G is for Gingerbread Cottages

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The town of Oak Bluffs, home of yesterday's Flying Horses, is also home to more than 300 brightly colored gingerbread cottages.

The cottages were built in the 1800s by members of the Martha's Vineyard Campmeeting Association in an area known as Wesleyan Grove. Founded in 1835 by a man named Jeremiah Pease, Wesleyan Grove eventually became the most famous Methodist camp meeting site in the country. In 1860, as many as 12,000 people attended the week-long meeting and more than 500 tents were pitched on the site.

The camp members built the original cottages to replace the tents as the meetings became more social and the Grove continued to expand. The "Martha's Vineyard cottages" are architecturally unique and are considered an invention of 19th century island carpenters. Between 1859 and 1880 the association built 500 cottages.

A stereoscopic view of Crane's Cottage in the late 1800s (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

(One of the cottages today (Source: Wikimedia Commons))

The Martha's Vineyard Campmeeting Association is still active today and now presides over 34 acres of land. Members conduct a Campground Cottage tour every summer and run a museum which showcases the history of the Campground. The Campground is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.

My A-Z of Martha's Vineyard theme is inspired by my book, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, which is set on the island. Click here for all the info on the book.

F is for Flying Horses

Photo by Melanie Speight

The Flying Horses Carousel is located in the Vineyard town of Oak Bluffs and is the oldest platform carousel in the United States. It was built in the 1870s and originally resided in Coney Island, but was moved to Martha's Vineyard in 1884.

The carousel is housed in a distinctive red wood barn and is one of the few carousels left to include a brass ring for riders to grab as the carousel rotates. My main memory of the Flying Horses is wanting my dad to get the brass ring and win a free ride for me. Since I was the youngest of five kids, I imagine he rode the carousel many times over the years trying to get that ring for all of us.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The carousel found itself in danger of being dismantled and sold to collectors before being purchased by the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust in 1986. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

If you take a trip to the Vineyard, be sure to take a ride on the Flying Horses.

My A-Z of Martha's Vineyard theme is inspired by my book, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, which is set on the island. Click here for all the info on the book.

E is for Edgartown

Edgartown Harbor Lighthouse (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Edgartown, established in 1642, is the oldest town on Martha's Vineyard and a former whaling port. One of the things I have always loved about the town are the narrow streets lined with the old homes of whaling captains from the 19th century. Many of the homes have "widow's walks," which are platforms on the roofs of the buildings. The story goes that women stood on these platforms and searched the harbor for the return of their husbands' whaling vessels, but there is no evidence to suggest this actually happened. Instead, the platforms were built so that homeowners could to pour sand down the chimney in the event of a chimney fire, a story that is nowhere near as romantic as the widow's walks.

Edgartown is a beautiful little town and was one of the main shooting locations for the film JAWS in 1975. If you've seen JAWS, the town of Amity is Edgartown.

I am super excited to visit Edgartown when I go to the Vineyard in May because I will be doing a book signing at Edgartown Books!

Edgartown Books (Source: Store Website)

The book store is housed in one of those old whaling captain homes, shown above, and is located on the town's main street near the harbor. The woman who runs the store was incredibly nice when I contacted her and in addition to setting up the signing she told me she would be sure to stock The Ghosts of Aquinnah in the shop for the summer season.

It's safe to say I am a big fan of this shop and this town now. :D

My A-Z of Martha's Vineyard theme is inspired by my book, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, which is set on the island. Click here for all the info on the book.

D is for Deafness

Source: Wikimedia Commons

In the 1800s, Martha's Vineyard was known for having an unusually high percentage of deaf residents. In 1854, 1 in every 155 people on the island was deaf. In Chilmark, where the highest concentration of deaf people resided, 1 in 25 was deaf. By comparison, the national average at this time was one deaf person in every 5,728 people.

Due to this high percentage, Martha's Vineyard Sign Language was widely used on the island by both deaf and hearing people. The language was so prevalent, used in schools, churches, and essentially in all facets of everyday life, that deafness was not a barrier to full participation in the island community.

Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, which was influenced by French Sign Language, later became a major influence on the creation and development of American Sign Language.

As islanders began to move to the mainland and back, often bringing spouses from off island with them, the lines of hereditary deafness on the island diminished and the Martha's Vineyard language began to die out. The last person born into the island's sign language tradition was Katie West, who died in 1952.

There is hearing loss in my Vineyard ancestors, and both my dad and grandfather wore hearing aids as they aged. Since I seem to have almost all of their genes, I would not be at all surprised if I end up wearing them as well when I am older. If I do, the hearing aids will definitely be a reminder of my Vineyard genes!

My A-Z of Martha's Vineyard theme is inspired by my book, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, which is set on the island. Click here for all the info on the book.

C is for Chilmark

"Entering Chilmark" on State Road (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The town of Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard is the neighbor to the town of West Tisbury, which is the home of my family's cottage on the island.

I think Chilmark is one of the Vineyard's prettiest towns, as it is a combination of rural hills, winding roads lined with farmers' stone walls, and some of the most stunning coastal landscapes on the island.

Even the cemetery in Chilmark, called Abel's Hill, is pretty. At least during the daytime. It's a different story at night.

Abel's Hill Cemetery

Sheep farmers once populated the town and can still be found among the rolling green hills. Stella, the main character in my book The Ghosts of Aquinnah, lives in Chilmark and owns sheep herself.

