While I'm away....

On friday morning, ( my time) I’m going to have some surgery to correct a nerve that has been giving me grief for awhile. Pain and headache are just unacceptable ways to live and so I am going to have it taken care of.  As most doctors, I am a terrible patient and really dislike having any kind of procedure. Ironically I’m having neurosurgery. I have an excellent surgeon, whom I’ve known for some time so I’m in really good hands. I’ll be in hospital for about a week, perhaps 10 days at the most.  I’m taking my laptop but I know I’m not going to be up to much more than sending a few emails.

So, while I am away…. I thought I would leave you with a bit of inspiration.

I’ve been writing up a storm of late, at least 1000 words a day. I can’t say they make sense but they are words none the less. My fingers are bloody stumps and begging for me a respite.   For now I thought it would be a nice bit of inspiration to go on a tour of some writing haunts. Those magical cafe’s and hotels that have hosted the best can inspire us to keep going.

The Algonquin Hotel is a historic hotel in Manhattan. The hotel was the site of the daily meetings of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of  journalists, authors, publicists and actors who gathered to exchange bon mots over lunch in the main dining room. The group met almost daily for the better part of ten years. Some of the core members of the “Vicious Circle” included  Franklin P Adams, Robert Benchley, Heywoord Broun, Jane Grant, Ruth Hale, Neysa McMein, Dorothy Parker

Les Deux Magots, is a cafe in the Saint-Germain-des- Pres in Paris. It once had a reputation as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual élite of the city. Its historical reputation is derived from the patronage  intellectuals such as Simone de Beauvior, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso . The Deux Magots literary prize has been awarded to a French novel every year since 1933.

Shakespeare and Co is an English-language bookshop in Paris,  and  hosts the annual Shakespeare & Company Literary Festival in June. The original  ( not the above,) was the gathering place of Ezra Pound, Hemingway, and James Joyce.

The Elephant House in Edinburg saw J.K Rowling write much of the first draft of her Harry Potter series.  I’ve been here, it’s a nice little cafe with good coffee.

I hope this little tour has given  you a bit of inspiration to keep writing.

Where have you been for inspiration? Do you have a local that should be among the best?