Thanks to the people who think Small Wars should be made into a novel. I can’t as I don’t find the main character empathetic. As I was compulsively writing it, I found myself screaming at her.
I like women with cojones. Some years ago I was going to visit my mother. It was rush hour and there were two trains five minutes or less apart. I took the later train as it was an express.
The 5:31–the earlier train was the train Colin Ferguson killed a number of people on and wounded more. I have always wondered what would have happened if I took that train.
I could have died or as my mother said “worse,” might have happened. She said that about many things including letting my teenage self go to the Chicago Convention. Somehow I think I would have survived intact. I have a knack for self-preservation. But I would have had no control had I sat in a certain car in the 5:31.
I’m not fascinated with myself. Reading so many great blogs and learning great stories about other people’s lives cured me of myself. I am fascinated by the brain, and the myriad of ways parts of it can compensate for damage or not.
The main character in this novel is a woman who takes the wrong train. I have made one up and a town she’s going to. I might post some rough drafts
The working title and it probably will be changed is The Other Train.
••••••••••••••••••
On the apartment front: Will it sell at the price I want? Will it sell at all?
Who knows. If it doesn’t I will want to blame the federal government and I do. I will want to blame Bear Stearns for having been so heavily vested in the subprime mess. That comes from the top. The brokers and other people I know who work there are going to be laid off. Their retirement accounts are practically worthless.
In truth I blame the media for spreading so much fear. More than mainstream media I blame certain real estate blogs that everybody who is buying and/or selling in Manhattan reads. It must be fun to be a renter, not stabilized, who is sure that their luxury building won’t raise rents next year and talk about the needed correction in housing prices.
They get dates of recessions wrong. They don’t talk about the different circumstances in recessions and flat housing markets. They forget that just ten years ago not only were fringe areas not gentrified, but good
buildings in “more desirable” areas have constantly worked to repair years of neglect and make themselves “world class.”
One constant commenter in a blog claims to make almost a mil a year. Every time I check that blog he has commented at least ten times. Must be nice to have a million dollar year job, be a renter and have all the time in the world to comment.
I think I’m in a good place. Mine being one of those “known” luxe buildings and my apartment being almost perfect. I really have to ban myself from real estate blogs before I go to New York in April for Passover and kill the contractor if my apartment isn’t in contract