Maybe you made yours out of sofa cushions and blankets. My grandfather did a lot of carpentry and talked about load bearing walls and support beams, so I always made mine out of TV tables and old flannel sheets. But however you did it, one of the best parts of childhood was getting to build a fort of some kind – a tree house, a secret place in the woods or, on a rainy day when we didn’t go run around outside, a blanket fort.
It was a sort of magical place – right there in the living room, but separate somehow – far away in time and imagination.
It was a hideout, a crow’s nest or a fox hole, depending on our mood and whatever elaborate and fantastic game we were playing that day.
There were snacks, there were books, there were toys – sometimes, when we could get our hands on them, there were Christmas tree lights. Pets were welcome, although this sometimes resulted in catastrophic architectural failure if the pet in question was, say, a great galumphing dog who was after the aforementioned snacks.
It was a safe, cozy, warm space where we could read and daydream and if we played our cards right, maybe even have a sleepover.
I released The Kitchen Sink Sutra to the world not quite three weeks ago and have been absolutely bowled over by the response. So many enthusiastic emails, so many good wishes from all the lovely people in my life. It has been so encouraging and just the tiniest bit overwhelming – I mean, you sit in a room by yourself for months and months, writing a story and living with these fictional people and then all of a sudden, there’s a lot of attention and real, flesh and blood people are asking you to sign their copy of your book.
It is, in a word, surreal. (Thrilling and awesome, but also surreal.)
And so I realized that I needed a safe and cozy space again so that I can go back to scribbling down the words that make up the books that apparently people want to read.
Which is why I chose to name this blog after the safest, coziest space I could think of – this is my Digital Blanket Fort and I hereby declare myself Captain of it.
I mean, grow up, sure.
But don’t grow up too much.
P.
P.S. Please send snacks. Preferably cookies.
Mine was under the dining room table. Loved the book btw…can totally hear your “voice”.
Hey! You’re my very first comment! I feel like I should send you a prize of some sort…
Dining room table blanket forts are awesome and very structurally sound.
Mine was slung from a rope tied between two pine trees in the woods behind the house. Can still smell the bed of pine needles and taste the hint of independence. Thrilled to learn of the book and that your muse is unleashed. Captain my Captain!
John, so lovely to hear from you!
You had the best location for your fort…all those trees and Georgian Bay right there in your backyard. The perfect place to read Tolkien, I think.