6 in the books; Writing On the Wall; Thank You For Lampooning

Just finished writing chapter six. Seven's on deck for this week.

In 2000 I visited a friend in Oxford, Mississippi. While there I toured the home of William Faulkner. What I remember most is that he'd drawn on the walls of his workroom the outline for a book. On my desk I have various mementos from trips to Dearborn and other articles and tidbits, but am getting closer to taking a page from Faulkner. Hell, I've already slapped a "The customer can have...any color that he wants so long as it is black" magnet on my fridge as a reminder. So, basically, I gotta get past Ford to get to either ice cream or vodka.

Since I got in touch with a local Dearborn reporter and blogger, the question, "How do you poke at an issue and a place cleverly?" has nagged me. And then, yesterday, I saw that Christopher Buckley, author of Thank You For Smoking among other works, will be speaking in NYC in October. I've requested TYFS from the library and look forward to picking his brain. Till then, I'll continue to bang away.

Return to Dearborn: Highlights

I had a number of questions I wanted to answer on this second trip to Dearborn. In general, this trip filled a lot of knowledge gaps, but many still remain. Here are some of the highlights.

I had already written about a scene that takes place during the playing of a old time baseball game in Greenfield Village...now I've actually seen one. It was pretty cool. The players were dressed in old garb, played by 1867 rules and did a nice job of educating and getting the crowd involved. I can now visualize and hear the scene taking place in my head rather than just assuming how it'd all look and sound like.

I also took a lot of photos. I took photos of all the places where scenes take place (thus far) and of key points around town which may see action in the future.

I also got a better feel for the difference between Dearborn and Detroit. The outskirts of Detroit along Michigan Avenue were rather desolate. A lot of buildings were vacant and there weren't many folks around. Dearborn seemed to have more going on. It looked like a number of new restaurants had either opened or were about to open, but that a number of buildings remained empty and free to lease.

Downtown Detroit, though, wasn't as clear cut. I attended a Tigers game at Comerica Park (Detroit beat Baltimore 5-3, Verlander pitched great, Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen homered) which is located right downtown. I liked the stadium and the Tiger fans, but from my seat in the left field bleachers I could see long empty buildings. While discussing the old Tiger Stadium which stands abandoned off Michigan Avenue no wrecking ball in sight (nor any other plans) with another fan during the game he provided me with a telling quote, "I don't know what it is, but Detroit likes to keep its crap."

That being said, I took a close look at the Montgomery Ward building in downtown Dearborn. There is a lot of talk that it'll be razed very soon, but from the look of it, it just appears that nothing is happening. If anything there are scary signs pertaining to asbestos within its entrances.

I had reached out to a local reporter/blogger before visiting, but didn't hear from him until my return. Nevertheless, I look forward to picking his brain and learning more about what's going on on the street. If all goes well I'd like to return in October for a few days as that's about when the story wraps up.

Chapter 6 continues to roll along. Hopefully I can finish it up this week. Events are starting to mount and the stakes are getting higher. While I have certain events in mind, others are sprouting here and there which have provided extra flavor and, hopefully, fun to the story.

Chapter Six Underway; Return to Dearborn

While I got a good start on Chapter Six this week, I did not finish. I did, though, get back to Dearborn for a follow-up visit which went very well. Will post more about that trip in the following days while working to finish Six.

Another week, another chapter

Finished a draft of chapter five this past Sunday. Have a start on six already and have some new plot threads from the end of five to work in that'll continue the conflict's escalation.

A minor theme that is emerging, and that I'm enjoying, is the lack of control we have over life; how we seek success in one place only for opportunities to appear elsewhere; or perhaps how few incidents are without a ripple effect. Intended or not.

Will spend some time this Wednesday reaching out to people in Dearborn in anticipation of this weekend's visit. Would like to pick the brain of a local blogger, in particular.

That's more like it

3 chapters in 4 days was a little ambitious. I did, though, bang out one which previously would have taken me anywhere from 7 to 30 days so that's an improvement and one I should be able to keep up especially since the next two chapters have already been started and have outlines ready to go.

This would all be a lot easier if it wasn't baseball season...