The Halfway House

I've officially hit the halfway mark in editing. This feels good, but there's plenty of work ahead. I'm definitely filling in blanks that previously existed.

Working at my Mom's (aka, the igloo) for the holidays will do me well. My sister will be leaving town soon so even fewer distractions although I have taken to hitting the gym once a day to shoot hoops. The local college students are currently out of town and the court's all mine. It's a beautiful thing.

I'm also getting some good background reading done. I finished Muslim Women in America by Haddad, Smith and Moore. Did you know there's an Arab doll called the Razanne? Good stuff. I'm now working on Douglas Brinkley's Wheels for the World about Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company.

Checked out

Now that I've decided to return to New York on Sunday, my mind has already checked out. I've edited the prologue, the first chapter and outlined changes for chapter two which will need a lot of work. But it's work I'd like to tackle back home.

Till then, I'm doing things in the area that I haven't been able to yet. I spent today in Ann Arbor. Tomorrow I'm going to tour Henry Ford's estate and, hopefully, go to a hookah bar. Yesterday I went to a local Arab restaurant. All in all, I've met good people who have done an excellent job of answering my questions and helping me better understand the area, its history and its people.

Unfortunately, I never got to work for a local Arab bakery which would have been a lot of fun and educational. Business locally's been slow and the bakeries I inquired at didn't need any extra part-time help.

There will be no shortage of distractions at home, but I've got into a good editing rhythm lately, working hours at a time unlike the first draft where I'd bang out some copy in an hour or so and call it a day. Plus, being this close to the end with so many people asking me how it's coming along, is only more incentive to wrap it up strong.

Mining Suzan; Book Trailers

My new style Dearborn-native friend Suzan continues to be a wealth of information. So far today I've learned more about Dearborn's old mayor, Mayor Hubbard, who was such a fierce racist that blacks from Detroit heading west would intentionally go around Dearborn to avoid him and his police force; that to get a pass (even a day pass) to the local recreation center, you had to be a Dearborn resident and that Hubbard kept blacks out of Dearborn (as did Henry Ford) which means they weren't hanging out at the rec center.

We also drove by the old Montgomery Ward site. I say "old" because, well, they done blown that shit up. Yup, the place where two of my main characters had an office is now dust. RIP Montgomery Ward Dearborn.

I also got to canvass around Dearborn Heights today which I'll do again a few more times before election day.

Lastly, Suzan's family and I went into Detroit to see a film. Before and after the film, Suzan and her sisters pointed out a myriad of local landmarks (the Fisher Building, Hitsville, U.S.A. (the home of Motown), the Fox Theatre, the new casinos and their geneses, the Wayne State University campus and the Detroit Institute of the Arts, to name a few). I'll see them again Friday night and hope to speak to a brother-in-law of Suzan's who used to work for Ford. Needless to say, I've been very fortunate to meet some good, informative people pretty quickly.

In other news, supposedly "book trailers" are all the rage as marketing tools. I kinda like the idea, though it also kind of defeats the purpose of a book (and being a writer) if you still have to sell your idea/work via a visual image/film. Regardless, I came up with about five different ideas for trailers last night. Buiser, if you're reading this, I'm gonna knock on your door, bro.

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.

Dearborn Day Three: I Got Your Setting Right Here, Pal

On Thursday, February 28, 2008, I toured the Ford Rouge Factory and watched the assembly of a Ford F-150. There were also two films, one on Henry Ford who had more of a Lincoln-like story (failed in business at least twice before making it) than I had ever known. The second film was about the factory and the steps and the people involved in the making of the F-150.

As one tours the factory, Ford, Bill Ford in particular, makes no bones about their dedication to the environment – until you realize that all their references to being green regard their processes (their Green Roof, use of fuel cells and recycled materials), not their vehicles.

There are no immediate plans to include the tour in the book, but I reckon my time at the factory will come in handy down the road. If nothing else, it's an essential part of the community and one that I needed to make myself familiar with.

Another part of the community that cannot be overlooked is the fantastically empty and dated Montgomery Ward department store smack dab across the street from City Hall, caddy corner from the Arab American National Museum, a stone's throw from a local newspaper and right on Michigan Avenue. One would think this makes for prime commercial real estate, but from what the innkeeper told me, the building's been vacant for years. According to that link (from 2006), offices within the building were rented out. Looked like a ghost town to me, but I'll have to follow up.

Well, one community's abandoned relic is another writer's central setting. Where better to set the rebirth of a local economy than from a beautiful building long overlooked?

Before leaving Dearborn, I picked up as many local papers as I could. I look forward to returning in a few months and taking in a Tigers game at Comerica. Now it's back to writing.

Day Two in Dearborn; A Book Title is Found?

On Wednesday morning I toured The Henry Ford which "showcases the people and ideas that have fired our imaginations and changed our lives." More specifically, the innovative ideas of Ford (cars), Thomas Edison (electricity) and the Wright Brothers (aviation) complemented by other exhibits on guns, quilting and Dairy Queen. Obviously we're working with Ford's (contemporary) definition of who and what fired our imaginations and changed our lives.

While walking around I asked myself what my protagonists would make of the museum. A famous Ford quote hit me in particular: "You can have any color (Model T) you want...as long as it's black." This line has become well-known for it's humor, but sadly it contradicts what we like to think the U.S. is all about: democracy and open-market capitalism, ie, the freedom of choice. We'd like to believe that we can choose the color of our cars, the leaders who represent us and through this openness we progress in perpetual revolution. But here is corporate titan Henry Ford restricting our choice and laughing about it. Kinda fucked up. I'll return to this. Now I'm off to the Arab American National Museum.

The museum's mission statement is: The Arab American National Museum's mission is to document, preserve, celebrate, and educate the public on the history, life, culture and contributions of Arab Americans. We serve as a resource to enhance knowledge and understanding about Arab Americans and their presence in the United States.

Unlike the Ford, which seems to lose its focus, this museum does exactly what it sets out to do. And I can't get this to not italicize. At the same time, the museum raises some questions: 1) It discusses briefly the "Save the South End" campaign in Dearborn, but I'd like to know more; 2) How are the Gulf War and Iraq War Iraqi refugees doing in the community?; 3) How do the Arab Christians and the Arab Muslims in the area get along?; and 4) How are female Arab entrepreneurs doing in Dearborn?

After visiting the breeding ground of a major American car manufacturer and an Arab American museum (in the same town) I had the following horrible thought: What if unemployment is high and the economy is down in this part of the country because it is home to two of the most infamously stubborn entities (American autos and Arabs) this side of Red Sox fans and vegans?

I'd like to think I was proven wrong later that same day on a few occasions. First, Dearborn is not black and white, Arab and non-Arab. There are no stark residential boundaries. The local KFC offers Halal chicken. The Arab restaurant I had dinner at offered American standards. Women in burqas enjoyed hot drinks on cold Dearborn days in coffee shops on the other side of town.

Dizzy with the prospects of such subplots, I drew myself back to book's main idea and Ford's quote. The U.S. suffers when it restricts choice, and by extension opportunity. By rejecting the help of two successful (foreign) entrepreneurs, choice and opportunity take a hit. So what do you call a book set in Ford's backyard that stonewalls two African entrepreneurs from offering Americans choice and opportunity? Why, "Any Color You Want" of course. ;)

Tomorrow: The making of a Ford F-150 and the renting of Montgomery Ward.