Diary of a Staycation: Day 2

It’s cold today.  Really cold.  So I confess my level of productivity was diminished from intention quite a bit – mostly by the desire to keep close to the warmth of the fire I’ve built in the wood stove.  Indeed, my view for a more significant part of the day has been this.

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While it was building and gaining momentum I did sit at the table and write another six pages.  Another scene in 1773 and another one in 1904.  I don’t know if it is good to be so scattered with my focus.  I am trying to cram a lot into the 18^th century novel, but mostly the speculation that the rebels of Massachusetts weren’t much concerned with the rights of women or men of color when they started dumping tea and refuting taxes.  I had a thought when I returned to this manuscript to introduce a new character – an outsider visiting from London… which in spite of all I’ve been taught about the tyranny of the Mother Country, was a little more progressive than the Commonwealth.  Slavery was outlawed on English soil (obviously not in the rest of the empire) in 1772.  It was where Mary Wollstonecraft was growing into an educated woman, empowering herself with the experience and knowledge to vindicate the rights of women at the end of the century.  A freedom, certainly, that came with the luxury of wealth… and so my new character has that.  But I don’t want her to be distracting… more a catalyst to the underlying worry of my heroine.  Anyway, I like this character and the inner monologue she inspired me to give the main character.

My second scene grabbed the main theme of the novel set in the early 20^th century.  I am fascinated by the Irish and Catholic culture of the city where my Irish American ancestors were born, married, and went to church.  It was a safe haven that preserved their ethnicity – and probably gave legitimacy to the fear of papists.  But in the modern retrospect of the hypocrisy of priests and church leaders who demanded purity and innocence while committing abuses behind closed doors.  This is an uplifting book, can’t you tell? 

So another 1500 words contemplating those ideas, mostly through dialogue.

Not a lot of other noteworthy activity.  I fell down a rabbit hole searching for recipes to inspire my contemplation of the 18^th century.  Nothing inspired me to cook today, even the idea of warming the kitchen with the oven on.  But I did find a few dishes that inspired me to host an 18^th century dinner at some point this spring.  Would Patriots Day weekend be too cliché?

I decided to bring up the working turntable (there are two others that aren’t working) from the cellar.  I have rediscovered a few albums of my own as we do the great house purge and it would be nice to give those a listen in the coming months – to help me determine if I really need to keep them or give them away. 

Amongst the records, I found the label of a mix tape – though not the mix tape itself, which is probably in another box in a closet somewhere.  I find it amusing, nevertheless, to see what I found worthy enough to record from the radio in 1984.  Also amusing is the fact there is actually white out on this label, where I rewrote or re-recorded a song.

I shall end this day as it began.  Keeping warm in front of the fire.  But I’ve decided to throw one of my last pieces of turf on the fire – so I can pretend it is a raw damp cold of my favorite island and not the bone chilling Artic freeze of a freakish January day in Massachusetts (it will jump up forty degrees by mid week).  A wee dram of whiskey goes well with the peaty smell.

Slainte.