I know, I know – I’ve been boring you out of your brain with my stuff about Shanghai.
Sorry ’bout that.
Today something completely different.
This is Paris, in 1950.
Now write a story about this…
Tag Archives: Paris
Writing in the heat
It’s roughly three in the afternoon.
With 45 °C and a jungle-like humidity, one would expect the countryside to be silent.
But the guy with the drums is once again practicing broken rhythms.
Very broken.
This feels like something out of an Edgar Rice Burroughs story.
The natives are restless.
I’m sitting at my computer, rewriting the final part of a book I should have delivered this morning – I ditched the final 60 pages, I’ll have to rewrite rewrite rewrite.
I wish I was in some big city.
Paris, London, Berlin.
Even Turin, why not?
Under the rain.
Listening to Bach.
Not that anyone out there is really interested, right?
Oh, heck… missing Bach and the rain, I might just settle for Roger Hodgson…
I Love Paris (when it sizzles)
Georgia Gibbs
OK, last bit of my Parisian week – I Love Paris (when it sizzles) is a song by Cole Porter, published in 1953. It was part of the musical Can Can.
The song inspired the title of the Hepburn-Holden movie and… ehm, my Parisian pinboard.
Through the years this song has been performed by a number of artists, most famously by Ella Fitzgerald, in 1956.
But there’s also a Les Baxter version out there!
What follows, anyway, is the Georgia Gibbs version from 1953, in a strangely dark and rough arrangement.
Enjoy!
Paris, when it sizzles
Cover of Paris When It Sizzles
Paris, when it sizzles is the title of a movie featuring William Holden and Audrey Hepburn.
Weird sort of comedy, very strange development history, confused and yet fascinating.
Sort of meta-fiction way before anything even marginally meta-whatnot ever happened in movies.
Anyway, the title comes from a Cole Porter song (more details tomorrow), and it’s also the title of the pinboard I built to collect photo references, about Paris in the ’50s and ’60s, for my writing projects.
And here it is…
Some of the pictures are absolutely gorgeous.
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Writing Prompt – Belleville, 1958
An American in Paris?
As I said, I’m collecting photographical references for my next short story.
And this one is exactly what I was looking for.
Not that I knew I was looking for it before I found it.
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Working on a new story
I am proud to announce that one of my stories, A Spider with Barbed-Wire Legs, will be part of the rewards for the backers of the Kickstarter for the Dennis Detwiller collection of short stories Tales from Failed Anatomies, to be released by Arc Dream Publishing.
My story was set as a stretch goal for the target of 20.000 dolalrs – a target achieved a few hours ago.
It will be excellent to be part of such a great project, and to see my story released side by side with the works of many authors I respect and admire.
My story is going to be a horror/espionage number, and is set in Paris in the ’50s (but it does include some Orientalist elements).
Right now, I’m doing some background research on the time and place, to spice-up my tale.
As usual, I’ll collect a cartload of photo references.
Might as well start a Pinboard on Pinterest… I’d call it “Paris, When it Sizzles“.
In the meantime, there’s still 6 days to go and many interesting rewards to be unlocked by financing the Kickstarter.
Check it out.
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Karavansara 