A Day in Newport (Three Days Ago)
Mar. 12th, 2009 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastI haven't much felt like making entries the last few days, and as I was on "vacation," I didn't.
But today it's back to work, and a small mountain of tedium awaits me. I only have to make a molehill of it all by the end of the day.
The time has come that I have to get very serious about beginning the next novel. I'd decided that it would be Joey LaFaye, and I thought, back in December, that it was a hard and fast decision. But now I'm thinking I'm still not ready. I think maybe I know, now, what Neil meant about not writing The Graveyard Book for so long, because he didn't feel as though he was yet a good enough writer to do it justice. I believe that's what has happened to me with Joey LaFaye. I want to write it. I've been attempting to write it for something like three years now. But I'm just not ready. Instead, I will write something else. I do not yet know precisely what, but it might involve the "yellow house" in Providence (see "So Runs the World Away," "The Dead and the Moonstruck," Low Red Moon, Daughter of Hounds, etc.), something concerning the New England vampire hysteria of the 19th Century. But I'm not yet certain. Mother and I are still collating.
Seven days off, and I might actually feel more exhausted than I did beforehand.
The most interesting thing I've done in the last seven days was Sunday's trip to Newport. I have it in my head that the story I need to begin tomorrow will be set there, and, also, I wanted to see the waterfront, which is always too clogged with sweaty, ill-dressed tourists in the summer to bother with. It was warmish and sunny when we left Providence, but by the time we crossed the bridge to Aquidneck Island and reached Newport, clouds had moved in and the day had turned chillier. We parked off Washington Street, then walked south along America's Cup Avenue and Thames Street. I was sorely disappointed, though I should have expected it. I recall having said before how much I want to see a fishing town that is still a fishing town, and not a self-parody, living off tourism. Gloucester is the closest I've gotten. Newport, though, feels like fucking Disney World. Everything is too bright, too stark, too friendly, too not-quite-real. And even in that nasty weather, there were tourists from Connecticut and New York (just not so many you couldn't walk along the sidewalks). But the harbour was nice, and the boats, and we found a wholesale lobster place that didn't mind us strolling about inside amongst the holding tanks and equipment. I think the lobster place was the only thing that actually almost felt real. When we'd finally had enough of tacky gift shops., we drove east to the Redwood Library and Athenaeum (ca. 1747), which is gorgeous. We may be heading back there tomorrow. It's the oldest lending library in America, and the oldest library building in continuous use anywhere in the US. Anyway, there are some photos behind the cut:
Approaching the Claiborne Pell Bridge to Aquidneck Island. View to the southeast.
Boats make me feel better.
Inside the lobster place, I found this dessicated exoskeleton of an Hamarus americanus.
The lobster wholesale place, and it seems that, during the summer, the place also houses gift shops. A shame, that.
Lobsters! A few were really huge, and there were also rock crabs in the tanks.
Looking across Newport Harbour to Goat Island, view to the southwest. I love that shot of the sky.
This scruffy little black boat just sort of made me love it.
Sails on the harbour. View to the southwest.
All photographs Copyright © 2009 by Caitlín R. Kiernan
But today it's back to work, and a small mountain of tedium awaits me. I only have to make a molehill of it all by the end of the day.
The time has come that I have to get very serious about beginning the next novel. I'd decided that it would be Joey LaFaye, and I thought, back in December, that it was a hard and fast decision. But now I'm thinking I'm still not ready. I think maybe I know, now, what Neil meant about not writing The Graveyard Book for so long, because he didn't feel as though he was yet a good enough writer to do it justice. I believe that's what has happened to me with Joey LaFaye. I want to write it. I've been attempting to write it for something like three years now. But I'm just not ready. Instead, I will write something else. I do not yet know precisely what, but it might involve the "yellow house" in Providence (see "So Runs the World Away," "The Dead and the Moonstruck," Low Red Moon, Daughter of Hounds, etc.), something concerning the New England vampire hysteria of the 19th Century. But I'm not yet certain. Mother and I are still collating.
Seven days off, and I might actually feel more exhausted than I did beforehand.
