Author Archives: Kenton

Day 17 – Empire Hotel.
44 West 63rd Street (across Columbus from the Lincoln Center)

The home of Gossip Girl – apparently. Or featured in it repeatedly, or some such. Anyhoo, I needed a UWS hotel close by as I had less than three hours to dump Johnny at ‘camp’, get to writing location, spend minimum of two hours penning the fabulous adventures of hero Edwardian schoolboy Roger Spoffin, and get back to pick up Johnny. The Empire fit the bill.

Been past this place a million times (it’s on the triangle where Broadway crosses Columbus) and it’s nice enough. Got a kind of jungle theme going on with the colours – all orange and ochre and brass and black. The lobby and bar – which runs off the lobby – were half-filled with guests on their iPhones drinking Starbucks when I arrived. That’s a bad sign, as it usually means no service. And so it was. For two hours I sat writing, no one bothered me, then I left.
The result was the highest hourly word count since I began.

Today’s word count: 2,327
Word count to date: 43,830

Day 16 – St Regis Hotel
5th Avenue and 55th Street

This is the heart of 5th Avenue. Within a stone’s throw of this magnificent Beaux Arts building (pronounced ‘bow-zar’, according to my French friend who could barely contain his laughter when I waxed lyrical about this fabulous architectural style, my pronunciation clearly like nothing he’d ever heard before) is Cartier, Henri Bendels, Bergdorf Goodman, FAO Schwartz, Tiffany’s, Bloomingdales and on and on. (Incidentally, on the opposite corner is The Peninsula – another hotel of similar style and size and yet to be visited by this author.)
My impression is this place has undergone a recent renovation and it’s nicely done. The staff too are genuinely among the nicest I’ve met in New York. I watched them speaking with each other several times and there seemed a true camaraderie. No one hurried me, though I stayed for over three and a half hours.
It was only on the way out that my waitress pointed out the famous artwork in the bar (which I wasn’t sitting in at 9am, in case you were wondering).
See the pano attached. Here’s the story behind it.
The St Regis was built by John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest men in America. It opened in 1902. Astor already had a (now-demolished) hotel just down the road called the Knickerbocker and had commissioned a painting for it by Maxfield Parrish – ‘Old King Cole’. It’s a monster measuring 8 feet high and 30 feet wide. The joke is that the King is modelled after Astor himself and that he’s shown in the act of, ahem, flatulating. Astor had the painting moved to the St Regis when it opened and it has sat majestic over the bar ever since (though the bar has moved around the hotel once or twice). The bar is beautiful and along with the painting is famous for being the birthplace of the Bloody Mary. Astor was to die aboard the Titanic – the wealthiest man to do so.

Day 15 – MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas

There aren’t many hotels that can claim to be the world’s biggest. In fact, this one can’t either, but it was when it opened and today is #2 with 6852 rooms. It is simply staggering. The Crocodile Hotel in Ashfield (rest assured I’ve never visited that dive) could fit in its lobby. One of its lobbies.

Those of you who have been reading these updates will know I‘ve been favouring hotels with a literary vibe, or some historical link to the arts, or some historical link to something. Anything. But in Vegas that’s really hard. All the famous hotels you saw in the old movies, or your parents visited in the 60’s (hello Mum), are gone. The Sands. The Sahara, the Aladdin (where Elvis was married), the Desert Inn (where Howard Hughes closeted himself away for the last 15 years of his life) – all torn down and replaced with mega-resorts.

I was last in Vegas 19 years ago and we’ve both changed a lot. If you think that this is a place where the author with an iPad would be out of place, you’d be right, but there’s a strange serenity that comes from the relentless hum and buzz of more than 2000 gaming machines.

Fear and loathing? Not yet. Strong seduction more like it. I have a feeling there’s a lot more writing to be done in Vegas.

Today’s word count: 1503

Total word count: 38,554

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM_Grand_Las_Vegas

Day 14: Hudson Hotel.
386 West 58th Street.

