Monday, June 13, 2016

Portrait of a Girl Adrift — Waylaid by Research

I’m happy to say that I am nearly done with the first draft of Portrait of a Girl Adrift, the continuing saga of Leila at large, aka the Portraits series. In this novel, she’s on a quest to find out about her deceased mother who abandoned her when Leila was three years old. Lots of psychological stuff as usual—fun to research. Those parts of the story write up fairly quickly. And then there’s the settings…

Generally, I write about places where I’ve spent considerable time, places like New Hampshire, Maine and Long Island, so it’s all second nature. But the settings in Portrait of a Girl Adrift are a bit beyond my proverbial backyard. Places like New Orleans, the Gulf of Mexico via a 47’ sailboat, Cuba, and Grand Cayman Island. So, the writing has been slow. And just because I’m about 10% away from finishing the first draft—I should say very rough first draft—does not mean I’m anywhere near done. I won’t even try to project when it might be ready for publication.

Speaking of settings, New Orleans being one of them, I did have an opportunity to do some firsthand research over the winter. A couple of scenes take place at the Lafayette Cemetery No.1. Fortunately, not much has changed at the cemetery since the mid 1980s, unlike the rest of the city since Katrina in 2005. More on that later...

Writing about sailing across the Gulf of Mexico in a 47' sailboat has probably taken the most time, and that part of the research is still not complete. And then there's Grand Cayman Island...

The trick is finding information—aside from offshore banking articles—about Grand Cayman in 1984. I also visited Grand Cayman very briefly in January, but the island now is much different than it was thirty years ago. So, the research is taking a little longer than I expected. Nevertheless, I think it would be fun to blog about some of the information I’ve come across over the course of writing Adrift. At any rate, it will help me to blog a little more regularly than twice annually!

Meanwhile, here’s a pretty picture of 7-Mile Beach on Grand Cayman Island

Stay tuned…


8 comments:

  1. Learning more about this character, for you, must be exciting! Uncovering elements of her life you hadn't thought about. Or maybe even changed over this long period of time.

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    1. It's true, Craig--when I wrote the first story, I had only a sketchy outline of what was up with Leila's mom. As I started writing ADRIFT, interviewing my characters as I do, I was surprised at the information they revealed! I'll admit I was pretty excited. Crazy stuff, this writing business! :)

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  2. Any kind of learning is fun. In person learning can be terrific, especially when it's for research purposes. Good luck with this new story! Maybe you can FB network your way to someone who knew GC in 1984 for an interview? In fact, I may know someone who could help you...pretty sure she has been going to GC for years...just have to make sure I have the right island. Let me know if you would like me to reach out to her?

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    1. Hi Liza, Yeah, it would be great to interview someone who frequented Grand Cayman back in the 80s. I'm especially interested some of the residential areas that probably weren't as developed as they are now. I've targeted the West Bay or perhaps the Governors Creek areas on account of the canals--important to the story setting and accommodation of my 47'sailboat. There is a lot of great information regarding the flora and fauna of the Caymans, but not so much about the progression of development outside the resort areas along the 7-Mile Beach. It would also be nice to know of the local eateries back then.

      So, yeah, if you want to contact your friend, that'd be awesome! Thanks! :)

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  3. I have been wondering what Leila has been up to lately. I reckon she will figure it out...reckon?

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    1. I guess there's really only one way to find out what Leila's up to, reckon?

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  4. Waiting patiently for you to finish. Patiently being the operative word.

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    1. I can't wait for you to read it! I'm sure it will need a lot of help to whip it into proper publishing shape! :)

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