The most interesting thing I've done in the last seven days was Sunday's trip to Newport. I have it in my head that the story I need to begin tomorrow will be set there, and, also, I wanted to see the waterfront, which is always too clogged with sweaty, ill-dressed tourists in the summer to bother with. It was warmish and sunny when we left Providence, but by the time we crossed the bridge to Aquidneck Island and reached Newport, clouds had moved in and the day had turned chillier. We parked off Washington Street, then walked south along America's Cup Avenue and Thames Street. I was sorely disappointed, though I should have expected it. I recall having said before how much I want to see a fishing town that is still a fishing town, and not a self-parody, living off tourism. Gloucester is the closest I've gotten. Newport, though, feels like fucking Disney World. Everything is too bright, too stark, too friendly, too not-quite-real. And even in that nasty weather, there were tourists from Connecticut and New York (just not so many you couldn't walk along the sidewalks). But the harbour was nice, and the boats, and we found a wholesale lobster place that didn't mind us strolling about inside amongst the holding tanks and equipment. I think the lobster place was the only thing that actually almost felt real. When we'd finally had enough of tacky gift shops., we drove east to the Redwood Library and Athenaeum (ca. 1747), which is gorgeous. We may be heading back there tomorrow. It's the oldest lending library in America, and the oldest library building in continuous use anywhere in the US. Anyway, there are some photos behind the cut:
Approaching the Claiborne Pell Bridge to Aquidneck Island. View to the southeast.
Boats make me feel better.
Inside the lobster place, I found this dessicated exoskeleton of an Hamarus americanus.
The lobster wholesale place, and it seems that, during the summer, the place also houses gift shops. A shame, that.
Lobsters! A few were really huge, and there were also rock crabs in the tanks.
Looking across Newport Harbour to Goat Island, view to the southwest. I love that shot of the sky.
This scruffy little black boat just sort of made me love it.
Sails on the harbour. View to the southwest.
All photographs Copyright © 2009 by Caitlín R. Kiernan
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 04:50 pm (UTC)as much as we would love to read JLaF, we wouldn't want a premature birth. if a proper gestating period is required, then so be it. we'll wait. good vibes. good vibes.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 04:58 pm (UTC)if a proper gestating period is required, then so be it. we'll wait. good vibes. good vibes.
Thank you for being patient!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 04:55 pm (UTC)Assuming you're not too busy/exhausted/distracted to respond to comments, I'd be interested to hear how you experience this "not ready"-ness. And how will you know when you _are_ ready? Will it be by some personal scale of quality evident on other, finished projects or as part of some more internal, personal experience?
Thanks.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:02 pm (UTC)Assuming you're not too busy/exhausted/distracted to respond to comments, I'd be interested to hear how you experience this "not ready"-ness. And how will you know when you _are_ ready? Will it be by some personal scale of quality evident on other, finished projects or as part of some more internal, personal experience?
I honestly don't know the answers to these questions. Not really. I have never made a science, or even a craft, of writing. It's just something I do. So, here, I have to fall back on some vague word like "instinct" (which is to say, some psychological state not yet understood). It's a thing I feel in my "gut." And, also, it's knowing that when I finally do get around to writing the novel that I want to do the best job possible, because it will only be written just that once. I have to trust my instincts that tell me I'll know when I'm ready.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:22 pm (UTC)Given how much I enjoy the finished product, I'm anxious not to disturb the mysterious process by which it is accomplished.
Thanks - as always, Caitlin - for your time. And good hunting.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:33 pm (UTC)by which I mean that instinct trumps flowcharts every time in my book)
* shudder * Flowcharts....
Seriously, I cannot even begun to fathom how one uses a flowchart to write a novel.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 06:35 pm (UTC)Or that "wheel of plot" thing that Stephen King said was sold in the 1920s: spin the wheel and get a plot development! *shudders, shudderingly*
I'll second the joy at that cloudlit* sky. The shot also makes me wonder how much Lovecraft wrote about his feelings about Rhode Island. Did he ever talk directly about that? As in his letters and essays, not in his fiction?
I'm pretty sure Joey LaFaye will wait until it's ready, as well as until you're ready. Besides, it'd be really obnoxious of me to pretend to the Boss Of You and say "No! It must get written now!"
____
*Or should that be "lit cloud"? I don't want to imply the clouds are giving light. Crap, I'm mixign a metaphor somewhere (plus imitating your old writer's self badly)...
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 06:41 pm (UTC)Did he ever talk directly about that? As in his letters and essays, not in his fiction?
Yeps. Lots in his letters.
