httpv://youtu.be/85qgvXkts14
My friend Dee Topliff corrects me on some misinformation in the vlog: Author Stephen King stayed at The Stanley Hotel (in room 217) when he wrote The Shining. The Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon was used for all the exterior shots. Thank you, Dee! 😉
Last week I ventured into the vlog-o-sphere and gave you all a glimpse of Estes Park, CO, the setting for my debut contemporary romance novel, Wish You Were Here. Actually, the story takes place in both Colorado Springs and Estes Park … but that’s another blog post.
Today’s vlog is a brief glimpse of an Estes Park landmark: the historic Stanley Hotel. (The vlog’s just over a minute long.)
In Your Words: Have you ever had the chance to stay someplace that was featured in a book you’ve read? I’d love to hear about it! If you haven’t, what location mentioned in a novel you’ve read would you choose to visit?
Comments 26
It’s fun hearing from/seeing you this way. I was told The Shining was filmed in Oregon’s Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood–if not, I’m happy not to associate those horrors with it.
When I first visited England, in Brighouse, York, one host was an English teacher and he whisked us off to Haworth, home where the Brontes lived in their parsonage next to the cemetery on the desolate Yorkshire moors. He was well-informed and painted a picture I will never forget.
Thanks, Dee, for clearing up my misinformation about the Stanley. I misspoke in the vlog but at least I cleared it up in the post itself! I love it how we’ve got each others’ backs.
😉
Love your vlog! The Stanley Hotel is a beautiful setting for your book. I’ve never stayed anywhere that was a setting for a book, but I’d love to go to Ocracoke Island, the setting for Sandra Robbins’ Dangerous Reunion from Love Inspired Suspense.
I’ll admit the Stanley plays a small part in the setting of my book, but it’s there … and it is beautiful. Although I can do without the ghost part of the story. Hhhmmm, I haven’t heard of Ocracoke Island … googling now.
Beth, how fun! I’ve yet to stay in the Stanley Hotel. I hope to one day. 🙂 One place I’d love to visit/stay is Prince Edward Island. LOVED the Anne Shirley series!
Jeanne,
Visiting PEI is one of my dreams too!
🙂
The Yorkshire moors – been there, Dee! But it didn’t seem desolate when I was there…it was all green and beautiful. I love anything set in England – especially London – because of my time spent there. Also, Rachel Hauck’s second Songbird novel talked about Newton, Iowa – I live about 30 minutes from there and could picture the landmarks she mentioned.
How fun to have been to London, Melissa. I remember you’ve blogged about that. And how fun to be able to picture the setting of Rachel Hauck’s book so clearly. (Rachel is one of my favorite writers.)
My Christmas novella, Savanna’s Gift, was set at “Evergreen Ridge Resort”, a fictionalized version of Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood in Oregon. I live near there and have visited a few times. I did have to fictionalize it some to suit the story. But it was handy to have a beautiful, rustic ski lodge in my back yard to work with. 🙂
One of my novels is set partly in Scotland (I think I mentioned that….the memory fails….) and have not visited there. YET. I visited via Google Earth and through books & blogs as much as I could though. And would love to visit someday. 🙂
The rest of my two novels’ settings are central Oregon’s high desert, a place I have visited often over the past 30 years and know well. It’s remote and a very, very different pace of life, almost like another time. Not beautiful to the naked to passersby, unless you like miles of endless sagebrush, sand and alfalfa. But if you live amongst the people a little and slow your city pace to match theirs, and breathe the amazing clean aromas of sage and juniper, and listen to the pure, unpolluted quiet for a bit, you’ll recognize a whole new beauty exsists. I set the story there partly because the heroine relates the the vast emptiness around her, finds it somehow comforting.
Camille,
I enjoyed how well you wove your setting into Savanna’s Gift. And I enjoyed getting a glimpse of Mt. Hood when we flew into Oregon this summer. Impressive. You also give an excellent example of how setting can be used to weave symbolism into a novel.
Oops. I think I meant to say not beautiful to the naked eye of the passersby, not to the naked passerby. I think if passersby were naked, they’d have more than the scenery to deal with. 😀
Ah. Excellent clarification.
Ouch.
😉
So cool. I’ve never been to Estes Park but have been told it is beautiful!
I have always wanted to go to Prince Edward Island where the Anne of Green Gables books are set. My friend and I have made a pact to go together someday!
Lindsay,
It’s always more fun to travel with someone else.
Do you have a favorite book in the Anne series?
I think the first book is so classic. You?
Rilla of Ingleside.
Fun video, Beth, though I will consciously forget what you said about “The Shining” being filmed there. haha! It’s great to get this preps for your story!!
Well, Patti, The Shining was only written there. I had to correct myself.
But, yeah, there are “Shining” items in the gift shop, along with all these other high-end gift items.
Sheesh.
I love your vlog!
That hotel is amazing!
I want to stay at the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island. It’s the setting for one of my favorite books, Bid Time Return – (Somewhere in Time) by Richard Matheson
It is beautiful. I need to do another post of the inside of the Stanley … will get some footage during our next visit to Estes.
And now I have another book to read …
🙂
Wow, so gorgeous! And I love these vlogs, Beth. You’ve started some ideas brewing in my mind for whenever I get published… 🙂
Thanks, Sarah! I’m having fun!
So beautiful! Looking forward to finding it in your book. 🙂
I just finished reading DeeAnne Gist’s Maid to Match and it made me want to visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC.
Hmm. Apparently I failed at the fancy HTML formatting thing and went italics crazy. Oh well. 😉
All fixed.
DeeAnne must have pulled you in beautifully to the setting for her story.