Day 27 – Bronx Opera House Hotel & (former) Concourse Plaza Hotel
436 E 149th St, Bronx & Grand Concourse and 161st St, Bronx

An historic day, for a couple of reasons.
It occurred to me that so far all the hotels that have given birth to Roger Spoffin’s latest epic adventure have been located on Manhattan (save for the Book Cadillac in Detroit). There are good reasons for this, obviously. But the rest of New York has been around for a while too.
So I Googled ‘Historic hotels the Bronx’ and realized immediately why I haven’t been heading up there whenever I wanted to put pen to paper. But there were two. Kinda.

The Bronx Opera House opened in 1913 and in its early years featured Houdini and the Marx Brothers (the comedians – not the self-proclaimed hero of the working classes and his little known, less despotic sibling). It was the centre of culture in the Bronx. But this was a long, long time ago. It survived until around 2004 as a church, but like much of South Bronx had fallen into decay. The hotel opened only last year and I headed there full of hopes to see an historic gem, converted to new use, perhaps the lobby where the stage was, the pool in the orchestra pit. No luck. All that remains is the façade. And the name over the door with a few posters inside. The link to the past is tentative.
Nevertheless, the dudes on the front desk were very cool and after I’d explained what I was there for they let me in to help myself to complimentary coffee in the ‘guests-only’ breakfast bar (memories of the Washington Square Hotel came flooding back).

Then, I walked up to the Concourse Plaza Hotel. This former luxury hotel on the hill above Yankee Stadium was opened in 1922 and famously hosted a young JFK in 1960 when he was the Democratic candidate for the Presidency. But it was already on a downward slide then (which wasn’t helped a decade later by the catastrophic deterioration of the neighbourhood – type ‘Burning of the Bronx’ into Google to see what I mean). It’s been a nursing home since 1974, and not surprisingly it’s a nursing home that doesn’t permit random authors to write Middle Grade fantasy adventure novels in its former lobby. No matter. I managed to physically enter the building – through the ‘buzz me in’ security door but that was as far as I could go. And, unlike the former Hotel Theresa in Harlem, there was no White Castle for me to dine in. So, I worked in the park opposite and let the shadow of the hotel pass over me.

So, three ‘First’s’ were achieved that day.
First New York hotel outside of Manhattan.
First time I wrote at two hotels in the same day.
First time I didn’t actually write a single word inside a hotel.

Today’s word count: 2587

Word count to date: 66,130

  • The Bronx Opera House Hotel. Pretty much what you see here is all that remains of the original opera house.

  • The Author enjoying his complimentary coffee.

  • The news that morning. First strike inside Syria.

  • An original poster in the lobby.

  • Many famous performers featured at the Bronx Opera House.

  • The Concourse Plaza from the very pleasant park where I worked on a beautiful Autumn morning.

  • Panorama from the Bronx courthouse on the left, Yankee Stadium and the Plaza Concourse Hotel far right.

  • Guests no longer check out of this place.

  • The insalubrious entrance.

 
Details

Day 26 – The Grand Hyatt

East 42 Street

Another massive mid-city hotel but this place holds a special significance for me, as it was the location of the first children’s book writers and illustrators conference I attended in New York.

Way back in Feb of 2013, when we’d been in town barely 24 hours, I headed here for three days with my portfolio tucked under my arm. Back then it was all Widodo the tree kangaroo, but whether it was due to a latent hostility towards marsupials in the target readership, or perhaps his adventures were just a little too cutting edge at the time, or maybe the story just totally sucked, the project got no takers.

So it was with a hint of sadness, I must confess, I re-entered this modern marvel of a hotel. Not only that, but having worked at a Hyatt many years ago, I am always struck by a slightly nostalgic air whenever I see their logo and I remember a simpler, more innocent time. Actually, not that innocent, come to think of it.

Once Roger got underway, however, all nostalgia and marsupial reminisces faded from memory (not unlike Widodo’s particular species one day, should they keep cutting down his habitat. Avoid the palm oil if you can, folks) as the plucky 14 year-old hero continued his epic quest against the forces which will do him harm (and an awful lot of London too, if I can reveal so much of the upcoming tale so soon).

Today’s word count: 2158

Word count to date: 63,543

  • A great shot of a very modern hotel.

  • The vast, stretching lobby.

  • The Author, at breakfast.

  • Grapefruit brûlée – one of the most amazing breakfasts I’ve ever had.

  • Jaume Plensa’s sculptures adorn the lobby

  • Looking up at the lobby from the entrance on 42nd Street.

 
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Day 25 – The Lexington

511 Lexington Avenue

‘Fly me to the Moon’

It was raining in New York, really raining hard, when I headed from the Rockefeller Center across 5th, Madison and Park, past the Waldorf-Astoria, to the Lexington (on Lexington Avenue, of course, though the folks round here call it ‘Lex’). There’s something about navigating the city in the rain, giving the doorman a nod as you fumble with your umbrella on your way to the lobby of a big New York Art Deco hotel then hearing Frankie (who’s pad was nearby) singing one of his classics. It don’t get cosier than that.

A lot of business gets done at the Lexington. You can just feel it. Highest concentration of iBooks I’ve ever seen outside of an Upper West Side Starbucks. Coffee cups everywhere (take-away believe it or not, as the hotel has no service in the lobby) and heaps of guys and gals in suits interviewing, selling, reading the NYTimes.
But in one corner of the room, Roger Spoffin’s latest exhilarating adventures in the sands of Persia (I daren’t give away too much) took shape. Three hours later, just as I was winding up, Frankie’s smooth voice came back on.

Fly me to the moon? Nah, I’ll take New York.

