Wednesday, August 26, 2009

I love where I work

I work in a historic building on 4th Avenue North here in downtown Nashville. The back of the building is on Printer's Alley, named for the printing business that took place in the early 1900's. In fact, if you are standing in Printer's Alley, on the Church Street side, and looking south at the building across the street, you can see where the words "Nashville Banner" used to be affixed over the door. It was the defunct paper's main office.

But enough with history. I could go on forever.

Today the alley is better known for strip clubs, bars and music. It looks sketchy in the early morning, and it smells like stale beer and urine if they have not hosed down the street good enough.

The alley is a favorite place for artists. I have seen Dolly Parton shoot a video, and many photographers take musicians here for a mad cool backdrop. It is not unusual to see many things going on.

The past couple days I have noticed a big production going on. They even have a trailer for craft services, so I knew it was a big deal. The first day they shot at Boubon Street Blues Bar, and yesterday they were at a cool looking residential property across the street.

Last night I noticed a throng of people surrounding a guy, who was signing autographs, as I was just coming up to my Printer's Alley Parking Garage.

It was Luke Perry, of Beverly Hills 90210 fame. He looked rather petite in stature to my eye. I guess they look bigger on TV. I was never really into 90210, so I went about my business of getting home.

This morning I saw a security guard patrolling the trailers, so I asked him what was going on. He said they were shooting a movie called "Bailey" about a jazz musician. Luke Perry starred in it, and Michael Clark Duncan (from the Green Mile) was the other star, and was around the set a lot.

I WOULD HAVE REALLY LIKED TO MEET HIM! Who did not love his character in The Green Mile?

Anyhoo, the nice security guard said they were finishing up in Printers Alley today, and were moving on to their next location later today, somewhere in Germantown, which is a historic neighborhood in North Nashville.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

40,000

I am now at 40,000 words. I cannot believe how quickly the sexy curves are coming to me. I guess it is because I worked on the skeleton for so long, I am able to pull out bits of story and back track or expound to carry the details through the length of the book.

This is really fun y'all.

So today during my break I figured out the sequence of days, shifted around some stuff to make it flow better, and now know where I need to fill in more story line. I don't know if other writers do it this way, but it just makes sense to me.

My brother in law is an excellent artist, so I have asked him to work on the cover art for The Riverview. Give my building a face that readers can connect with it.

Today as I walked back from the library, I looked at the buildings along Church Street, and in my mind I had random facts about them.

For example, the Methodist Church used to be wider. They had two bell towers, one on each side. At some point, they got lopped off. That's why it looks like a big cube.

The Cohen Building, that cute building next to The Viridian that was recently refurbished - it was once owned by Meyer and Etta Cohen. Meyer ran a jewelry store on the street level of the building, and their residence was on the first floor. Etta enjoyed the view from the front balcony on Church Street, which was their bedroom.

I could go on for many many more paragraphs about the notorious Climax and Utopia, both on 4th Avenue North. But neener neener you will just have to read my book.

I hope people dig it, but I especially hope the people of Nashville dig it, since there is so much history that they will learn.

Monday, August 17, 2009

A Day in the Life

August 17, 2009
5:52 am - Turn alarm off and sleep until 6:30.
6:30 - 7:30 - Shower, dress, eat breakfast and try to give a thyroid pill down my cranky 18 year old cat with out getting bitten. Glad I'm up to date on my tetanus shot.
7:30 - 8:00 - Drive to work, park and walk down dodgy alley to work building.
8:00 - 11:30 - Work work work
11:30 - 12:30 - Eat lunch (Russian Kidney Bean Salad today!) and proofread my book for the eleventy seventh time.
12:30 - 5:00 - Work work work
5:00 - 5:30 - Drive to Coleman Center
5:30 - 6:30 - Work out at Coleman Center until I am a sweaty beast.
6:30 - 6:45 - Drive home.
7:00 - 7:15 - Shower until I am not a sweaty beast.
7:30 - 7:45 - Cook dinner. Tonight we are having fish tacos. Quick and delicious!
8:00 - bandaid on fingers o'clock - Give Inky her other thyroid pill.
8:00 - 10:00 - Watch movie. Tonight we are watching Heat with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. Hope it doesn't suck.
10:00 - whenever I fall asleep - Watch Andy Griffith until I pass out. That show relaxes me. Must be the Barney Fife factor.

