Inspirational settings
Bay State sites inspire local writers’ creativity
There’s a road in downtown Plymouth called Bradford Street and every time I walk down it am plunged into the plot and character in a book I’m dreaming up.
The tiny former fishermen’s shack houses, the glimmer of the harbor just feet away always inspire me.
Which makes you wonder: Do authors seek destinations for inspiration? Here in the Bay State, even in pandemic times, successful authors have been and continue to do just that.
From cozy inns to busy street fronts to — but of course — beaches, the muse of local writers is indeed our own lovely Massachusetts.
We checked in on a few up-and-coming local authors to find out what they’ve been working on, why they love our state and just where they find their writing inspiration.
Kim Savage: When your method of writing is immersion, you might assume living in a North Shore suburb would require some traveling to find locations rich, woodsy and unique enough to inspire you.
Not so, says successful Young Adult author Kim Savage (https://linktr.ee/ kimsavageauthor). In fact, many of the lush, rich and detailed scenes in her books (where nature and location always play vital parts) were inspired not too far from home at all.
“I am all about immersion:
I can’t write about ‘place’ without being drenched in it,” she explained.
“Luckily, I live close to the Middlesex Fells Reservation, 2,200 acres of urban forest and wetlands, with quirky sites that kindle my imagination,” she said.
Savage has found in those acres things like an old sheepfold, a medieval-looking fire tower, and a secret, turn-of-the-century tennis court built to circumvent a ban on Sunday sports.
“The Fells is the site of the abduction in my first novel — the woods in ‘After the Woods’ — and makes an appearance again in the novel I just completed,” she said.
She’s also found that revisiting spots like that — just as it would for the local person just out to experience discovery in itself — presents new views with each visit.
“I am obsessed with the idea of the forest as a place of change,” she said. “Whereas in my first novel, the Fells is a place to fear, in my fourth, it’s a place of magical transformation, in the tradition of ‘As You Like It,’ ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’; you get it. It’s a motif I return to, again and again. I can’t seem to stay out of the woods.”
Jennifer Dupee: For Massachusetts born and raised author Jennifer Dupee (www.jenniferdupee.com), the notion of meandering
the streets of her favorite towns to take in the architecture and ambiance of the many old homes is nothing new: she’s loved walking by them and imagining life inside nearly her entire life.
That reflects directly in her work, including her newest novel, “The Little French Bridal Shop.”
“I grew up on the North Shore of Boston and it’s a place to which I often return to seek renewal,” she said.
“My grandmother lived for many years in the seaside town of Beverly Farms and my aunt and uncle had a house in Manchester-by-the-Sea. It’s a setting that is deeply ingrained in my psyche and one I drew on as I created my fictional town and embarked on the opening pages of my book,” she said.
When you read it, you may feel at home if you know that region well. If you’ve not visited before, you’ll find actual spots the setting was based on when you do.
“I had this vision of a regal house up on a hill and I intuited that my protagonist had inherited the house. The house is loosely based on a house that stands at one end of West Beach in Beverly Farms,” she said.
There are little details that draw from local travels Dupee has experienced as well. Talk about details: the wallpaper mentioned in her book, she said, was inspired by wallpaper that used to be in the Emerson Inn in Rockport (www.emersoninnbythesea.com).
“I wrote one of my first scenes in their dining room,” she said.
Francisco Stork: While his books take place in a variety of locations, if you get a little Cape Cod vibe in between the lines, there’s a reason: All of Francisco Stork’s books (www.franciscostork.com) were written in a home looking out over the expanse that is Falmouth.
It’s what being there (West Falmouth to be exact) in itself does for him, Stork said, that makes it such a great spot for inspiration.
“It is a place where I can recover the spirit of play and risk-taking that makes writing both fun and adventurous,” he said.
Beach walks with his grandson, perhaps some sea kayaking, or even just exploring the rugged shore and marshlands of the town keeps his creative energy flowing.
You’ll find that spirit, he said, in his new book “On the Hook,” which debuts May 18 and was written at that West Falmouth locale.
There are more examples too: Claire Cook and Scituate (as well as its surrounding towns). Elin Hilderbrand and the Cape. For a grittier take, Andre Dubus III and both his gripping memoir and “The House of Sand and Fog.”
Local authors know this: They need not hop a plane for literary inspiration. Follow their lead.