Today’s word count: 2958

Word count to date: 63,543

  • The Lexington on Lexington

  • My pano hasn’t done the crowd in the lobby any favours

  • Autumn rains outside. Old Blue Eyes playing in the lobby. Perfect

  • Unfortunately, there’s no service in the lobby so I had to drag this in with me

  • Art at the Lexington

  • Relief in the cafe (where I found coffee)

  • In the gents

 
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Days 22, 23 & 24
Washington Square Hotel
Gansevort Hotel
The Peninsula

104 days of summer vacation is not something to laugh about. I had to restrain myself from throwing my arms in the air and yelling ‘Freedom!’ when our three treasures finally went back to school. It’s hard to sit writing in hotel lobbies with three children buzzing around. Now, the summer gone, I could begin hitting the hotels again and by week’s end another 10,000 words had poured forth onto the iPad.
In brief, here’s how it panned out.

Day 22 – Washington Square Hotel
103 Waverly Place

Bob Dylan lived at this little hotel in the early 60’s in room 305, when it was the Hotel Earle. I popped in and walked through to the very casual café at the back, and asked the server for a coffee. He said to help yourself. Tres casual, I thought. Very airport hotel vibe before you catch a shuttle. I grabbed a coffee and a bagel for good measure and set to work. A couple of hours later I tried to pay, and the server asked if I was staying in the hotel. No, says I. Oh, says he, genuinely bemused. Seems the café (and goods within) are just for the guests of the hotel and free of charge. Laughs all round. Not wishing to besmirch my good-natured Australian reputation (I’d just been praised for my honesty, you see), I offered a $5 tip and said, I’d be back tomorrow. Great laughs!
Do try it sometime at the Washington Square Hotel. They’re very pleasant there.
Daily word count: 2935

Day 23 – Gansevort Hotel
18 9th Avenue

Uber hip Chelsea digs. Not far from the Standard and the markets and with cobblestones on each side. Coffee and pancakes, sitting beside a large plate-glass window with the sun streaming in did wonders for the hourly word count, which ended up being the best I’ve ever done. It’s got a fabulous pool on the roof too (but of course I didn’t get to see that).
Daily word count: 2870

Day 24 – The Peninsula
700 5th Avenue

Another Beaux Arts hotel on Fifth Ave directly across the road from the St Regis (which is also a very nice place to work). Wasn’t as productive a morning as usual as I got talking to a chap from Switzerland who was in town to oversee the production of the second series of a tv show. This fellow also ran an orphanage in India and had done all manner of extraordinary things in that country, so I got distracted. But that’s one of the risks the author-at-large faces in New York. You keep running into amazing folk.
Daily word count: 2069

Total word count to date: 58, 427

  • Happily working away with the free food & coffee

  • The Washington Square Hotel

  • NY University film-makers in Washington Square

  • More NYU film-makers in Washington Square

  • Ultra-groovy Gansevort. There’s a v hip pool up there on the roof.

  • Everything is cool. Everything is hip. There’s even a panda bleeding black blood.

  • iPhone iPad Coffee – Gansevort style

  • Bond art in the Gansevort

  • A beautiful, intimate space in the Gansevort

  • The magnificent imposing entrance of the Peninsula

  • The intimate interior of the Peninsula

  • Breakfast at the Peninsula’s long table

  • Nearly bought one. Put a deposit on a Manhattan apartment instead.

 
Details

Day 21 – Marriott Marquis
1535 Broadway.

“If you want to make an omelette, you’ve got to break some eggs.”
So said that doomed Robespierre and broken eggs come to mind when you dig into the story behind the massive Marriot Marquis.

This place has no historical literary associations whatsoever that I can uncover. Type ‘Marriott Marquis Great Authors’ into Google and you won’t be overwhelmed. However, try ‘Marriott Marquis Historic Theatre Destruction’ and you’ll find yourself in much more fertile soil. You see, no less than five old Broadway theatres were demolished to build this 2000 room space-age monster. When it opened (way back in 1985 when Bobby Brown ruled the airwaves) Times Square was nasty, nasty and so the city was keen to try to turn it around. Demolishing five theatres was part of that plan.

As such, I like to think working here is true to the intention of writing the new novel in an artistic space (the ghosts of five theatres and countless performances surely can’t but help the muse). Plus the views are kinda amazing.
Yes, it was Saturday night and time to head into the office so I chose this place – right in the middle of Manhattan madness. New York gets a million visitors a week and most of them end up in Times Square. At night the place glows for blocks around (we can see it from our pad on 85th Street – that’s 40 blocks away) and sure enough if you want to experience the true city that never sleeps, Times Square is it. Goulburn this ain’t.

And so it was I headed off at 9pm, iPad in my man-bag, rode the elevator to the 48th floor, ordered my Blue Moon (a perfectly acceptable local wheat beer), and clocked on. As I rotated in the sky watching the lightning storms over Jersey, the hours spun by and Roger Spoffin came to life.
Productive night, you ask? Well, who cares really, but the answer’s, ‘Yes. Good enough’. Hourly word count was more than acceptable and incidentally, the novel ticked over 50,000 words to date.

When I’d had enough, I rode the elevator back down to the street. As if from Mount Olympus, I descended from the lofty heights back to the grit and lights and rain-soaked streets and of course, New York was still abuzz. It’s never let me down yet.

Today’s word count: 2086
Word count to date: 50,553

  • The massive, massive space-station-like Marquis Marriott.

  • Looking for the barman who served my beer with an orange slice.

  • The vast Marquis Marriott rising up out of Gotham. It was raining too.

  • The incredible interior.

  • My taxi – about to whisk me through the wet streets of Gotham.

 
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