As the non-writer of this group, I really had nothing to say for my blog post today. But then I thought about my girl’s weekend and how we met and it was quite literary.
Thanks to Joanna Campbell Slan, Yifat C., Marla H. and I met when Joanna hosted a gathering of her beta readers to explore the setting of her Kiki Lowenstein series. So off I went to St. Louis, Missouri and had a wonderful weekend of exploration and crafting and I’ve bonded with the two women mentioned above. Bonus is that Yifat and I are both from New York and her husband grew up in the same neighborhood as me. We’ve kept in touch and every year when we had a beta babe event, off we went. . .to Florida to check out the location of Cara Mia, Joanna’s other series and last year, we went to Washington D.C. So, as you can see, books brought us together. Literary.
This year it was just us three women headed out to Boston for a girl’s weekend and as we are walking around the hotel’s neighborhood, who should we walk into. . .Joanna Campbell Slan who was meeting a classmate. Since Joanna’s had some spare time, we invited her to join us in our foray of Boston. How does literary work into this scenario. . .well, we took one of those highlights tour and the first statue that we see is Edgar Allan Poe. How appropriate to see this – my first thought was the Raven Award that was in my possession. Literary.
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| Edgar Allan Poe |
One of the sites I’ve wanted to see was Paul Revere’s house. . .so near to closing time, there we are, with no crowd, checking out his house and I was impressed that he had 16 children who at any one time lived in the house. Then we followed the Freedom Trail to see The North Church which was the site of the light, and the “one if by land, and two if by sea” and it is a magnificent building. Literary because of the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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| Paul Revere’s house |
Other Boston sightings
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| Signage on wall in front of Paul’s house |
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| The front of Paul’s house |
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| The North Church steeple |
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| Signage on The North Church |
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| The North Church |
And in Boston, one must visit the Cheers bar and if you can, eat there as well. The food was delicious.
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| Headed to Cheers for dinner |
Have you ever visited the location of a book that you’ve read? Did it live up to your expectation?
What a great way to re-live all the fun we had in Boston. So glad books brought us together. Many thanks for all your hard work reading and reviewing books for us all to read.
Terrific pictures and a wonderful post. Love it!
What a wonderful time we had in Boston and I love the fact that one of my favorite pastimes, reading books, is what brought all of us together! Your emails and blogs make it so easy to find new authors! Thank you for all you do!
Dru – That looks like so much fun! I am a big fan of British mysteries and had the opportunity to visit the Cotswold's, the setting of the Agatha Raisin mysteries by MC Beaton. I'd have to say it more than lived up to my expectations!
Dru Ann, there's a reason your last name is LOVE. We all love you so much.
Boston is the site of the children's book, Make Way for Ducklings. I love to visit the staTues of those ducklings along a walkway in Boston Commons.
I've also been lucky to visit the home where Jane Austin lived in southern England.
Interesting question! I just published my first novel and researched almost all the locations I used in the book using Google. I felt I knew the locations fairly well. It took me years to finish the book, and have since visited many of the locations I used. I will say, most did meet my expectations.