The Banshee

 

So every great writing duo needs a venue, a “home” if you will, to sit back and wax eloquent about life and all that is good and true in this world. Wayne and I have surely found “our spot.”

The Banshee was everything we had hoped it to be, and more. But tonight was “the night of all nights,” the benchmark that made us sit back and really realize, “Hey, this was God just trying to bless us.” And to most reading this it may seem like nothing, but to us it was everything.

As our weekend drew to a close this evening, a full day of writing and sharing behind us, we retired from our hotel room to our new beloved pub, listening to traditional Irish folk music and talking, we figure, much like those famous authors who have gone before us must have. We brought books for the general manager, a wonderful lady named Bobbi, and after a splendid conversation with her, she returned with “her hero,” Mr. Chuck Rogers, father of the owner of the restaurant, member of an ancient Irish fraternity we couldn’t pronounce nor remember, and a man that spoke as regally as he looked.

“Let’s have a conversation,” he said simply and gestured for us to sit down in a “snug,” one of the many quaint anterooms of the establishment. We felt as though we were in the presence of royalty as he sat and shared the many tales of The Banshee with us, lore that’s been passed on over a 200-year history. Then we spoke of the lost art of “talking to one another over a low board, face to face.” When he said it was an honor to have two authors in the restaurant, the first he knew of, we about died. We were the honored ones for sure.

When all was said and done, we sat in silence, letting the music and the magical atmosphere of the place was over us. We felt as though the Lord had taken us away in time, to a far off place, much like the stories we spend our lives writing about. Accept this time we weren’t writing about it, we were living it.

The meeting was most memorable and was the perfect end to our last night of Writer’s Boot Camp 2007.

So will history remember Hopper and Batson? I’m not entirely sure. But I do know that I will remember this night for the rest of my life.

Thanks Wayne. Thanks Jenny and Mary Lu. And thank you Jesus for a weekend to remember.

Slainte!

CH

(And here are some “behind the scenes” pics of our writing spots at the historic Radisson hotel) :