Acadia National Park Off Season

Bar Harbor, Maine

Over 2 million people visit Acadia National Park in a year; most come in the summer or for fall foliage. My photos from last week’s April break don’t just give an illusion of emptiness. Visit Acadia off season if you want to commune with nature in solitude and skip the entrance fee.

Otter Cliffs, Acadia National Park

Our first day was foggy with rain expected, so we kept to the coastal paths of Mt. Desert Island. You can actually see this view (above) from your car. Most visitors to Acadia don’t bother to step far beyond the Park Loop Road. They are missing a lot. The Rockefellers put in miles of carriage roads, perfect for mountain bikes or easy walking. I’ve heard that they are also great for cross country skiing.

Somes Sound from Mt. Acadia 

To escape the crowds and to get the best views,
climb a mountain.
The view from the bald peak of Acadia Mountain
is well worth the effort.
It is an effort.
My kids (above) are
not standing recklessly at the edge of a cliff.

Here's the trail (photo to left.)
This type of hiking is called scrambling.
Honestly, this is a teenager's idea of fun.
We encountered no one on this mountain, curiously!

Adjacent to Acadia Mountain is Mt. St. Sauveur.
It also has spectacular views without the scramble.
We hiked the two together in one day.
It was only 4 miles, but it took us 4 hours to do the loop trail.
Guess who slowed down the pace?
Other visits we’ve hiked Beech Mountain,
my favorite trail off the beaten path.
There are hikes for all abilities.

View from Mt. St. Sauveur of Greening, Sutton and the Cranberry Islands

After hiking, enjoy Bar Harbor. Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium sells homemade fudge and ice cream, including lobster flavor. Eat pizza while watching a movie at  Reel Pizza. The newly opened Side Street Café has live music, cocktails and tasty veggie burgers and tapenade. For the more gourmet experience, try Mache Bistro, started by a former chef of Havana. Sadly, Havana with its delicious Cuban accented food is closed off season, like most of town. We stayed at the Graycote Inn, which is open year round and discounted off season. The innkeepers serve up a delicious two-course breakfast and homemade cookies with hot cider in the afternoon. Hiking builds an appetite!

Sherman's Book Store, established in 1886, is a must browse.

My vacation reading: Life of Pi by Yann Martel. If you are one of the few who haven't read this Man Booker Prize winning novel, it's about a 16-year-old boy stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger from his father's zoo. Pi must tame the tiger and his fear to survive. He turns to his knowledge of animals and his 3 faiths (Hinduism, Islam and Christianity!) My teenaged son loved it, but my tween daughter didn't. It was published as an adult book in 2001 and is often assigned at school. Adults would appreciate the philosophical nuances.

Life of Pi can be very gory, but I appreciated the realistic portrayal of animal behavior and respect for nature. Both Pi and the tiger are great characters and the writing is sublime. Critically, it didn't really hook me until the second part. Then it was hard to put down. Much of the backstory in the first part could have been woven in as flashbacks, but who am I to criticize a contemporary classic?

Closest to it: The Black Stallion by Walter Farley (a favorite from my childhood) and The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh (literary fiction, one of my favorites now.) 

Blog Watch: I've recently started following Steph Su Reads, written by a Swathmore College student who reviews young adult and middle grade literary fiction. Steph had a brilliant post on What's Missing in YA Lit? I'm encouraged because my YA novel covers a lot of that missing ground, although it isn't published yet. Author Beth Kephart encouraged Steph to submit this article to the NYT Books Section. It really is that good. 

Cliff Trail on Great Island, Maine

Mud season is a great time to hike in Maine. The snow has finally melted by mid April, but the woods are not yet buzzing with insects and tourists. The Cliff Trail is an easy/moderate 2.3-mile loop trail on Great Island in Harpswell. The bare trees afford wonderful views of the water.

To reach the nature sanctuary, drive along the Mountain Road (above) 

to the Harpswell Town Offices. The trailhead is in the far left corner of the parking lot.

  Can you believe this is the view from the parking lot entrance? 

The camera lens flattens the landscape.

I painted the same view of Harpswell Sound, sitting in the marsh at mid-tide.  

The price of a true perspective was paid in blood to the summer mosquitoes.

The Cliff Trail passes tidal estuaries, marshes and thick woods 

before climbing to the cliffs.

 Near the peak, there are signs warning you to hold onto children and to leash your dog. 

Watch out! My friend’s dog once fell off the cliff and had to be rescued.

The view is spectacular (first and above photo.)

The bare rock summit is perfect for a picnic . . .

. . . or to watch the Osprey. . .

. . . build a nest on the island below.

This magical kingdom has ice falls . . .

. . . and fairy houses.

My enchanted daughter watched the surf from Bailey Island
(a 10 minute drive) after lunch at Cook's Lobster House.

Harpswell is a collection of islands and a long neck of land,
extending into the Atlantic Ocean from midcoast Maine.

