10 minute read
BOOK REVIEW
Haunted Hiking and Reading
There are so many ways to tackle the hikes of the White Mountains and beyond. You can attempt the 4,000-footers, go for the 52 With a View, take the hikes geared for kids or for dogs, or just look for the ones that guarantee views or waterfalls. It seems that there is something for everyone … and yet, there is still room to fill a niche.
Marianne O’Connor does just that with her book, Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire. This guide is great fun because it is part local history and part ghost story with the reward of a great hike or two. It’s one thing to know about elevation gain and difficulty level, but it’s also cool to add in hermits, UFOs, and ghosts. Each chapter in the book begins with the haunted story and then finishes with the hikes that are available in that same area.
Once your haunted hike is done for the day, it would only be appropriate to continue the theme with a good book when you are relaxing by the campfire or
back at home. There are many books that would fit that bill. Practically the whole Stephen King canon would do the trick, but that’s too easy. A perfect book for the times that would freak anyone out while enjoying the great outdoors is Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay.
In Survivor Song, Tremblay imagines a rabies-like virus that has transferred to humans. Spread by saliva, this insidious disease has a very short incubation period of an hour or less. Those infected lose their minds and only want to bite other people to spread the virus as much as possible before they succumb. At eight months pregnant, Natalie has been bitten. She has an hour to get the vaccine to possibly save her baby. She reaches out to her friend, Dr. Ramola Sherman, and asks for help to journey through the now hostile suburban landscape to reach the hospital.
The two women must dodge infected people, government roadblocks, and an armed militia taking the law into their own hands. It is quite plausible how quickly society falls apart, making this a very current horror story.
Switching gears entirely, Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth is the perfect book for those who get their scares from curses and hauntings. In 1902 at the Brookhants School for girls, two students— obsessed with each other and with scandalous writer Mary MacLane—start the Plain Bad Heroine Society to show their devotion. When they are killed by yellowjackets in the school orchard, the curse begins. The death of another student and a teacher follow before Brookhants is shuttered for good. Fast-forward to the present day, when an enterprising director decides to make a movie on the site of the old school. Featuring the hot young actress of the day, Harper Harper, the film is designed to be a movie within a movie. But things start happening on set. How much is production and how much is curse— and why is there always a persistent buzzing?
Plain Bad Heroines is dark, haunting, and ghostly, but also funny at times as the narrator talks directly to the reader. But there is no doubt that there is a lingering feeling of malevolence once the last page is turned … and readers will never view yellowjackets the same way again!
Both Tremblay and Danforth are New England-based authors, and their works are set in New England as well. Combining their books with a nice, haunted hike is a perfect recipe for a fall day. Laura Cummings owns and operates White Birch Books, an independent, full-service bookstore serving the Mt. Washington Valley and beyond.
Celebrating 25 years!
(603) 356-3200
PO Box 399 • 2568 White Mt Hwy North Conway Village, NH 03860 Just south of the park info@whitebirchbooks.com www.whitebirchbooks.com
The Colorful Craft
of Glassblower, Nathan Macomber
Breathing New Life into the Family Farm
By Karissa Masse
It’s 5 a.m., the kids are still dreaming, and Nathan Macomber is summoned out to the 120-year-old barn for his early morning chores. But instead of milking the cows or feeding the hens, Nathan turns up the heat and prepares to shovel raw silica into his 2,400-degree glass furnace. The glass crackles and sparks as he shovels “batch” into the mouth of the blindingly white-hot furnace, and waits for it to melt into the crystal clear translucent glass he begins each of his creations with. When it’s ready, he’ll gather hot liquid glass onto a blow pipe, like twisting golden honey onto a honey stick. Nathan is a glassblower, a profession not many can claim, but he’s carved out a life as an artist here in the Mt. Washington Valley, and he’s found success and fulfillment.
Nathan and his wife Stephanie bought the Macomber family homestead in the spring of 2002, though it had been in his family since 1949. They’ve been filling their home with children, pets, and colorful artwork ever since, including giant glass spiders that scale the exterior walls of the barn, and a barn door that features a 10-foot anime painting of Totoro from the 1988 Japanese film. “Totoro was my daughter’s first favorite movie. She had to watch it every single day for months on end.”
