37 washington park

Over the past two years I’ve had questions about the ‘reality’ of the novel I’ve written. People who think they know whom a character is based on… and it’s not without some merit. My vision – even imaginary – is drawn from the things and people I’ve observed over the years. But, really, I’ve said it before. It’s a vampire novel. This stuff ain’t real.

But there is a scene when Lizzie is talking with a certain character yet to make an appearance on my blog when he says something about the scenery, the job, the circumstance being the same… and that is my confession. The truth is the scenery. Because that let me put all the effort into imagining the people… not where they live.

Lizzie lives in an apartment at the address of Jefferson Park – which is a completely ill attempt at masking the inspiration for such a location as the apartment I lived in for 3 ½ years at Washington Park. It was a Gothic style house, sub-divided at some point in the twentieth century to be a two family house. The Addams Family design seemed appropriate to the sentiment of my novel… but… well, there was also a lot of love and happiness in that apartment, especially with the friends I collected there.

I suppose it is oddly appropriate that I find myself reading/editing a scene where Lizzie is in her bedroom and I visualize the walls and spiral staircase of our old Newton place on this weekend – on the Sunday before Martin Luther King Day. Because… well, weirdly enough, one of my happiest memories of that place comes from that exact day of January.

If you are a reader of this blog and once visited that amazing apartment, you may have had chance to visit it for one of my festive gatherings – indeed, maybe you were there for MLK Day 2007. I remember thinking at one point in my early residence there how appropriate it was for hosting a gathering. It wasn’t Beauport, but, well, as a renter, it was probably the coolest place I could have stumbled upon at that point of my life.

The memories are… not for public display. But the smile of their revisit is. Sadly, I lack a photo of the actual building on my computer. Just a lot of happy (somewhat intoxicated) faces who sat and conversed in the living room and dining room or lingered in the kitchen.  Well those and a few of Georgie Porgie in his various outfits.

Some places leave me and fade away from my recollection – but everything about that apartment, every creaky, dusty detail remains in my memory locked. There were some minor dramas… but overall… it was a very cool place to live.