On the Road: New York with Dale
My day started with a film crew in the apartment. This place is so colorful and funky that film scouts keep coming through–three since I’ve been here–and today a whole crew came through and they’ve decided that this is the place for the apartment their hero rents. One of them said, “This looks like a place a guy would come after his divorce.” I wanted to say, “He must be loaded then,” because the Village is not cheap. Then I looked the movie up on the IMDB–Multiple Sarcasms–and the character is an architect so he could probably afford it. A couple of weeks ago they shot scenes for Definitely Maybe here. It truly is a great apartment.
Then lunch with Dale at Trump Tower which is so not my kind of place but fun to visit once. And the restaurant was very good–Jean Georges–so that’s always a plus. Then we walked all over the upper West Side and down by the river and finally ended up at the Metropolitan because Dale wanted to see the Barcelona exhibit, which was marvelous, and because I needed to research ancient Mesopotamia, since the protagonist in the Fun Book is an ancient history professor (the history’s ancient, the professor’s 42) and Mesopotamia is her specialty.
That seemed like a good idea when I thought of it, and then I gave her ancient languages as her field of interest, and today I got a look at what cuneiform actually looks like. Yikes. The big stuff on the wall panels I can understand reading, but most of these tablets are tiny, tiny, fit in the palm of your hand tiny, and the wedge-shaped markings on them are like chicken scratches. We’re talking the equivalent of four point type. Those Sumerians must have had eyes like bats. And now my poor professor heroine has to read this stuff. Plus, like a dummy, I had her reading scrolls, and cuneiform was clay tablets. This is what happens when you do your research after you’ve written ten thousand words. So I got books on Mesopotamia and writing and one on Barcelona because that show is amazing, and then, having walked for four hours straight, much of it on the marble floors of the Met, I took a taxi back to the Village where I’m now waiting for Lani to show up after her day of lunch and drinks with editors and agents.
I’d tell you more about Dale, who is one of my favorite people, but all you really need to know is that late one night her son called her and told her to get her fake gold tooth and her accordion and meet him, and of course she did, and he filmed her as part of his band’s video for a little number called “Lotion in the Basket” (his band is Team Facelift). Dale is a good mother. The video is not worksafe so be warned, very R for obscene language, but if you want to see how much Dale loves her son and what she looks like in a gold tooth playing her accordion, click here.
I have the best friends. Really.
I love Dale!!!
Now, by looks I’m thinking the blue underwear boy is her son?
Well, mostly I love Dale. And her tooth. And especially the accordion.
Nope. The blond who kisses her on the cheek is her son.
What a cool mom!!! Ah, the things we do for our kids. Sounds like you’re having a blast.
Her son is a total doll. Also, she looks fabulous. Also, what a great song! Team Facelift: I’m a fan.
Welcome to New York! I felt compelled to post when I saw that you had lunch just a block away from where a live. Of course, I was probably at work, but I’m still tickled to think that you were so close. Enjoy the rest of your stay and thanks for the posts, (not to mention your books). You brighten my day.
See, this is the life of glamour and leisure we expect of you famous author types. Good for you!
Your poor Classics professor is going to have to wear reading glasses, though.
That was fun. And how cool of her to do the video with him! You do have great friends…
Your professor should not wear reading glasses, but be nearsighted. 42 is the age when we nearsighted people begin to come into our own. When other people’s arms are getting too short, we find it as easy as ever to read, as long as we take our glasses off (or in my case, contact lenses out, which is more fiddly, so I would recommend glasses for your heroine, though I hate wearing them myself). All your heroine needs to do is take off her glasses and she will be able to see her little clay tablets perfectly.
On the other hand, I don’t know about clay tablets, but I do know that scholars are not allowed to handle medieval codices and manuscripts. They have to make do
with microfiches, which can of course be enlarged, and made available to everyone. Those microfiche readers would drive anyone to murder though, so I expect that for prolonged study one orders photographs. I expect ancient history professors are not allowed to handle breakable clay tablets from museum collections either. Pictures of tablets are even become available on the net, Wikipedia gives a list.
In response to Ingrid’s post:
I’m an art conservator and can tell you that your ancient history prof would definitely be allowed (given special permission) to view the tablets. The tablets themselves would not be able to leave the museum/ lab/ vault where they are kept, and they would not be able to be handled by your prof, but she would definitely be able to view the “real deal.” Manuscripts, on the other hand, are an entirely different story. I’d stick with the clay tablets… much more durable. Love your books!!!
Rice University and Philadelphia both have excellent Mesopotamia departments. I have a cuneform workbook complete with transliterations and translations if that’s of any use to you. The clay tablets are surprisingly easy to read, once I removed my glasses. I’m not affiliated with either university and they let me play. The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto also has a good exhibit but I suppose that’s too far for you to come for a fun book :more sighing:
This is great stuff, but to make things easier for you:
This is an over the top paranormal romance.
Char lives in a step temple her great-great-great-grandmother built near the university she founded.
She finds the clay tablets in the attic.
Reality is not a big feature here. But I do want to get the translation of cuneiform right, at least in general. The workbook sounds wonderful. I don’t suppose I can get that on Amazon?
Also, very short novel, so I have to just understand this and not screw up, more than write in depth.
And last, I’m really impressed that the commenters on this list know how to get rid of a body AND read cuneiform. Really amazing.
Jenny, I searched cuneiform on Amazon just for curiosity’s sake. I got 7,379 results. The third entry was “Workbook of Cuneiform Signs,” by Daniel C. Snell.
7,379 results??? Whoa.
This is gonna be a blast to read!
I got the workbook from undena.com It’s called
A Workbook of Cuneiform Signs.
D. Snell. 1979. Pp. 140.
Paper ISBN 058-8 $18.00
I can’t wait to read an over-the-top paranormal from you. I’m sure the snark content will be high.
Cute son. I want me one of them.
Cool Dale. Very cool mum.
magnifying glass.
I am on the painful edge of bifocals at 42 and 3/4. There’s no shame in that.
Oh, gosh, reading a “secret” language is one of the coolest things a fantasy character can do (I lump paranormal in the fantasy category). I remember falling in love with runes when I read JRR Tolkien in jr. high.
(-: And I can read Japanese (albeit not as well as your average 10 or 11-year-old Japanese kid), and let me tell you, those “chicken scratchings” *do* become readable and even beautiful as you work through it. I’m sure your professor reads them with hardly a second thought. Translation is much like working through a jigsaw puzzle, and appeals to a certain type of mind. The mysteries of the centuries become clear (or at least clearer). How cool!
Reminds me a tiny bit of Amelia Peabody.
“Sumarians must have had eyes like bats”?!?
Would that be as in “Blind as a bat”?