Besides, it'd be really obnoxious of me to pretend to the Boss Of You and say "No! It must get written now!"
Spooky is the sole Boss of Me.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 06:45 pm (UTC)I'll see what I can find. Portland libraries should have at least some of that.
Spooky is the sole Boss of Me.
And I'm sure she takes the job very, very seriously. (But she probably doesn't use flowcharts.)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 06:47 pm (UTC)And I'm sure she takes the job very, very seriously. (But she probably doesn't use flowcharts.)
Mostly, she uses harsh language, coupled with an almost unfathomably complex reward/punishment system.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:04 pm (UTC)I'd read that. And while I'd also like to read Joey LaFaye, I would like best to read the Joey LaFaye that you feel you have written as it deserves. I can wait.
I am very glad you got boats and lobsters.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:06 pm (UTC)I am very glad you got boats and lobsters.
Sadly, no boat was actually boarded, and no lobsters was actually eaten.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:11 pm (UTC)Okay. This summer we are totally going to Maine.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:14 pm (UTC)This summer we are totally going to Maine.
Yes, please.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:06 pm (UTC)I'd be very interested to see how you'd write about the Browns and the Tillinghasts.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:13 pm (UTC)I, for one, would be very interested in a book about the New England vampire hysteria. I read Michael Bell's Food for the Dead several times.
Great book. Spooky actually went to school with a descendant of Mercy Brown's family.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:21 pm (UTC)Hell, even TAPS is headquartered there!
The boyfriend and I have been toying with the idea of going up there for a week or so. He has a liking for the place, since he visited often when his sister was at Brown. Any suggestions of particularly neat/spooky things to check out would be appreciated. ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:32 pm (UTC)The boyfriend and I have been toying with the idea of going up there for a week or so. He has a liking for the place, since he visited often when his sister was at Brown. Any suggestions of particularly neat/spooky things to check out would be appreciated. ;)
Hmmm. Well, Woonsocket gives me the willies. I tend to see spookiness in places other people don't, not so much the expected, supposedly spooky places (i.e., Mercy Brown's grave, etc.). College Hill in Providence is great, though, and many of the graveyards.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:36 pm (UTC)Is the Swan Point cemetery security fuhrer still chasing off visitors with cameras?
Also, if I still lived in FL, I'd try to convince Kat and Chris to come up with us. :P
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:51 pm (UTC)This whole state is creepy. Rent a car and drive around and you're bound to end up somewhere interesting.
The big cemetery (North Burial Ground?) on North Main St. is better than Swan Point for grave reading. It has many more interesting inscriptions, and is much friendlier to visitors.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 05:52 pm (UTC)(And we'll probably be driving up anyway, so yay!)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 06:07 pm (UTC)Some useful cemetery information.
I've found that once you get back a few blocks from the touristy areas of any of the older towns (like Newport), you begin to see the real place. It's worth it to check out the outskirts of places like that.
There's a paved walking/biking trail that goes through The Great Swamp. You start at the Amtrak Station in Kingston, where there is always free parking. It's a beautiful place with a chilling history. The old library in Kingston is a favorite of mine.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 06:44 pm (UTC)Well, you have piqued my interest. I am still catching up with all your work, probably will be for a while, but it won't stop me from grabbing the new stuff as it gets released.
It would be great if vacations could be restful. Seems like they are often more tiring than work-weeks. :/
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 08:11 pm (UTC)It would be great if vacations could be restful. Seems like they are often more tiring than work-weeks. :/
Maybe that's why I take so few.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-13 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 07:17 pm (UTC)At least your break has you feeling more sly.
Looking across Newport Harbour to Goat Island, view to the southwest. I love that shot of the sky.
Now, were this tinted slightly red, it would perfectly resemble the moment in your novels when absolutely everything goes completely to fucking hell.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 08:08 pm (UTC)"They're starting to open up the sky.
They're starting to reach down through.
And it feels like we're living in that split-second
of a car crash,
And time is slowing down."
Fishing village
Date: 2009-03-12 07:22 pm (UTC)Re: Fishing village
Date: 2009-03-12 08:10 pm (UTC)If you're after a fishing village that still is a fishing village, I recommend a trip to the northern end of Cape Breton Island- follow the Cabot trail from Ingonish to Cheticamp and you're likely to find what you seek.
Spooky and I have been talking about a very long drive to Nova Scotia.