Last time, I recalled the story of the wonderful time Joyce and I had at Dancing Lion Chocolate in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2017. The shop was recommended by Rob and Margit of the Ash Street Inn, a B&B where we spent the night.

I have the standard day photo, but I think this nighttime shot is cooler.

When I found out the Dancing Lion was closing, naturally I had to go back and say goodbye. And after running the Black Bear 50K I went there, only to find Rich, the owner, was in Costa Rica for a few weeks. Oops!

Well, since I couldn’t just give up, I made plans for another trip, this time calling ahead to make sure Rich would be there. I had to choose a place to stay, and wondered if the Ash Street Inn was still there. It was, and under the same ownership, so I booked it.

My trip began with a flight to Boston and a visit to the Boston Tea Party Museum on the waterfront. For a reasonable cost I got a tour, with guides in period costume, and a chance to toss a “tea crate” into the harbor. We also witnessed a talking portrait debate between Samuel Adams and King George III! While they never really met, their speeches were based on actual diary entries.

I strike a blow against monopolistic capitalism and unfair taxes. Take that, George!

I also indulged myself in Abigail’s Tea Room, where one can sample the five different blends of tea tossed overboard that day in 1773. If you’re in Boston and feeling suitably touristy, it’s worth the experience. But be sure to get your parking validated: just a couple hours in a local garage costs more than the admission price.

After crawling out of Boston on I-93 I made it to Manchester, where I checked in at the B&B and had a nice dinner at Evolution B&B on Elm Street, including spicy cucumbers with bonito flakes. (That’s fermented fish baked into a rock and shaved razor-thin. Yes, I know. Look it up.)

In the morning I had an excellent breakfast prepared by Rob, who worked for years in the restaurant business, and we caught up on our lives since my previous visit. Turns out they, too, are thinking of moving on to a new chapter in their lives, and will put the B&B up for sale. That alone made me grateful for this second trip.

Then…

And now.

Then it was off to the Dancing Lion, where Rich, as world-class a fellow as he is a chocolatier, welcomed me and made me a bowl of his Mexican drinking chocolate. This is the centuries-old recipe the Mayans made, spicy rather than sweet, with a strong dark flavor. A bit too spicy for my taste, so he added some frothed milk, which, for me, balanced it perfectly. I bought some disks of the chocolate so I can make some bowls of my own.

The high pour creates a really frothy drink that blooms all the spices.

I also bought some of his signature bars, which are as much works of art as they are unique in flavor.

There was another couple in there that day, one of them a regular who was going to deeply miss the pastries. They were hikers, so naturally we talked about the White Mountains and hiking/running them.

Following my visit I went down the street to the potter who made Rich’s drinking bowls and ordered some of my own, then off to the Millyard Museum. According to the story, Manchester NH was named after Manchester, England because it wanted to be the textile capital of the U.S. like the English city was. And did they ever succeed! At one point their buildings stretched over one mile along the riverbank. Yes, they basically killed the river, but it has since been cleaned up, and most of the original buildings have been restored and now host a variety of businesses, including DEKA, the company founded by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, the insulin pump, and the stair-climbing wheelchair, among many other things.

So that’s actually two chapters closed. Congrats, dear reader, you got a bonus!

As for beginning a book? Well, I’m working hard on the rewrite of my sci-fi novel World of the Blue Jasmine, and it’s pretty much an end-to-end effort, with nothing sacred. And it so happens that the weekly exercises on Jericho Writers recently covered opening paragraphs. Since I need to cut the word count significantly, I decided to move closer to the ‘inciting incident’ as we pro-feshional writers put it. I posted my update and waited for the expected adulation.

Well – I did get some praise, but one comment in particular stuck with me. The reviewer, an outstanding writer, pointed out that in a previous exercise (which I missed) the intent was to “let your main character breathe” by opening easy and allowing the reader to bond with the protagonist before throwing him/her into the fire. It appears an author just can’t win!

I still love this AI-generated image as a potential cover.

So back to the easier opening it was, although I have tightened up the dialog. Frankly, I like the compromise best, so that’s where we’ll let the opening stand, at least until my editor savages it when I turn in my next draft. So be it! I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.