Stacy Horn

Be still my heart. I’ve just started reading the first of a group of books I plan to read for inspiration. Not because they have information that I need, but because they cover the time and place I’m writing about in a way that I hope will help me. The danger is that they are so well-written they might crush my tender-writer feelings.

First up, The Waterworks by E. L. Doctorow. Holy mother of God could this man write. I would be crushed, by the way, if I wasn’t enjoying it so much. And it’s doing exactly what I hoped, it’s giving me ideas. After this it’s on to The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, and I’m thinking I might also need to read The House of Mirth.

If you have favorite novels about 19th century New York City I’d love suggestions for more to read! Thank you in advance!

Clouds across the street from my apartment. I wanted UFOs to start pouring out of them, like they do in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

I have a ton of reading to do but I need to get out of the house. I have three places I like to read: by the Hudson River, the northwest corner of Washington Square Park, or Central Park. Which shall it be?

Seen at a construction site on West 4th Street.

I have so much to read and process before beginning the next chapter of my book I’m freaking out. I made a list so I can cross things off as I go along. I’ve found having a big piece of paper with each thing written on it in great big letters with a Sharpie that I can cross off is calming.

Last week I was freaking out about all the reading I had to gather. I was going out of my mind there was so much and now, miraculously that part is done. Try to remember that, try to remember that. A week or two from now and this part will be done.

More musicians in the subway. This is probably a cello, right? I must get a violin or a viola next.

In a little while I’ll be heading out to the New York Public Library. Yesterday I was at the Municipal Archives, and on Monday I was exploring the archives of the New York Academy of Medicine. Sheer heaven.

AND, I live in a city with a lot of music and there’s always someone carrying one instrument or another (but this what I am assuming is a double bass is quite impressive, no??). Life is good.

Every year I go to war with mosquitos. A mosquito or two will feed on me throughout the night, and as the bite starts to itch I wake up. I end up waking up over and over and over. It’s no sleep for me during the mosquito season which is in the fall based on my posts. I’ve done everything I can to block every single crack around my windows, but they still get in. No repellent I’m willing to use works.

For this reason, the company Kite is my new best friend. I read this very great article about them in the Times and now I anxiously await their product. They’re so nice, too. I emailed them to ask if they were going to come out with a version for pets, and I felt a little sheepish asking, since they are trying to eliminate a problem to save lives. But they answered!

“We cannot definitively say whether or not there will be a pet option (proprietary information), but we do anticipate (not having done any testing whatsoever) that there will be some carry over effect from Kite Patch that will benefit the pets.”

A sign at a park we visited after kayaking on Friday. Go to hell mosquitos.