OH EXCELLENT! You still have my phone number, right? I've got yours.
There's probably at least one novel to write before I start on them (and I have to learn how to write mysteries!), but I already know a lot about their life together. Including their street address in Greenwich Village. And Harry grew up in Flatbush. I may have to visit you often. For research. :)
Yes. We can walk around this fall maybe, and pick out a nice house for him. Both the boyhood house, and the grown up house. I would like that a lot.
I am pretty sure I have your number. I will make absolutely sure before I leave. What I will not have is a car, but I can find a way to get to you I am sure. MIL is in Berlin so not too far away.
Harry lived over his father's store when he was a boy. All the kosher butchers may be gone now, but perhaps we can find where one might have been.
And Harry and Andrew have an apartment at 177 Bleecker Street. It's like Platform 9 at King's Cross with the hidden Platform 9 3/4 beside it -- because Doctor Strange's mansion is at 177A. Harry loves comics. I couldn't resist.
I looked on the real estate sites to see the apartments there. They're tiny (well, I suppose not by NYC standards) but lovely - big windows, a small fireplace in the living room, and two little bedrooms, one to either side of the kitchen.
There's a Pinkberry on the ground floor now. If we want to go look at it, that's a bonus. (Yes, I have a Pinkberry within walking distance of my house. What I don't have is you that close.)
I have a car, and Berlin's half an hour at most. And there are diners.
Tons of kosher everything in Boro Park-- few blocks from me. It is a community of mostly hasidic orthodox families. Lots of little kids, everything within walking distance. Most of the places in Boro Park are actual houses, rather than apartments. They have little lawns even. I can imagine that Harry's grandparents might have settled there, if you want to write it that way.
Anyhow, walking along looking at parts of Brooklyn sounds fun-- if we decide a neighborhood is possible, we can go roam it, and take pictures. I am picturing this in the fall maybe, when it is less hot. Pinkberry will be good then too.
But... as least as I understand it, Boro Park is not the same as Flatbush. And I want Flatbush in the 1930s - heavily Jewish, but not necessarily Hasidic, and a lot of lefty-labor-socialist types. Because there's all SORTS of trouble that can happen in the 1950s to Harry's college friends who were involved in that sort of thing.
Also Ebbets Field, then.
So the inhabitants may not be the same but I bet the buildings will mostly still be there and I have an idea what I'm looking for.
I want to say something pithier and relevant, but I'm just coming off the tail end of a long power outage, and I'm exhausted and feel like hell. But this is all SO true, and has been a source of great frustration for me. I have a naturally long pace as a writer, and the idea of trying to cram any emotional significance into a short story is painful for me to contemplate.
Sometimes a short story can be freeing - I'd originally started plotting "Lost and Found in the Pacific" with a target wordcount of 10-20K. Then I spotted a call where it would have to be 3-8K. I knew I could knock out 3Kwords in a couple of nights, which made the effort seem lighter - and then the trick came to narrowing down the focus until just the core of the story remained.
It came out at about 6500K, in the end. I don't know that I could have crammed it into 3K - it would have turned into a mere vignette. Which is fine for fanfic, because your audience knows the characters already; all you have to do is say their names to clue the readers in. When you have to introduce them from scratch... not so much.
But I knocked it out in four days.
And it's the absolute heart of their connection
( ... )
I guess this is why all of my anthology call submissions have had the two characters know each other already. :D I find it easier to go from friendship to love (if that's even necessary!) in a short story. The short stories that have gone from first meeting to falling in love have been longer. I just find slow build romance easier and more believable than what would be required for a shorter story.
I admit to being a little dismayed that the deadline for Uncommon Valor was pushed back. I have to wait even LONGER for news. *paws face* Still, I'm glad you get a chance to write for it with the new deadline. I want to read more about Harry and Andrew.
Comments 11
Reply
There's probably at least one novel to write before I start on them (and I have to learn how to write mysteries!), but I already know a lot about their life together. Including their street address in Greenwich Village. And Harry grew up in Flatbush. I may have to visit you often. For research. :)
Reply
I am pretty sure I have your number. I will make absolutely sure before I leave. What I will not have is a car, but I can find a way to get to you I am sure. MIL is in Berlin so not too far away.
Reply
And Harry and Andrew have an apartment at 177 Bleecker Street. It's like Platform 9 at King's Cross with the hidden Platform 9 3/4 beside it -- because Doctor Strange's mansion is at 177A. Harry loves comics. I couldn't resist.
I looked on the real estate sites to see the apartments there. They're tiny (well, I suppose not by NYC standards) but lovely - big windows, a small fireplace in the living room, and two little bedrooms, one to either side of the kitchen.
There's a Pinkberry on the ground floor now. If we want to go look at it, that's a bonus. (Yes, I have a Pinkberry within walking distance of my house. What I don't have is you that close.)
I have a car, and Berlin's half an hour at most. And there are diners.
Reply
Anyhow, walking along looking at parts of Brooklyn sounds fun-- if we decide a neighborhood is possible, we can go roam it, and take pictures. I am picturing this in the fall maybe, when it is less hot. Pinkberry will be good then too.
Reply
Also Ebbets Field, then.
So the inhabitants may not be the same but I bet the buildings will mostly still be there and I have an idea what I'm looking for.
Reply
Reply
But the history is there, and the buildings.
Reply
I want to say something pithier and relevant, but I'm just coming off the tail end of a long power outage, and I'm exhausted and feel like hell. But this is all SO true, and has been a source of great frustration for me. I have a naturally long pace as a writer, and the idea of trying to cram any emotional significance into a short story is painful for me to contemplate.
Reply
It came out at about 6500K, in the end. I don't know that I could have crammed it into 3K - it would have turned into a mere vignette. Which is fine for fanfic, because your audience knows the characters already; all you have to do is say their names to clue the readers in. When you have to introduce them from scratch... not so much.
But I knocked it out in four days.
And it's the absolute heart of their connection ( ... )
Reply
I admit to being a little dismayed that the deadline for Uncommon Valor was pushed back. I have to wait even LONGER for news. *paws face* Still, I'm glad you get a chance to write for it with the new deadline. I want to read more about Harry and Andrew.
Reply
Leave a comment