Blog Watch: 

The Story Siren checked with publishers for 

guidelines on posting book covers when you review a book.  

It's a must read post for book bloggers. 

Note: next week is my kids' spring vacation 

so I'm taking a blog vacation.

Next post: Wednesday April 28.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: interview and review

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters is a haunted house story told by a man of science who doesn’t believe in ghosts. The reader is left to believe or not, based on evidence that unhinges other characters. Set in post World War II rural England, class boundaries are crumbling like the mansion’s foundation.

Dr. Faraday’s mother was once a nanny at Hundreds Hall. He had visited the grand estate as a child and had broken off a decorative acorn from the molding. Even as a boy, he wanted to possess something above him. Now a village doctor, he returns on a medical visit and finds the once stately mansion in poor repair.

The Ayres family cannot afford to maintain Hundreds Hall, although they still employ two domestic servants. The house was occupied by British forces and then left to neglect. The Ayres son was crippled as a wartime pilot; the mother is an aging widow, and the daughter, Caroline, is too plain to marry well. In desperation, they turn to lonely Dr. Farraday for emotional support.

The old aristocratic order is what is truly haunting the narrative. Caroline’s hands are ruined from helping out in the kitchen and on the farm, although she doesn’t mind. Ironically, it is Dr. Farraday who is disgusted by Caroline’s lack of upper class grace as much as he admires her strength.

Sarah Water’s attention to social class and to the subtle nuances of character bring to mind Evelyn Waugh or a dark P.G. Wodehouse. Her writing is beautiful and understated; it fits the era. If you enjoy visiting National Trust Houses or just like an old fashioned ghost story, you’ll love this multi-layered novel.

Like Dr. Farraday, you’ll fall in love with Hundreds Hall:

“I recall most vividly the house itself, which struck me as an absolute mansion. I remember its lovely ageing details: the worn red brick, the cockled window glass, the weathered sandstone edgings. They made it look blurred and slightly uncertain – like an ice, I thought, just beginning to melt in the sun.”

[ice = popsicle in American]

British book blogger dovegreyreader called The Little Stranger one of the best books of 2009. It was short listed for the Man Booker Prize. Sarah Waters blends a scholar’s knowledge of period detail with a novelist’s eye for drama. The narrative drags a bit in the middle, but keep reading. The story builds gradually and will haunt you even after you finish.

My Interview of Sarah Waters

author photo by Charlie Hopkins

Why did you choose the 1940's as the time period for The Little Stranger?

My previous book, The Night Watch, was also set in the 1940s: I finished that novel still really interested in the period; still with things I wanted to explore. In particular, I was fascinated by what had happened to the British class system in the 1940s. It was a time of huge change - a time of new opportunities for the working classes, but a scary time for conservative people, who saw old British hierarchies slipping away. It was that tension and turmoil that I wanted to dramatise. A haunted house story struck me as a good way to do it.

Was Hundreds Hall based on a real house(s), and how did you build it?

Hundreds Hall isn't based on any actual house, but while I was writing the book I tried to visit as many grand old country houses as I could, and I think Hundreds is in some ways a collage of bits of them all. I collected images, too, and drew plans, until I had quite a strong visual sense of the house. I tried to bring it to life for the reader by thinking about detail - the worn bricks, the uneven old window-glass, the scents of the house, the feel of light and shadow inside it - things like that.

Did writing in a male voice present new challenges?

Yes and no. I definitely had to make an effort now and then, to think about how a man would react, the kinds of things he might notice, etc. But then, you always have to do that with a character, regardless of their gender. You always have to make an imaginative leap into your narrator's mind - that's part of your job. So, ultimately, writing a male voice didn't feel as much of an issue as I had expected.

Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal phenomena?

Well, I don't disbelieve in them. I've never had a supernatural experience myself, but I love the idea of the paranormal - I think it makes life more interesting. I'm always fascinated to hear other people's stories; and I really enjoyed writing the spooky scenes in The Little Stranger. I'd like to write another ghost story some time - perhaps one with a contemporary setting. That would be a good challenge.

Was there a special book that made you want to become a novelist too?

Philippa Gregory's first novel, Wideacre, made a huge impact on me when I first read it, about fifteen years ago. It's a really brilliant novel - wildly melodramatic, but also fantastically clever about history, women and power. It got me thinking about historical fiction and what the genre can achieve; that prompted me to return to university and do a PhD, which in turn led to me starting to write historical novels of my own.

What is the best writing advice that you have received?

When I was writing my first novel, Tipping the Velvet, I got a bit stuck. My friend Sally, to console me, said: "Look, it would be a miracle if you just sat down and wrote a perfect novel, from start to finish" - and I realised that she was right. No-one is capable of writing a perfect first draft; most of writing is actually rewriting. A book needs energy, time, and above all patience. I still remember Sally's comment when I get stuck, and it still reassures me.

