Where are you today?

Thank you for starting this thread!

I'm still in Antebellum and Civil War America (Georgia, Virginia, Philly, Washington D.C.). I've been there a while and am fairly comfortable with it. We'll see where I go next . . . it might be the Civil War and the immediate postwar years.

ETA: I should clarify that I'm "still" there because I'm editing like a fool. I need to clarify my MC's relationship to slavery in one WIP and do a bit of clean-up and character work on the other.

I'm at a bit of an impasse, that 40,000 word marker where I know what is going to happen, just not sure how to get my MC from A to B. So I have spent today finishing of some research on slavery in the Roman Empire, and writing some character bios.

As for where I am in the novel, my Roman spy is in Galilee having disguised himself as a Greek slave in an attempt to infiltrate Kokhba's followers, and kill a traitor. In a reversal of fortune, he really is enslaved now and unable to make contact with the XXII Legion.

I'm in Egypt, 1279 BC. My MC has just been given a tip off about a tomb robbery, and is planning to lay an ambush for them. Unfortunately he's the one about to be ambushed. I'm dithering about writing this scene, because I don't know where to start, or if I should even show it at all, or just skip to him staggering home covered in blood. Hmmm.

I'm in 1901, shifting between the U.S. and the Philippines. I think I spent about 6 months researching the Philippine War.

It's summer in 1936 Philadelphia. The big news stories are about Joe Louis having lost a boxing match because of a hypodermic injection in his left arm--or for some other reason, and about hope for Jesse Owens's upcoming performance in the Olympics in Europe where race is not the terrible problem it is over here. Meanwhile, everybody is thrilled about the Italians getting whopped by the brave Ethiopians.

It's all true, you only have to read the Negro newspapers.

Flicka said:

Just thought it'd be fun to keep each other updated about what's going on in our projects (and get to know each other a bit), so how about you tell us what you are writing today? If you want to share a sentence, go ahead. Otherwise, it'd be nice just to hear what you're working on.

That's where I am. How about you?

Click to expand...

Getting to the end of a tale of daring-do. The MC has saved the Directory from the Gilded Youth and has let Napoleon take credit for it. She is sneaking back to England for Christmas in the Country and some winding up of loose ends in the story. Consulting the letters of Frances Burney to get some 1790s tone in the MCs letters.

1911, in 227 Cheyenne Walk, Chelsea, at a dinner party listening to a story from my host.

February 4, 1927, at the University of Toronto. It's sunny with a high of -6 Celsius (aren't newspapers the best resource?). My 19-year-old main character just agreed to go to a dance with the friend of the girl his brother is smitten with. He hates dances, and he needs a cigarette (he dropped his matchbook, which fell into a puddle of melted snow), and he isn't at all sure his tuxedo jacket is pressed, but his brother's really excited.

This is sort of the successor to the novel I've been working on the last couple years--I tossed 90% of that but kept the characters, setting, and basic premise. For my own sanity I've decided it's now a new novel.

Right now I'm at the top of the ziggurat in ancient Babylon. My MC just brought up the throne room lion to stand beside the king. The populace is gathered in the precinct below awaiting the signal to bow before the city god as sacrifice is made to protect them from the enemy army surrounding their walls.

Wow, really loved reading where everyone is! Yay, solidarity--I'm not the only one who spends half the day imagining I'm somewhere I'll never get to go!

So, I'm still in Serbia the summer before WW2 starts. Been there off and on for years, trying to figure out this editing thing...

Ah, so others are getting more specific, and I want to, too.

So, right now it's spring 1864 in the Shenandoah Valley. Hamilton (a Confederate soldier) has just learned that the squatters he befriended are actually runaway slaves. And he's waking up now to find them gone, which makes him sad. Which will lead in short order to him being drunk.

I'm in spring 1894 in Berkshire, England, and my historical MC, Victoria, is at a house party.

I'm sitting between two world wars, and an early settlement of a country....with very few words....just waiting for that great thing called inspiration to fly me away.

Excellent thread.

I'm in Ruby Valley, NV, in the early 1860s.

I'm in the stables at Snape Castle in Yorkshire in 1538, where my main character has been chatting to Lord Latimer about what happened to him in the Pilgrimage of Grace and he's rolling his eyes a bit about his wife Katherine (Parr)'s reformist tendencies.

I'm up to February 17 (1927). My other main character (the brother of the fellow above) went with his new girlfriend to see Don Juan starring John Barrymore at the Regent Theatre in Toronto (which was totally playing that day--50c tickets!). She thought they ought to maybe head to his place after for some petting [making out]. He was floored, and agreed.

In real life I went today to see a 1926 film at a theatre built in 1912, haha. No petting ensued, sadly.

Cool thread! Let's see...my MC is hanging onto the dragon prow of her brother's longship. They're skirting the coast of Angle Land in a gale, heading for Lindesfarne. It's 793 AD.

As for me, I keep plinking keys, waiting to see exactly what this story is going to be about.

It's 1356 in north Cornwall. My 21st century time-traveler is just getting clued in on the local festival. It's the nameday of the parish church's patron saint, and since it's spring, and young people's fancies WILL turn to thoughts of love...he's enchanted both with the customs he's seeing for the first time and with the local herbalist/healer.

Fascinating eras described above!
I'm about 50,000 words into my crime novel set in 1963 Las Vegas (the prequel to "Joey's Place").

Yesterday I finished my third book about James Burke. My editor says she's happy to have them without a beta reader, but I'm wondering if anyone would be interested...

On my fifth novel, still in the 1600's. The pirates have looted the viceroy's compound before shelling it. A lot of them were former slaves...

"While rest of you were having fun looting, I was stealing records, deeds mainly." Jeanne Pierre smiled.

"What do we care about deeds? We cannot tolerate a Spanish presence in these waters!" Batu shouted.

"The deeds were for everything. Every slave bought and sold, who they were sold to and where they were taken." Jeanne Pierre continued.

"Our children? You have found our children?" Shayla asked.