{"id":518,"date":"2023-02-27T15:17:23","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T15:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=518"},"modified":"2023-02-27T15:17:24","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T15:17:24","slug":"rosalie-knecht-on-vera-kelly-julius-and-a-fateful-ice-cream-cone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/rosalie-knecht-on-vera-kelly-julius-and-a-fateful-ice-cream-cone\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosalie Knecht on Vera Kelly, Julius’ and a fateful ice cream cone…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I was doing press for the first of the three Vera Kelly novels, an interviewer asked if I had ever been to Julius\u2019, a storied (and claimant for the oldest) gay bar in New York. I said that I hadn\u2019t. She seemed a little disappointed; I was a little disappointed in myself. I was writing a mid-century series with a gay protagonist, and Julius\u2019 had been a beloved mainstay of mid-century gay life in the West Village. It was even the site of the ‘sip-in’, one of the earliest protests against anti-gay vice laws in the city. I made an intention to visit, and then, in the rush of my job and my book and other responsibilities large and small, I forgot about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Friday afternoon that fall, I finished my day at the mental health clinic where I worked and cast about for something relaxing to do before getting on the train. I was in the first trimester of my first pregnancy, and I was exhausted and queasy all the time. In times past, I would have had a drink with co-workers to celebrate the end of the week, but that was obviously off the table. Instead, I wandered south from the clinic on West 15th Street alone, looking for a way to treat myself. It was a beautiful September day, and after walking for a while I was delighted to find myself in front of Van Leeuwen, one of my favourite ice cream shops. I sat in the window with a cone. Looking out across the street, I spotted Three Lives bookstore. Would they have my book on display inside? I could go check\u2013 but I quashed the thought. After all, my book had been out for months already; it was probably not on display, and why should I go ruin my own afternoon by finding out for sure? It was while this reasonable, mature thought was forming that I realized I was looking straight at Vera\u2019s face. My book was propped in the window, staring right back at me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The bookstore and the ice cream shop, facing each other on their respective corners, pried loose a memory. I had been here before, at this Van Leeuwen, across from a bookstore, one night when I was out with a friend at \u2013 Julius\u2019. I turned my head and there the bar was, cattycorner across the street. I had been there years before and forgotten. Vera, the bar and me, sitting there, forgetting and remembering \u2013 it was as if I had run into my own character, having a night out, living her own life. As if she had managed to surprise me, even though I had invented her.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was doing press for the first of the three Vera Kelly novels, an interviewer asked if I had ever been to Julius\u2019, a storied (and claimant for the oldest) gay bar in New York. I said that I hadn\u2019t. She seemed a little disappointed; I was a little disappointed in myself. I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":false,"total_views":0,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions\/526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}