August at Camp

Camp season here in Maine pretty much ends by September 1st, when fishing season declines and the topwater bass spread out from the colder lake waters to the shallow creeks and coves. The last several days of rainy weather gave me the opportunity to sit down at my Smith Corona typewriter and start the outline of a new book. Meeting up with Art Wheaton over the weekend brought to mind many stories of the area’s past. I was particularly intrigued by the story of a lone occupant, now deceased, of a small island on East Grand Lake. He summered there for many years, in a small cabin without electricity or running water. Living on an island for months at a time is not like an overnight camping trip. All supplies come by boat, and there is no regular communication. I imagine one may become a bit isolated. Interestingly, he was an academic by profession who, in the off-season, taught at a local Maine college.

I have been mentally sketching out something fictional based on this lonesome fellow who lived in the days before cell phones. My character is a well-known author who writes books about the Northern Maine woods of his youth. I have also been plotting into the night, fleshing out the characters with whom this writer interacts during his summers on the lake. It is a process that relies on my own experience and interactions with the people I have gotten to know from my time at camp. Honest, forthright, and “camp-smart” are some of the traits that will describe these reinvented figures.

Writing from camp, with all these characters in mind, has enabled me to pound out several chapters, each a look-see not only into the life of my island author but of the people here and now who supported him during his lifetime. More to come.