Only a few more days before I take a trip overseas to gather ‘content’ for my eagerly awaited new novel. This journey is essential. It is….no it is. I swear it is, honestly it is! Listen, if Elizabeth Gilbert could have written Eat, Pray, Love at her kitchen table she would have done, wouldn’t she? As a writer it is vital to have original, authentic experiences. It is. It really is.
‘Absolutely it is’ I hear you say. And I agree with you. You simply cannot get all you need from Google. There comes a time in the life of an artist where you have to make sacrifices; suffer for your art. And that my friend is the only reason that next week I’m going to Paris. It really is.
Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert, I will not be back-packing, although this will still be a spiritual journey as I’ll be staying in Saint-Germain. I assure you this is not because of the refined, classic style of the hotel, but so that I can really study what it is about the cafes and bars that attracted Sartre there. In the interests of building out my main character, I will not be staying in hostels, traveling coach or using the Métro. My protagonist is not in Paris to be a tourist; au contraire mon ami, she is there to find herself, (the bit that she lost in a sea of unflattering skinny jeans and smock tops while living in Los Angeles.)
I hope by now you are feeling some real pity for me because I am the one who will have to shop in rue Montmartre and rue de Sevres in order to understand French tailoring. It will be ‘pauvre moi’ who is forced to dine at La Closerie des Lilas, (again solely to discover what made it so attractive to Hemingway when he was writing The Sun Also Rises.) I will try my best to blog and journal through this ordeal… Au revoir…I want to share that it helps me to know that you wish me “God’s speed until my safe return.”