Nathan’s work might begin as a blob of clear glass, but it will end up as a surprisingly brilliant piece of colorful artwork. His glass is playful and energetic, and he is not a bit shy with color. In fact, viewing his portfolio is a thrilling roller coaster ride. He blows colorful large bowls, drinking tumblers, decorative paperweights, and vases, all exploding with shocking hues. But most characteristic of his work are his rondels. Created by spinning out a large bubble of glass and opening it to a flat plate-like shape, these rondels become suncatchers for the window or dynamic pieces of assembled art. Mounted on twisting wrought iron stands, his colorful rondels become giant gongs or colorful blossoms on the vine.
These assembled pieces have led Nathan to become a bit of a blacksmith too. His sister, Becky, worked for a blacksmith in Arizona and left her forge and anvil on the farm with Nate when she went off to grad school. Of course he couldn’t resist. Now, in addition to housing his glassblowing studio, the old barn is also home to his blacksmithing forge.
Nathan grew up in Westford, VT, but he recalls visiting his family farm as a kid. “Grampa died before I was born, but Gramma was here. Every other year another side of the farmhouse needed to be painted. We had these big family reunions
so we could all help paint the old farmhouse. They were like these huge painting parties.” His father’s parents were farmers in the 1950s. They had milk cows and huge vegetable gardens, sold hundreds of eggs to the local grocery store, and rented out bedrooms in the farmhouse to make ends meet. His mom’s parents were in the
hospitality business, and ran the Birchmont Inn (now the Red Jacket Inn), which burned to the ground in 1969. His grandparents lost everything, and the community reached out to help them. Carol Reed, a local and well-loved ski apparel store in North Conway (where Olympia Sports is now located) donated coats and boots to everyone in the family.
The path to Nate’s career as a glassblower began while he was enrolled at Prescott College in 1995. “It’s not so much that I found glass, it’s more that glass kinda found me.I had no idea what I was getting into. I had never seen any-
thing like it before. I’d done some stained glass, but that was totally different. Glassblowing was totally weird, really hot, fast, and scary! The tools, the sounds, the equipment—it was all just amazing.” He was in his early 20s and willing to work for free, just to get into another glassblowing studio. He picked up every business card for every glassblower he could find and found his way to a cooperative glassblowing studio in Prescott. “I worked for no pay in this sketchy, crappy studio with absolutely no ventilation. It was crazy, just two raging glory holes and a furnace in this tiny cement room. Talk
about hot!” After that, he helped build a studio for Jim Antonius—and ended up managing it for him. Jim became his mentor and Nate apprenticed with him, writing independent studies to get his degree in glass through Prescott College in 1999.
ABOVE: Nathan and his wife Stephanie bought the Macomber family homestead in the spring of 2002, though it had been in his family since 1949. Nathan would later add his glassblowing studio directly to the barn. F I N E C R A F T G A L L E R Y
Deirdre Donnelly
Nathan Macomber
By the time he and Stephanie moved onto the Macomber family homestead, Nate already had the background he needed to get started. He knew what it took to build and maintain equipment, and the cost to run it all. Not wanting to get in over his head, they started small, and he built his own glassblowing studio attached to the barn. His parents Charlie and Robin built a house on a parcel of the land a few years later, so they live right next door. “We go over and steal sugar from them. We don’t even call.”
He applied and became a juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen in 2003, opening the door to more opportunities, including selling his work in the eight craft galleries located throughout the state, and participating in the League’s Annual Craftsmen Fair, the oldest craft fair in the country. His family had a history with the North Conway League of NH Craftsmen Gallery, in particular. The North Conway gallery opened for business during the great depression, in 1932, and has been operating on its current premises since 1951. Sally Flagg, who owned the gallery from 1990 to 2006, knew Nathan’s grandmother on his father’s side, and Suzie Eastman, who worked at the League gallery for many years, knew his grandmother through their church.
Well on his way to success, Nathan was accepted to show his work at the American Craft Council shows in Baltimore MD, and for a time sold his glass to galleries all over the country. He has phased down since then. “With kids, I don’t want to travel as much. Now I’m part time with glass and part time with the kids. Steph works full time, so I’m Mr. Mom. I do most of the grocery shopping, cook dinner, take the kids to doctor appointments, and I love doing it all. When I was doing glass full time, it started feeling like work, and wasn’t as much fun. Mixing it up with the kids is way more hectic, but it’s a lot more fun.”
Another collaborative aspect of his creative life is a side business called Art From Ashes. This art glass business offers designs that incorporate a small amount of snowy ashes from a cremated loved one, right into the glass. Originally founded in 2006 by Jane Giat, Deb Brown, and Jenny Bourgeois in Amherst, MA, Art From Ashes brings together a handful of
Richard Roth
Jennie Blair
