Over the last week, we introduced you to Straeon Manor – the mansion that the Confabulators adopted to tell our stories in. It exists in an as of yet undisclosed location stretching a vague number of years in history and future. We all have our own ideas about the perfect time and place to have a manor of our very own, and below you will find out where (and when) each Confabulator would have theirs.
I’ve always been a big fan of this time period, personally. But if I had to choose another place/time, as long as I didn’t have to live there permanently, I’d choose London, 1599. I’d die to see Shakespeare’s plays performed in the original Globe Theatre as they were being written. Also, I think it’d be incredibly interesting to see how other people react to them. I know we think Shakespeare’s a big deal, but did they?
I’ve always fancied myself living in a country manor house in the 1920s, not far from a major city like New York or Chicago or Atlanta or New Orleans. A big, rambling place that one can open the windows in during the dog days of summer and the wind will still blow through, cooling as much as it could. The kind of place where there’s lots of woodwork, perhaps a secret passage, too; where I’d have to have a large staff to help maintain and run the place. I’d have parties to rival Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, too.
I’ve designed many “dream houses” in my head, and they typically all end up being manor or castle-ish. That being said, I’ve never really thought an actual place this would exist. It has always been a misty floating location. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere with trees and possibly a river, and most importantly… an amazing Internet connection. That last requirement rules out some of my favorite eras, since the Internet wasn’t around during the reigns of Caesar or Queen Victoria. So most likely, my manor would be in a contemporary time or maybe the future.
I’ve decided that my dream location would be somewhere on the edge of the Flint Hills, on top of a gently-rising, breezy hill, so I could see 100% of the sky at night and approaching tornadoes during the day. It would be surrounded by trees to shade and cool it in the summer, and then cultivated fields to scent it in the spring and provide something for the breezes to rustle in the fall.
I don’t even think I want a manor — I can’t even keep an apartment in order. But I could see a modern manor just a little bit in the country. Not so far that driving to town is a trip, but far enough that naked hot-tubbing isn’t weird.
I’d prefer a castle in Ireland overlooking emerald green hills and crystal blue seas, myself. Any time except the years surrounding and during the potato famine, though. Not a fun time for anyone.
My dream manor would be in Northern California overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Other than Kansas, it’s the only place I’ve ever felt 100% at peace. Because I’m reliant on too many modern technologies, I wouldn’t live in the past (although it’s tempting to say the 1920s). With industrialization and problems with the environment, the present isn’t so keen either. I guess I’ll settle for some indeterminate time in the future, when humanity and nature co-exist in harmony.
I would not have a manor anywhere. I have a general distrust of manors thanks to Algernon Blackwood, Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, and countless other writers who have shown me that owning a manor in any time or place is never going to end well.
Leave a Reply