I’d challenge anyone to try writing a novel in a New York nightclub on a Saturday night. Whilst drinking martinis. But the reality of summer holidays means the mornings are no longer available to me. So, yesterday I clocked on at 9pm and clocked off at, umm…
This is dangerous territory. The ghost of Hemingway looms large. Disappearing into the vast, pumping city is immensely appealing to this author (day or night) and when truffle popcorn is on offer, the hours easily slip away. When I emerged back onto the street the city was really just getting going, the subway packed, and if I’d had the energy could have found another venue no problem and kept writing. New York, as everyone knows, doesn’t sleep.
Now, down to brass tacks. How productive was I? Bearing in mind that it was too dark to read my notes, I could hardly hear myself think, and I was increasingly distracted by beautiful people dancing only feet away from me (oh, and the music was amazing – will definitely be taking Lynne here for a hot date soon), not to mention the martinis, I think I did OK.
My average word rate so far is (or rather, was, until last night) 823 words per hour. The first hour in the Hudson’s disco I managed: 686. Not shabby at all. However, the second hour produced only 410 words – which those mathematically inclined among you would note is but half my usual. But by golly it was a delight watching how the barman made that lemon twist.
And the third hour? Well, you might have thought it was a catastrophe and in fact I didn’t last a full 3rd hour. But pro-rata, it came to 548. Spooky. An inverse bell-curve.
The Hudson has more bars than I’ve ever seen in a hotel. I counted four on the lobby level alone. I’ve no idea which one I was in, but you can check out the place here: https://www.morganshotelgroup.com/…/hudson-new-yo…/eat-drink
My tip: go at 9pm when they’ll let in people with iPads intent on writing Middle Grade novels. After midnight the rope barrier comes out and you’ve got to get past security (and be waaay more beautiful than I am).

Day 13 – Hotel Sofitel

45 West 44th Street.

I was back on 44th Street today, where I began the book. The Sofitel is a beautiful French themed hotel with nearly 400 rooms a couple of doors down from the Algonquin, but the lobby (lobbies, really) restaurants and other public space are more the scale of a much smaller, continental hotel. Which I like. Cavernous, polished marble lobbies – like the Pennsylvania, my previous post – are not my bag.
Above, though, is a soaring 30 storey tower with extraordinary views over midtown.

Having opened only in 2000, this place has yet to build a list of notable writers, poets and l’infant terribles (this author, notwithstanding). But it has unfortunately garnered attention for other, less savoury, exploits. It was here that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the IMF, attacked a cleaner in his room and ended up being arrested and lead out of the place in handcuffs. Nice. Such things must be a nightmare for the hotel’s management, but don’t let it put you off. It’s a beautiful place.

Today’s word count: 2300

Word count to date: 35,465

http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-2185-sofitel-new-york/index.shtml

Day 12 – Hotel Pennsylvania

Cnr 7th Ave & 34th Street

Lacking former glory – that’s the only way to describe this vast, underwhelming hotel. When it opened in 1919 it had 2200 rooms and sat overlooking the now-demolished Penn Station (the original one). Now Madison Square Garden (surely one of the ugliest buildings in Manhattan) faces it and the area is filled with cheap burger joints and half-finished construction.

It has survived numerous attempts to demolish it, and the current owners have declared they’ll restore it. I can only hope so, because in its current iteration, it’s depressing.
William Faulkner stayed here. Charlie Chaplin too. And like many New York hotels of this era, its ballroom was filled with the Big Bands of Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and more. But those days are long gone.

As the lobby resembles an airport lounge with people sitting on their luggage, I chose to work in the cafe. With a $10 buffet breakfast, it proved a productive morning.

Word count: 2643

Word count to date: 33,165

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Pennsylvania

Day 11: The Plaza
Fifth Avenue at Central Park South

Even the address speaks volumes. There’s nothing else like this place, looking North across to the park and East to the Pulitzer fountain and beyond to Fifth Ave, a glorious Chateau-like structure soaring 20 stories high. From Eloise to Crocodile Dundee to the very, very nasty Christopher Walken pic, ‘King of New York’, you’ve seen the Plaza already a dozen times before setting foot in NYC.
Why the Australian flag out the front? Well, our Tony was in town and he chose the Plaza. He’d left early that morning, my good waiter told me (who’d also served another Australian PM, ‘the woman’. Ah, yes. I remember her.)
There are too many beautiful rooms to show here, but if you’re in town, allow an hour or two to explore this place. It has its own food court that is unlike anything else I’ve seen – including cakes that made this old Delington King stop and stare, mouth open.
So far on this quest, for the big old hotels, there are only two names that matter – Waldorf-Astoria and the Plaza and I choose the Plaza. What’s more, I finished Act 1 of the book here. 3 Acts to go.
Word count: 2377. Word count to date: 30,522

Day 10: Mandarin Oriental.
Columbus Circle.

