Second Look: 14 Fantastic Frederick County Writing Spots

tyunglebower ♦ June 27, 2024 ♦ Leave a comment

This is my most niche of all my books. So much so I debated not including it in this series on second looks at my work. But for completeness sake, I will talk about it a little.

As the alliterative title suggests, this is a non-fiction short book about spots within my home of Frederick County, Maryland that I have found are particularly suited for a writing session. These are places generally outside of the standard coffee shop or library. Generally.

Naturally, a familiarity with the county makes the book more useful to a reader, I won’t deny that. I first came up with it thinking I could attract the attention of locals in particular, through various different groups and gatherings that (as often with me) did not quite pan out.

I did get a lovely review on this volume once from a local writer who did find it, somehow. I think they follow me on Goodreads. Because of that review I cannot call it my least read volume. But it is a close second.

Can anybody outside of Frederick County get anything from my descriptions of and reflections during my various visits to the locations described? It’s a hard sell, but yes, I believe that writers and to some extend creatives in general can find something to enjoy about the craft without the pages of this highly localized content. I assumed familiarity with the county when I wrote it, and said so in the introduction, but I nonetheless explore each location in a manner that would benefit those who have never been.

At heart it is a cozy writing book. I made every effort to connect experiences such as the rushing of Cunningham Falls or the back story of forgotten writer George Alfred Townsend among the ruins of his estate at Gathland State Park to the universal aspects of inspiration and motivation for the writer. To be there, (and of course to write) is to receive the full power of my essays in this collection, but an open mind and strong imagination will open the doors to anyone.

There are drawing in it, my only book to date with illustrations, by a friend of mine, Jamie, based on photographs I took myself.

I was partially, (not entirely) inspired to write something like this by one of my favorite writing books, A Writer’s Paris by Eric Maisel. In it, he describes living for a few months in Paris, and how to utilize the specific cultures a sights to aide one in a writing journey. I have read it more than once, and am inspired each time, despite having never been to Paris. (Or, despite Maisel’s pleas, having a great desire to ever go.) It may be an idealized Paris, I can’t say, but I can say I feel as though I am in Paris itself, scribbling into a notebook.

I won’t claim my volume is as sweeping or intimate as this one. Yet my goal is very similar: offer how the vistas and locations of my home county feel to a writer who has both been there, and to those who will likely never go.

Assuming that a reader is inspired to write because of these book, I will have achieved a great deal of my goal in writing it. On the other hand, if it only manages to convince the reader to some day visit Frederick County, that’s not so bad either.

14 Fantastic Frederick County Writing Spots is available in ebook form, for 99 cents in most ebook retailers.