What We're Writing: Julia Dances Architecture

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Like Debs in yesterday's blog, I'm on the search for something from AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY that I can share without giving away any plot points. And since there is a LOT of plot in this work-in-progress, it's a bit of a chore. 

One of the things I've been doing is going back to previously written sections and adding more holiday details, since the book takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sometime, writing on a muggy day in July, it's hard to conjure up those small details, but now we're actually getting back into the season, I'm finding more and more little touches I want to add. I take pride in getting my settings right, and when I write winter scenes, I want Lucy's neighbors in Key West to shiver.

With that in mind, here's a scene of Russ and Hadley at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY. Those of you who went to Bouchercon there in 2013 will never forget it, although thank heavens we didn't have freezing weather to add to our woes.

 

 

The Office of the Attorney General was in Albany's Empire Plaza, a bleak concrete monstrosity Hadley had toured once as a parent volunteer for Hudson's fifth grade field trip. The guide had assured them the architecture was very distinguished, but to her, it looked like a series of Soviet-designed rectangular rockets had set down in the 1950s and were now waiting for a liftoff signal from the gigantic concrete Egg – which resembled a football or a birdbath more than an egg, but no one had asked Hadley for a name suggestion. Her negative impression was reinforced now by the scant handful of government flunkies crossing the plaza, heads down, coats clutched tight against the buffeting wind.

Inside, the reception area reminded her of a mid-range hotel lobby; overlarge, cold and decked with blandly inoffensive Winter Holiday décor whose primary virtue was the ability to maintain its plastic perfection year after tear after year. Wide rectangular mats, still pristine since Albany hadn't had a snowfall yet, swallowed her footsteps, making it more surprising when her boot heels suddenly clacked on the highly polished terrazzo flooring.

“Holy crap. This must be like a skating rink when it's snowing or raining.”

Van Alstyne grunted. “That's modernist architecture for you. Never let actual human beings get in the way of a grand vision.”

 

What do you think, dear readers? And can anyone identify the quote I referenced in the title of this post?