The end.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Words count

Y'all. So today I wondered how many words I have written for my book, so I did a word count.

I have written 35,000 words. I don't think I've ever written so many words in a single document ever.

According to research I have done online, 50,000 to 110,000 words would be considered a novel, and most publishers won't touch a first novel that is less than 70,000 words.

This means I am at the half-way point I guess. I must say that I am really enjoying the sexy curves, adding the fat to my muscular skeleton of a story. I am learning so much about Nashville.

I am having fun!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

The Way I Roll

I am a person with many unfinished projects. Current unfinished projects are:

A beaded bracelet
A scarf
My novel
Cleaning out my closet

I tried to tackle the last one a couple weeks ago. Really, I did. But when I pulled my craft box out of my closet, it opened up yet another project.

A few years ago I was really into making beaded jewelry, and I made some very pretty creations that to this day I wear and will continue to wear. I did throw out some things that I knew I would never, ever do, and would be pointless to donate, so I did make some progress. But I found a bag full of adorable necklaces and bracelets, complete with clasps, that I really needed to do something with.

So, I paired up matching necklaces with bracelets (they are all chains of six petal - or bead - flowers in a rainbow of colors) and put them in tiny baggies. I then unearthed my loose beads and findings (clasps, jump rings, etc.) and decided to make necklaces and bracelets where already completed jewelry needed a mate. All in all, when I made mates and bagged them, I had 45 sets. I am very active in my church, and I know the children's minister well, so I asked her if she had any use for the jewelry I made. Turned out she did. They were preparing goodie bags for the children, and they would be a perfect addition. So, I gave the jewelry to her on Sunday, and little girls received them. I can't wait to start seeing the girls in my church wearing something I made. I'm happy that I could bless the church with my creations.

I still have more beads, and I've decided to make the simple daisy jewelry until my bead and finding supply is exhausted. The children's minister said that anything else I contributed could be sold in the little goodie store available at church for the children. This makes me very happy. Since I'm in such a bead state of mind, I might even finish the free form beaded bracelet I started many moons ago.

But now more ideas are popping in my head for my book, so I know it will not be long before I am at work on it. My next stops will be the Tennessee State Archives and Property Records. I love researching turn of the 20th century Nashville. I am finding so much about my beloved city. This is the fun part! Time for more sexy curves!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

8 lbs

Y'all, I am 8 pounds away from my short term weight goal. That's less than 10!

See, I can do math.

I haven't seen the scale this low in a few years. I would like to give big smooches to myself for going to the doctor. If I hadn't have gone to the doctor, I would never have known about my extremely lazy thyroid. Thanks to that lovely pill I take every day, and the exercise I now enjoy, my clothes are looser, and I feel like a million bucks. Joy.

In celebration of this, I shall take down the picture of myself that is a year old. I love my short hair. It's time to celebrate it on this blog.

8 pounds ain't nothing when I've already lost 30!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

August 22

My birthday always puts me in a pensive state.
I am right now going through visions in my mind of past birthday parties in my back yard in New York, with the Slip n Slide glowing like the sun in the heat of the day. Me, at the head of the picnic table, with my playmates sitting around me. I am wearing a swimsuit soaked from countless runs down the Slip n Slide. I look down at a lovely home-made, chocolate frosted cake (hopefully with marshmallow fluff between the layers).
And then the presents, a plastic bounty is set out in front of me. Oooh, the Baskin and Robins Honey Hill bunch set! I played with that for hours and hours until the plastic seams began to bust, showing a thin layer of padding.


I loved this so much.

So I have my 38th birthday coming up. Last year's birthday was so wonderful. Mark and I went to Maggiano's on my actual birthday, and went to Chattanooga for the weekend, and had a very pretty time. I felt like a princess.


This year? Mark is taking me to Bonefish Grill, which I just found out this year to be rather awesome. I look forward to a fun time and good memories!

So what are birthdays about? I think I get them now that I have fleshed this out. It's about fun, and being around friends and family. And cake, lots of cake. Hopefully strawberry cake with pink frosting. I am a girl after all.