{"id":1389,"date":"2011-05-11T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=1389"},"modified":"2011-05-11T09:03:39","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T13:03:39","slug":"location-and-inspiration-writing-at-the-cloisters-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=1389","title":{"rendered":"Location and Inspiration: Writing at the Cloisters"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was originally written for the lovely blog Peeking Between the Pages http:\/\/www.peekingbetweenthepages.com\/<\/a>. Tune in May 31 for a second guest post from me on that site reflecting on the joy of writing TO BE QUEEN and the inspiration I find\u00c2\u00a0in\u00c2\u00a0the places where I sit and write.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cloisters is an extension of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a separate branch that holds much of the museum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s medieval collection. It is a place of beautiful art, flowering trees, and square colonnades, or cloisters, where water runs in fountains all through the spring and summer, giving the visitor an oasis of peace in the midst of Manhattan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s constant motion.<\/p>\n

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The Cloisters is where I first wrote the outline for THE QUEEN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S PAWN. In one of the museum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s three outdoor cloisters, Alais and I settled down to work out the details of the novel. Writing a synopsis can be as much work for me as writing the novel itself, but the soothing, tranquil atmosphere of the museum relaxed me and gave me a feeling for the kind of religious devotion that sustained Alais throughout her childhood and for much of her life.<\/p>\n

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This statue of the Holy Mother and the Christ child, while from a later period, gives you a good idea of the kind of art Alais loved. The character as she developed on the pages of my novel has a deep devotion to the Church. She is especially drawn to the Virgin Mary, who serves as an aid and comfort to her during the dark, lonely days of her childhood, and later, after the events of THE QUEEN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S PAWN have drawn to a close.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0The Cloisters is full of such beauty, objects of devotion and shaded colonnades of tranquility. As I wrote, I felt as if I was given a window into Alais\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time in her own cloister, when she was able to escape the political tumult of her life, and spend her time in contemplation and prayer. I would have written the book without the Cloisters to shelter me, but the experience would not have been nearly as rewarding. I am grateful to the museum for creating such a place of serenity where, as with THE QUEEN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S PAWN, we can seek a window into the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was originally written for the lovely blog Peeking Between the Pages http:\/\/www.peekingbetweenthepages.com\/. Tune in May 31 for a second guest post from me on that site reflecting on the joy of writing TO BE QUEEN and the inspiration I find\u00c2\u00a0in\u00c2\u00a0the places where I sit and write. The Cloisters is an extension of the …<\/p>\n

Location and Inspiration: Writing at the Cloisters<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1394,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions\/1394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}