Berenice Abbott – Changing New York 1935-1938 – photography

While researching New York in the mid 1930′s for No Soft Soap I have had the sheer pleasure of discovering the work of American Photographer Berenice Abbott, and the amazing project she undertook from 1935 -1938 - Changing New York.

Murray Hill Hotel; From Park Avenue and 40th Street. Nov. 19, 1935.  ID: 482742

Changing New York was a Federal Art Project that documented the city’s rapidly changing cityscapes. Skyscrapers growing out of an old world, an amazing collection of beautiful and thoughtful images. New York Public Library are the custodians of the collection, and have made the images available through their digital collection. Follow the link below to scroll through this fascinating and now historically important documentation.

 Berenice Abbott – New York Public Library

No Soft Soap

It’s the Cat’s Pajamas!

Early this week, my wonderful friend and author, Aimee*, gave up a day of her own writing, to set me on a focused and productive path with the novel. I had ideas coming out of my ideas, swallowing each other amidst big deep gulping sighs and short trying to catch themselves breaths. Without realising, I had created a new comfort zone, I was happy working away on different sex scenes, and researching the pants off 1930s New York. I have enough raunch for a B grade porno, all action and no story. I needed to commit to the plot, actively develope sub plots and deepen my sense of the characters. We spent all day, chatting, researching, saying maybe and what if and finished off a couple of bottles of red wine.

Well, with a huge thank you to Aimee, I came home, downloaded Scrivener, and constructed the skeleton, from head to toe. I have the absolute pleasure of announcing;
I’m pregnant! No. But that’s what it feels like. No Soft Soap, my erotic novel, submerged in modern history, is now in it’s first trimester.

My two main characters, Margarette (Gretchen to her family, Ginger to her friends) Muller, and Jack Taylor where so excited they went on a picnic, near a lake, to celebrate.

I really don’t think I can ever thank Aimee enough, however I did make her laugh and give her a story to dine out on. We were focusing on my heroine, and Aimee told me to answer as Gretchen and asked me a question about her motivations. I paused for a long while and finally explained I wasn’t sure I could do that. Gretchen is German, and I didn’t think I could get her accent right.

I’ll leave you, shaking your head at me, and get back to work. I really look forward to unfolding more about No Soft Soap as I flesh it out.

* I would have loved to use Aimee’s whole name, and linked you to her. She is a published YA author and her work is exceptional. But I didn’t think it was appropriate for her readers to end up here during a google search. (whispers – check my blog roll)