An Album of Inspirations

All this week at Atelier26, we're featuring daily posts in anticipation of the official November 12th release of Harriet Scott Chessman's luminously moving new novel, The Beauty of Ordinary Things. (And Books Inc in Palo Alto will host a special publication day celebration!). 

Today Ms. Chessman shares some gorgeous images of ordinary beautiful things that inspired her novel. 

 

Lake Champlain, VT — and this view comes close to the one I had in mind, as I wrote about Sister Clare's (Helen Barry's) swim in the pond, the day Isabel's mother died.

Sister Clare: I think of Isabel, a little girl, holding out the towel for me on the rock. I sat there with her until her sobs grew quiet, and she and I contemplated my neighbor old Mr. Dunbar as he rowed across the lake in front of us, his canvas fishing hat rakishly cocked on his white head. "You'll find your way, Isa, I know you will."

 

At St. Joseph's, the men's guest house at the Abbey of Regina Laudis — inspiration for the guesthouse my character Benny stays in.

Benny Finn: I had lunch at the men's guesthouse with Father Julian. He told me about a low stone wall he'd been repairing around the bee hives, and about his time as an Army officer during World War II. He'd been involved in the landings on the coast of Italy, and it sounded brutal. "Of course that was a different war from yours," he said. "We understood why we were fighting. It was terrible, but at least we understood."

 

A wedding! and a joyful one. Thoughts of marriage intertwining through my novel.

A beloved house in Vermont — in a landscape similar to the one I imagine as the Abbey of Our Lady of the Meadow's spot on earth, in The Beauty of Ordinary Things.

Benny: A landscape isn't just outside you. It changes how you look at things.

 

Our beloved rough collie, Sully (O'Sullivan) — the model for Benny Finn's dog Lily in my novel . . . and namesake of Benny's fellow soldier, Sully, whose memory he holds close.

Benny: I looked at a picture of Sully, who was this very laid-back guy from Bridgeport. In the photo he's holding his boot upside down and laughing. ... The photo was clear and right, but I knew it was just a wish now...

Haying at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, August 2013! Our conversation, as we hauled bales of hay, included Virgil's Georgics and the notion of pastoral.   

Sister Clare: I've known Benny three months now, ever since the cold March day when he helped me shovel out the old sheepfold, and we talked about the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. 

The Abbey's new cow barn — the frame built by a wonderful team of Amish young men.

 

Belted cows in a far pasture of the Abbey. 

Benny: It surprised me to see a nun go by on a tractor, decked out in a long dungaree habit, a wool cap over her white veil.

Sister Clare: As I shook his hand at the gate and waved goodbye, watched him walk away in his dirty jeans and t-shirt, his shoulders broad, his hair in need of a brush, I prayed for him and Isabel and Liam. I prayed for us all. And, a hopeless fool, I yearned for Benny to come again.