My own great-great grandparents Franklin and Nancy Hammett lived on a farm in Chilmark. Not coincidentally, Stella's maiden name is Hammett.

If you were a fan of The X-Files, you may remember that Fox Mulder was born and raised in Chilmark, something I did not remember until I was doing research for this post. :D

My writing group Untethered Realms is also participating in this month's challenge and we are presenting an A - Z of fantastical creatures. For today's C post, I shared a fantastical feline called a Cat Sith. Visit us here to meet this kitty and to see our creatures throughout the month!

My A-Z of Martha's Vineyard theme is inspired by my book, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, which was published in December, 2013 and is set on the island. Click here for all the info on the book.

B is for Beetlebung & the April IWSG

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Beetlebung Corner is the heart of the town of Chilmark, which is located on the southwestern part of Martha's Vineyard. The town hall, Community church, library, and community center are all located at this corner.

For most of my life I thought beetlebung was merely a type of tree. It is, but it is called Nyssa sylvatica or tupelo everywhere in the world except on Martha's Vineyard. 

The term beetlebung comes from the island's whaling history. Whaling was a booming industry on the Vineyard for much of the 19th century, as whale oil was in high demand throughout the world. The Vineyarders stored the oil in large wooden casks for exporting, and the tools they used to make the casks were harvested from the local tupelo trees. They made wooden mallets called "beetles" and wooden stoppers called "bungs" for use with the casks, and thus the trees became beetlebung trees. 

The whaling industry is long gone, but the beetlebung name remains. 

The picture below was taken at Beetlebung Corner and is a good example of the town signs that are commonplace on the island. I've always liked this corner because when we come to it from our cottage in West Tisbury it means we are close to two of my favorite places, Menemsha and Aquinnah.

Today is not just "B" day for those of us participating in the A to Z Challenge, it's also the day for the monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh.

This month I'm insecure about the same thing I was last month - public speaking and the author events I have coming up in May and June. But as I posted on Friday, I participated in a small event for local authors last week and had such a good time that I feel much better about the other events now. I've also been practicing and following the great advice I received from others last month, so I feel more secure about the whole thing. Fingers crossed that continues! :)

My A-Z of Martha's Vineyard theme is inspired by my book, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, which is set on the island. Click here for all the info on the book.

Aquinnah & The Spring Fling Scavenger Hunt

Happy April and Happy A-Z, all!

Before I get to my A post I wanted to announce that today is also the start of The Spring Fling Scavenger Hunt at Night Owl Reviews. I am one of the sponsors of this year's hunt and am giving away an ebook bundle in collaboration with my publisher. Visit the NOR site to join the hunt and enter to win loads of gift baskets and bundles!

Now on to the A-Z!

My theme for this year's challenge is the A-Z of Martha's Vineyard, which is the setting for my book The Ghosts of Aquinnah. I am cheating a little bit with this post because it is actually the very first post I wrote for my very first A-Z challenge back in 2011. I used Aquinnah for the letter A and I certainly never could have guessed then that Aquinnah and the island would come to mean even more to me just a few years later.

So here is my post from April, 2011.

For the start of the A-Z April Challenge, and the letter A, I'm writing about one of my favorite places in the world, the town of Aquinnah on the island of Martha's Vineyard.

Aquinnah is at the westernmost point of the island, and is known for its beautiful beach and spectacular cliffs. The name is a Wampanoag word that means "land beneath the cliffs," and the area is a sacred spot to the Wampanoag tribe. When you're there, it's easy to see why.

I visited the Vineyard last summer, as I have for so many summers of my life, and spent a good deal of my time on the beach beneath the cliffs. It's always one of my favorite places to visit, as there is nothing I love more than sitting on the beach and listening to the roar of the waves. On the last day we visited, the sand was especially cool and welcoming on our bare feet, and the ocean was such a bright shade of blue that it was hard to tell where the ocean ended and the sky began.

The highlight of this trip, as with any other trip to Aquinnah, was the cliffs, with their colorful mix of red, brown, and white clay.

I love walking the length of the beach to the edge of the cliffs, and the tip of the Island. It is undeniably beautiful, but it is also quite raw and somewhat intimidating, as you almost feel as if you are at the edge of the world, with nothing in front of you but the Atlantic Ocean stretching out for countless miles. Sometimes I've seen a boat way out on the horizon and I find myself wondering, who is out there? In my head I try to imagine who they are, and I've often thought one of these far-off boats could provide great inspiration for a story.

I think one of the reasons I have always had an interest in and affection for Aquinnah is that my great-great grandfather was the lighthouse keeper for the town in the 1850s. His name was Samuel, but everyone called him Squire because of his ability to read and write, skills that were uncommon in those days. Squire lived at the lighthouse with his family, and whenever I am there I can't help but wonder what it must have been like for them at the top of those cliffs in the middle of a fierce storm, with the wild ocean raging below.

Photo courtesy of wikimedia commons

The house is no longer there, but the red brick lighthouse remains, and it is still a working lighthouse. Even now, the cliffs and the beach are pitch black at night, and only the rotating beacon of the lighthouse penetrates the darkness. I took a tour of the lighthouse back in the 1990s, and it was a thrill to climb to the top and get a 360 degree view of the sea and surrounding area.

Photo courtesy of wikimedia commons

I'm not sure when I'll go to the Vineyard again, but I know that I will at some point, just as I always have. And I know when I do, Aquinnah and the ocean will be there to welcome me back.

(Unless otherwise noted, photos courtesy of my niece, Melanie.)