Proof:
That's me in the middle with the requisite perm and highlighted bangs. The braid is there, but not visible. Here's one a couple of months before:
This was my first trip to NYC with my friend Cindy. We came up to check out Pratt Institute where we would later take classes, but managed to squeeze in some sightseeing, including a visit to the World Trade Center (pictured) and some shopping on Canal Street (see bag). Cindy was way cooler than I, even then.
Anyway, back to the song. It struck me as coincidental for a couple of reasons. First, there's a line - You woke up screaming aloud - which, unfortunately, I did yesterday. I'm not normally prone to night terrors (I don't think) but once, after Dave made me watch a scary movie about a group of kids who break into a blind man's house, I uttered a cry when Dave came upstairs much later and woke me. He described it as "blood curdling" and "the utterance your body makes as its last sound before an imminent and terrifying death." I remember seeing him stunned and frozen at the bedroom door, too frightened by this sound to get too close and that I had been nonplussed and rolled over to go back to sleep. I had just mentioned the recent scream over my French toast and coffee and we had talked about it awhile, hypothesizing the potential causes. It's true that I prefer to watch my scary movies during the day, but I hadn't watched a scary movie on Thursday. I'd watched the trailer for The Haunting of Hill House remake on Netflix, though. Is the trailer enough to invoke involuntary shrieks from a sleep? Not sure. It may not have had anything to do with what I'd been watching. Like many post-burglary residents in a famous-for-crime city, I'm twitchy about break-ins. I'd like to think that I'd go all vigilante like the blind man in the scary movie, wielding my pink aluminum bat and unleashing some whoop-ass, but I'm secretly afraid that I would freeze, hide, cry, or otherwise fold in the moment in the most un-movie-like way.
But the second reason the song was timely is that I actually am building a mystery novel. It doesn't look like much yet:
Eventually those post its will be on the roll of paper in an order that makes sense. They are color coded so I can keep track of my main and secondary characters, pivotal plot points, and the separate threads. As I build this out, I know that I will revisit my previous novel and make a few adjustments so that it flows a little easier into this one. I have to say that I have been inspired by my binge-listening of Preston and Child's Pendergast series. They seem to have little difficulty managing multiple points of view and outrageous premises that all seem to weave together into compelling and fun stories. Challenge accepted!
I've been focused on shorter fiction in the last few years, trying to get some stories published, but it's time to revisit my novels and get in the rhythm again. That means weird research, lots of random questions, impulsive scribbling when I'm out and about, and so on. And I'll be crippled by my inability to name my characters, so feel free to volunteer monikers for my suspects, victims, witnesses, and so forth.
That random collection of colored notes above will become the second Gina Morrison mystery, River of Death. Gina will leave Baltimore for a writing retreat at a not-so-peaceful lake house in North Carolina hoping to get some work done in the off season. Cue the deadly distractions!
And because I mentioned Aimee Man, here's one of my favorites of hers: Save Me
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