I used every online resource available to me, and none of them were any help. We were going to Poland anyway, about then, and I decided the only way I was going to find out was by going to look for myself. And as I said, when we got there the bloody street was covered in snow and ice and I couldn't tell what it looked like. And I'll be honest with you, I couldn't tell you now why it was so important. It was a two and a half hour drive on very treacherous roads, and although we had a really nice day in Krakow - a town I will never turn down an opportunity to visit - and I got an incidental look at Krakow police HQ, which was also mentioned in the book (as a big building with lots of police cars parked outside) we could have just stayed at home and it wouldn't have affected the book one iota. I think I may have been getting dangerously obsessive about detail by then.
So you sprained your ankle and didn't get the pics you needed? Did you at least get to see what it was like so you could describe it? (Sorry; dangerously obsessive again) I'm glad it's improving. At least you can claim to have suffered for your art; in my case it's usually everyone else who suffers.
Yeah, you're right, I'm going to unpack the infodump anyway. You know me too well.

No need for a pic in my case, fortunately. I had automatically typed in something about the road being a lighter gray than the verge. Then it hit me, was it really? (Yep, it is.)
But your case sounds to me like a serious jones for the city. :-) Greg and I have promised ourselves and Eastern European junket one of these days, and I'm sure Krakow will be on the list. He went to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary with his dad about eight years ago, and I was (and am) so jealous of everything except his father's company. But our next out-of-country experience will be Thailand. My second-year college roommate is from Bangkok, and for some reason, she and her husband want us to visit. You'd think after living with the sophomore me for a year, she'd know better, but happily, she doesn't.
Hugs and smiles,
Jean Marie

Edited at 2008-06-18 11:28 pm (UTC)

And now you're thinking to yourself, "I sprained my ankle for that?"
I'm going to bed now because it's really late, but tomorrow I'll tell you a story about me and Stephen King's Polish translator and historical accuracy. It's a good story, too. Which makes a change.

Can't wait to hear the story! *user grins in anticipation* Meanwhile, hope you have a great night's sleep
I'm afraid I got the sprained ankle, not because of my ill-advised desire for research but because the universe decided I shouldn't go to California this week. I've been hearing the warning bells for months, but it was something I was honor-bound to do. Nuh uh, said the universe. It does that to you sometimes.
The frustrating part is I may never know why California was such a bad idea in the grand scheme of things. I just have the proof that it was.
Hugs and headshakes,
Jean Marie

It's not a wildly entertaining story, but a few years ago I published a couple of stories in a Polish magazine called Fenix and the editor who bought them was (and may still be, for all I know) Stephen King's Polish translator. This was around the time I was starting to write The Villages and we were chatting one evening about research and getting stuff right, and I told him one thing that had annoyed me was a sequence in The Dead Zone which is a flashback to the German invasion of Poland. Now, the German invasion took place in early Autumn in Poland, which is a lovely, warm, golden time, but King has it happening in a dreadful thunderstorm and rain and mud. I said I thought that was sloppy research (Alan Furst gets it dead right in Dark Star) but the editor said he thought it was okay because the rain and the thunderstorm suited the setting and the tone of the scene. We argued around that point for quite a few years. Which just goes to show how dull the rest of my life really is.
I do hope the universe isn't stopping you going to California for any apocalyptic reasons. The OJM's in California.

I like that story. Reminds me of an article I read a couple years ago which suggested writers enjoy hanging and arguing with other writers a lot more than they enjoyed the writing itself. Seems the whole "open vein refill cartridge" gig can get kind of old. :D
No need to worry about California or the other JM yet. It could be simply the universe wanted me in northern Virginia for some reason. It might even be a good reason. We won't know for a couple of days.
Hugs and smiles,
Jean Marie

Right now, I'd enjoy cutting my toenails with a potato peeler more than I enjoy writing. But that's another story.
At the moment the other Jean Marie's in South America and Mike's probably off somewhere saving the world, so in retrospect if something awful were to happen to California, now would be the time.
Oh God, I said that out loud, didn't I...

Appropo of which, I'm working on my first Viv story. At the moment, the opening reads:

“Don’t cross the old stone bridge after dark,” the bartender warned. “It’s haunted by a deadly siren. No man who’s heard her song or seen her face has ever lived to tell the tale.”
Vivienne Deconner lipped beer suds from the fringe of her fake moustache. “Then how do you know it’s a siren?”
“Oh, lots of people heard her before they closed the toll house,” the bartender’s wife, the tavern cook, replied. “But they were all safe inside, and some of them went mad from it just the same. You listen to me, mister—you stay away from that bridge or they’ll be sending you home to your momma in a box. That siren’s got teeth as big as carving knives and claws as sharp as razors.”
“Get out,” Viv said.
“She do,” piped one of the codgers sitting next to the cold hearth. “We all seen the bodies. They got nothing but big red holes where their guts used to be.”
Great. Irresistible monster in front of her and immovable bounty hunter less than four hours behind her. Viv slapped twice the asking price of her meal on the table. “Thanks for the warning. I think I will make an early night of it. You got a spare room?”

Hugs and smiles,
Jean Marie

More! More! *\o/*

It's okay? So far you don't hate me forever? *big nervous grin*
I'll be sending out a call when it's ready for beta reading. So far I'm only about 1600 words in. A friend's soliciting stories for a small press anthology featuring sirens (duh!) and was worried she wouldn't get anything that wasn't erotic. At which point, Viv popped in to say, "I have story." The big question is will it come in under the wordcount. No big, as far as I'm concerned. I'd been wanting to try OSC's Traveling Medicine Show.
Now if Viv'd only tell me what happened to her in "Pussy in Boots". *grrr*

You'll have to try harder than that to make me hate you forever, and I don't honestly think I'm the person you need to be thinking about.
More, Jean Marie. *\0/*

Teri and I were backing and forthing on "Pussy in Boots" in the months before she died. Mostly, she was writing (when she got a spare, painfree minute from her editing job) and I was asking awkward questions. It took me a while to "get" Viv, but I don't think she'd have any problems with me continuing the adventures. Viv's much too good a character to abandon--especially when you consider the mayhem she can cause.
SJ and I talked about finishing TSFGDT (aka Muffy) too, but I'm not sure I remember everything she had planned and he's been having health issues of his own.
Hugs,
Jean Marie

Can I talk to you about this in private tomorrow when I'm not so tired that I'm falling asleep in mid-reply?
I didn't realise SJ was ill again. This is shaping up to be a bit of a car-crash.

Sorry, I only read your post in my inbox and I didn't see the rest of it. Yes, I have a serious jones for Krakow. It's a marvellous town. I didn't like Warsaw at all. If you and Greg do Eastern Europe, please put Krakow on your itinerary.

Will remember that. Hugs and smiles, Jean Marie