Writer's Block, NYC
We spent two nights in New York City during our road trip.
I’d been hoping to stay at the Algonquin Hotel, that haven for writers from the 1920s on, who met as part of the Algonquin Round Table, which also features a resident cat named Matilda.
The Algonquin also offers a Writer’s Block special, offering 25 per cent off their best rate if you present a work in progress or a published work. Unfortunately, we were told that this rate was for prior reservations only, and not offered on the spot, though we both showed up with manuscripts in hand.
We ended up at the Clarion Park Avenue. This hotel may not have as storied a history, boast a pet or offer the chance to meet other writers. What it did do for me, however, was provide an intense bout of inspiration.
I woke up the next morning directly out of a dream of a brand new murder mystery, a story whose bare bones were all laid out for me – all I had to do was take notes.
The only catch is that the detective in the story is Hercule Poirot. I’ll have to come up with my own detective, with his own nationality. I hope I succeed better than Agatha Christie's foil, Ariadne Oliver and her Finn...
I’d been hoping to stay at the Algonquin Hotel, that haven for writers from the 1920s on, who met as part of the Algonquin Round Table, which also features a resident cat named Matilda.
The Algonquin also offers a Writer’s Block special, offering 25 per cent off their best rate if you present a work in progress or a published work. Unfortunately, we were told that this rate was for prior reservations only, and not offered on the spot, though we both showed up with manuscripts in hand.
We ended up at the Clarion Park Avenue. This hotel may not have as storied a history, boast a pet or offer the chance to meet other writers. What it did do for me, however, was provide an intense bout of inspiration.
I woke up the next morning directly out of a dream of a brand new murder mystery, a story whose bare bones were all laid out for me – all I had to do was take notes.
The only catch is that the detective in the story is Hercule Poirot. I’ll have to come up with my own detective, with his own nationality. I hope I succeed better than Agatha Christie's foil, Ariadne Oliver and her Finn...
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