For some reason I love Columbus Circle. Bottom of the park, Central Park West becomes 8th Ave (and much more aggressive), Broadway cuts across at an oblique angle, busy, busy, busy and traffic moving in a circle (which you don’t see much in New York – perhaps it reminds me of my childhood in Canberra).
And soaring above is the magnificent Time Warner Center (or, Centre). This twin monolith contains a Wholefoods, a beautiful shopping center (or centre), two jazz venues, the headquarters of Time Inc. and a very nice hotel – the Mandarin Oriental.

Now there are not many hotels where the lobby is on the 35th floor. It is stunning – both daytime and at night. Once I sat there with Lynne watching a snowstorm, the little yellow taxis struggling around the roundabout.

If you want to feel you’re in New York, may I recommend lunch at the Mandarin Oriental. Order the Manhattan. Tell them I sent you.

Today’s word count: 2,687

Word count to date: 28,145

http://www.mandarinoriental.com/newyork

Day 9 – Essex House

160 Central Park South

A beautiful, historic art deco building, Essex House has one of the most iconic and easily identifiable outlines overlooking Central Park. It’s not hard to spot with its enormous red lettering visible from halfway up the park.
Summer is now in full swing in New York and the park is heaving, the horse and carriages are doing a roaring trade (after a very long and cold winter) and tourists are swarming. Parts of Central Park South were almost blocked by the busyness.

But for those authors who drift in and out of the hustle and bustle of the city looking for a place to write, may I recommend Essex House. Art deco magnificently restored, large, sun-filled windows overlooking the park, white leather lounges and decent coffee. Suits me, sir.

Today’s word count: 2420

Word count to date: 25,458

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JW_Marriott_Essex_House

Day 8 – The Hotel Theresa

2082-6 Adam Clayton Powell Jnr Blvd. Harlem.

In its heyday (which wasn’t this morning) this hotel was known as ‘the Waldorf of Harlem’. It looks so much taller than its 13 stories as it’s thin and there’s nothing much that height around it. It has a rich history. Castro stayed there in 1960 after getting kicked out/fed up with another hotel in midtown (either for killing his own chickens in the room because he didn’t trust the hotel chefs, or over the bill, depending on which story you believe). Khrushchev visited him while he was there. Malcolm X was a regular to the place and famously gave an address out the front.

But it’s a sorry sight today. It’s been closed for years but you my story of the Chelsea Hotel has taught you anything, a closed hotel won’t stop me. The only place open in the building where I could sit and drink coffee and work was White Castle – a hamburger chain that predates McDonalds by about 30 years and is happy not to compete with such a high-quality upstart establishment. I went mid-morning so I was one of the first ‘diners’ (they don’t do breakfast – mind you, anyone who takes their food seriously would claim they don’t do lunch or dinner either). I perched on a stool, opened up the iPad and got to it. Service, it must be said, wasn’t up there with my previous day’s experience at the Waldorf Astoria, but the coffee was surprisingly drinkable. Three hours later I hopped up and walked back up to the counter – which has a bullet-proof perspex screen separating you from the ‘servers’, who speak through microphones when they want to read back your order. I amused myself by quipping in my offhand way, ‘And now I think I’ll try the fish burger.’ No one else seemed amused.

I’ve never been to a White Castle before (nor since) so I’ve nothing to compare it to, but this one functioned more as a community drop-in centre. At any one time, twenty people were milling around with only one or two eating. The main topic of conversation was a police raid nearby on some gang houses – the biggest in New York’s history apparently – that had taken place early that morning.

A productive day with some of the most entertaining customers in a hotel ‘lobby’ I’ve come across.

Today’s word count: 3054

Word count to date: 22,740

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Theresa