Not Quite Notre Dame, but Nevertheless...


The picture you see to the left is of the historic Mission Inn in Riverside CA, an immaculate old hotel with a unique history and even more unique architecture. I have a lot of great memories at that place: sleeping in reportedly-haunted rooms, attending parties and brunches, getting drunk on Tanqueray, all that kid stuff. I was turned on to the place by my dad and his fiancé, who not only frequent the place but also collect old trinkets from the Inn. It's an incredibly beautiful hotel, but also kind of spooky, which makes it all the more appealing.



I have been so impacted by this amazing place that it has become the prime inspiration for my new novel, The Black Portrait Estate. The "story" is actually about five stories in one, all taking place in a mysterious hotel known as The Black Portrait Estate, over the course of a weekend. The "main character," if you will, is the Estate itself, much like how the "main character" in Victor Hugo's masterpiece Notre Dame de Paris (or, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, as it has been dumbed down for those of us in the English-speaking world) is the cathedral, and not (despite popular understanding) the hunchback, the gypsy, the cleric or anyone else.

There is great power in a place of history. An inanimate landmark can in many cases have more character than the living people who inhabit it. My grandmother was telling me recently about all of the amazing cathedrals she has visited in London, Paris and Florence, among other places. The way she described them really made them seem alive, as though they sheltered physical remnants of all those who had contributed to their existence and their history: the stone masons, the knights, the priests, the followers, and even the literature and art that was borne from their influence. I envision The Black Portrait Estate as such a place, but existing in a completely different universe of imagination, which, when you really get down to it, is what makes even tangible landmarks spectacular.