Yes there is the 1st hole in my wall of notes. I have started to work in the notes I took during the last 15 years since the idea for the novel came to me. It's a fun process to see details fit, sometimes only a word or a sentence, sometimes they become an entire chapter or getting weaved in throughout the novel.
As you can see there are many newspaper and magazine articles, letter sized paper recycled or not, and many ideas I had on the go, in Cafes, on trains, while travelling or on reading tours. Like this one:
Original is in German, written approx. 2013.
Lethbridge was not on the radar yet, neither as a place to live, nor as location for the novel.
It reads in English: “Police wears helmets with a blinking light on top. The typical police siren sounds as soon the officer starts running. The slower he runs the more tired the siren sounds.”
Although it was still on the wall, the basic idea of pedestrian police officers with blinking lights on their helmets patrolling the streets in the year 2112 I have already used in the novel—maybe because it is such a memorable detail. As you can see, the note took quiet a beating over time, an intercontinental move and the fact I wrote it in Italy on the back of a city map during one of my reading tours at schools, colleges and universities:
Yes, the surprise gave me great memories about a time that seems a life time away. I now will turn around all notes before I place them on the “Used” pile.
I also collected over the last months over 120 cards, one for each short chapter in the novel, all of which are at least partially written as of now. The top card indicates that if I would want to hang them up on the wall it would take 5 by 3 feet. Let's see how that goes.
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Thank you.