An Exhibit, Late Night, Early Morning
Had a lovely day yesterday. Met Kathleen, Margaret, Excelle, Gina, Isabella and Sue at the Hotel Boades to view the exhibit Ombres & Lumieres, a photographic exhibit showing the works of Henri Ely, documenting the Nazi occupation and Allied liberation of Aix-en-Provence during World War II. It was incredible. Evocative, emotionally intimidating (you always wonder whether you’d have the courage to do what the resistance did during those times). The misery and terror of the Occupation came through, as well as the joy and relief of the Liberation. Marvelous images.
Afterward, the five of us had lunch at Café des Artistes at the Allée Provençale. Then Excelle went to a pop-plant sale. We both bought “Chinese money trees,” as well as other plants. Now, I have about eight small plants. I’m going to have to distribute them between Margaret and Excelle for the two months I’m in Santa Monica, December and January. I hope my little plants will be okay.
Late last night, I started working on aligning the flashbacks telling the backstory of Angie and Duke to the events of World War II. (The thing is, their story could almost comprise a book in itself. I’m having trouble integrating it into the main storyline, the mystery around Evie’s death.) I started work on the WWII angle on Thursday, asking ChatGPT wish events would help depict increasing American awareness of the war, since at the beginning, the United States took the stance that the war had nothing to do with it, a form of isolationism that gradually began to crumble, then changed entirely when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan. Days later, Hitler, already bolstered by his relatively “easy” victories in parts of Western Europe and falsely believing that the United States had been fatally weakened by Japan’s attack, declared war on the United States. Within days, the United States found itself battling major wars on two fronts.
The idea is to show how Angie and Duke each react to the news of the war, beginning with Angie and Evie’s arrival in Harlem in July 1939, when Americans were barely aware of the war at all, to the shock of September 1, 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland, marking the formal start of the war. The war comes to form the backdrop as the ups and downs of their relationship play out in the forefront, but abruptly comes to take center stage with Pearl Harbor. After that, Angie and Evie take one path, while Duke takes another. Again, all of this background/backstory truly enriches the novel, but I don’t have the technical skills, I worry, to integrate their story into the main story of Evie’s death.
I just thought of James Cain’s Mildred Pierce. I haven’t read the book yet—(I think I have it here somewhere.)—but I’ve seen the film multiple times. The film starts with the crime and moves to Mildred being in police interrogation. Then the rest of the movie is essentially a flashback, going all the way to the start of her story, when she was still married to Wally, describing their troubles and how she struggled first as a single mother seeking work, then as a self-employed businesswoman building an empire. I wonder how the novel is structured. A good question for Chat GPT.
Hmm. It seems the novel is quite different from the film. It has no murder mystery. Hollywood just added that to spice up the plot and fit audience interests of the day. So …
I just spent more than an hour on ChatGPT “discussing” the flashbacks, how to recombine them or break them up and … well, it’s going to be a lot of work. In some cases, it’s suggesting I combine four flashbacks into one — that would mean reducing 5,000 words to 1,000. Of course, it’s partly my fault. I told it I thought the right number of flashbacks for the World War II memories was four. I now have 12. So, what did I expect?
Oh, well.
I think I’ll turn to the Lanie Price story I wanted to submit to the Bouchercon anthology. Due date is November 1, and I’m nowhere near finishing the story.
Not sure I will. But I’ll try!