Reviewer's Disclaimer and Photos: my agent, Jean Naggar, sold the U.S. rights for The Little Stranger. I bought the book without compensation.  Photos are of Rousham House and Gardens and of the St. Martin Church, Bladon where Winston Churchill was buried.  I took the photos during my sabbatical in England.

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Words in the Woods

Often I do my best writing in the woods or in the pool. I start my workday either walking my dog or swimming laps. I’m not a morning person, and I can’t tolerate caffeinated coffee, sadly. A cup of tea and exercise gets my mind going.

On a sunny Saturday, Henry (above) and I explored the Josephine Newman Audubon Sanctuary in Georgetown for the first time. Our kids had opted out to do homework. This stage of parenting is liberating. We were alone in the woods and free to talk without interruption. My English husband and I first met in the USA, but we’ve lived in the UK for three years together, including my junior year abroad and his sabbatical at Oxford University. I’ve been mining these experiences for NOT CRICKET (now renamed A MATCH FOR EVE), but I had put that novel aside to write as u like it.

Returning to NOT CRICKET a year later, I could see why I had gotten stuck. It wasn’t writer’s block, I can always write something, but the narrative was spiraling in too many directions. I had three locations, three main characters, two time periods, clashing dark and humorous elements and enough plot for two books. I’ve had this problem before and labeled it plot sprawl.

As we arrived at the sanctuary, the solution was as clear as the blue sky. All I had to do was cut the superfluous plot string and a marvelous character and save her story for a later book. I was left with a love story between a plucky American and a charming cricket player. The woods became crowded with imaginary people, and I was transported to the opposite shore of the Atlantic.

On a hilltop (photo to right), Henry helped me to walk through the plot points. To his delight, we talked cricket. On Sunday I summarized the story in two pages and described the main characters. On Monday I drafted the first chapter and showed it to Henry.

“I don’t really like it,” Henry said. “I love it!”

I had written myself out of the woods. Now it’s time to shut my office door. Other than the first chapter, I don’t let anyone read my work in progress until the manuscript is complete. Instead of not seeing the forest for the trees, I’m now seeing the story for the pages.

Blog watch: I’ve always loved the name of this creative blog: Walk2Write. Maria Padian posted “Where Stories Begin.”  Marie Mutsuki Mockett blogged about writing her second novel while caring for her newborn in "The Stephen Jay Gould Theory of Writing." Dawn Maria blogged about revising a novel: Alphabet Soup.

Shopping in SoHo

Do you have a special childhood friend who is always there for you? I was packing the car after a  weekend visiting my family in NYC, when Cathy emailed from Pennsylvania. She was coming to the city to find a dress for her son’s bar mitzvah: a fashion emergency! Cathy (right) and I (left) first met in a Central Park playground as toddlers and then went to The Dalton School together for fifteen years. My wonderful husband offered to drive the kids back to Maine on his own.

When we were growing up in Manhattan, SoHo (south of Houston St.) was the art center of the city. Since then, boutique shops have pushed art galleries uptown to lower rent Chelsea. Most downtown shops open at 11:00 AM; Manhattan is not a morning city. We lucked into a beautiful sunny day in the 60s.

Our first stop was Pylones (above) on 69 Spring St. for fun little gifts for my kids. I found bendable pencils in candy stripe colors that made even my teenaged son laugh. Since I was also doing research for my young adult novels, we stopped into Free People on 99 Spring St. Not for us.

When I was a teenager, I shopped at French Connection. I was pleased to see that the store (above) had grown up with me and was catering to adults with a funky style. I found a much needed winter/fall dress more than half off plus a wild turquoise and black spring/fall dress. Cathy needed something dressier.

I needed lunch. We shared an excellent Cobb salad with iced cappuccinos at Delicatessen at 54 Prince Street. The people watching was equally delicious. I love the conversational tidbits a writer can gather in the city. The hostess kindly took our photo (opening shot.)

Cathy found a dress that was almost right at Elie Tahari (to left) at 417 West Broadway. She had no luck in midtown department stores and in pricy Madison Avenue boutiques. On a boutique's racks uptown were only 0’s, 2’s, and 4’s. I said, “My daughter is a zero; she’s twelve years old!” The salesman laughed and found some real women’s sizes.

My friend Jennifer Scanlon, a scholar of fashion, has a theory: “Size zero: what does that say about women? That they want to disappear, not take up any space at all.” I ran into Jen on the plane back to Maine. Jen was born in the Bronx and grew up in around NYC. She now teaches Gender and Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College. She also went shopping in SoHo. She recommended Uniqlo on 546 Broadway for fun tops and multi-colored tights. I’ll have to check it out next visit. I stay with my parents in Yorkville, uptown by the East River. Jen recommends Park79 hotel for its location, cleanliness and affordability.

Where’s your favorite place to shop?