1960 Shell Station Northeastern United States Road Map, at an antique store. It only cost $7.50 and I should get it in the mail in a week or so.
I think starting out on September 23rd, as he did, would be a colorful time of year to travel this route in this region of the country.
I used to walk past his beautiful and unique home almost every day when I worked in Cambridge. I was lucky enough to meet him once several years ago.
It was a beautiful early summer day. He was walking towards me on Ash St., with a small bag in his hand looking as though he had come from one of the local shops on Brattle St. It just so happened that we ended up face-to-face at the front gate to his home.
I said, “Hello Mr. Parker. I don’t want to bother you other than to say I really like and appreciate your novels.”
He said, “Thank you, it’s never a bother when someone likes my work.” He shook my hand as he said it. He then added, “Enjoy this beautiful day.”
I said, “I will and hope you do the same.”
“I will from the comfort of my writing desk”, he said.
With a wave it was over. He went into his house and I continued up the block. I then stopped short. I wanted to kick myself. I had always promised if I ever got a chance to meet Robert Parker, I’d ask him why he only had one gargoyle on the second story balcony. Now I’ll never know…
This pic is the front gate at which we met. Notice the lone gargoyle on the right side of the upper balcony.
Mystery novelist, Michael Connelly was doing final research in Hong Kong in preparation of promoting his new novel “Nine Dragons”, when he learned of a real life mystery eerily similar to the one in his book. Unlike his book, this real mystery has not been solved.
The saying goes that life imitates art. But that’s the last thing you want when you write crime fiction. You never want to see the things you write about mirrored back to you in real life.
Chungking Mansions is a well-known place to many travelers to Asia. It is sort of a modern Casablanca, a crossroads of the world. It is several cut-rate hotels housed in one large and old building, and all of it above a world bazaar where dozens of languages are spoken, and food and other comfort items from almost any country in Asia can be found and purchased. It is the kind of place…where I checked my back repeatedly when I walked through while researching the book.
The real mystery as well as the fictional one began in the Chunking Mansions
Ani Ashekian was a veteran traveler who enjoyed solo journeys from Toronto, Canada. She came to Hong Kong after visiting mainland China and stayed in a hotel at the Chungking Mansions.
You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Harlan Ellison in a serious yet hysterical bit on paying writers for the work they do. For anyone familiar with Harlan, his language can be pretty rough – this is no exception:
Let’s face it folks books are on the decline. Like it, love it or be indifferent about it – it is the future. Especially in grade schools, colleges and universities the common book is becoming obsolete and is not the best teaching aid. It is too static and not readily changeable.
As future generations of children grow up and go to school, more and more of them will embrace the newer technologies as normal and text books will pass into history. It is the older generations that will need to adapt to the changes.
Okay, I thought it was impressive to turn out a 75,000 word novel in 30 days as is done during the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November. So how impressive is it to write a 130,000 word book in 48 hours!!!
That’s what two Chinese writers did within hours of the death of Michael Jackson, as reported in China Daily.
Michael Jackson died on June 25th. Within a few hours of his death, writers Jiang Xiaoyu and Xing Han were contacted to write Jackson’s biography; despite never having met the pop star. They turned off their phones, grabbed some cigarettes and coffee and locked themselves in a room.
After 48 hours with no sleep, they emerged with a book titled Moonwalk in Paradise. It was published by Chinese publishing house Xiandai and was on the shelves in Chinese book stores by July 4th.
And here I thought American publishers were moving quickly to get similar books on the shelves by this August.
This type of publishing is called “Instant Books”. To read the whole story and the opinions of young Chinese readers about this type of publication see the China Daily article…
San Francisco Chronicle journalist Pia Chatterjee has written a great article offering writer’s advice on what it takes to write the first draft of a novel.
The novel that I am working on right now, sitting by the heater in single bedroom in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, started in March 2007, in a cafe in the sunset district. I had been saving money for years by that time, not really knowing what I was putting it away for, until one day my dreams for myself came head to head with the reality of my working life. Much happened in those months in early 2007, but here’s the exciting part…Read More
John Scalzi is a Science Fiction novelist and Hugo Awardnominee. In his popular writer’s blog ‘Whatever’ he talks about what you really need to sacrifice in order to be a writer.
“Got a letter today from an aspiring novelist who is wondering if wanting to write means that one has to be willing to sacrifice a great deal for one’s writing and craft. Because one hears of writers who have made great sacrifices in order to work on their writing, including giving up jobs, friends and spouses in order to put their words into being. Does one have to be willing to put that all on the line for one’s art?”
Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 78 and lived in Manhattan and Roxbury, Conn.
