My Secret View of the Chrysler Building

Since as far back as I can remember, the Chrysler Building has been my favorite building. At all times of year, in all kinds of weather, it stands out like a beacon among all other buildings, making them look shoddy and second rate. I have a secret spot from which I gaze at this beautiful edifice, just a half block from my apartment. * The best time to view it is at twilight, when the lights come on and it glows softly in the dusk.

Despite my admiration for this icon, I realized one day how little I knew about it. For example, I didn’t know the architect. A quick check online and I found his name — William Van Alen. I also learned his sad story. Van Alen was a talented architect who studied in Paris under some of the most brilliant architects of that time (the 1920s). He returned to the United States and began his career, designing a number of buildings.

He was still young when Mr. Chrysler hired him to design his building. When the Chrysler building was finished, it was greeted by some acclaim, but also by some scoffing. There are always those who balk at anything new and daring, no matter how beautiful it may be. Even Louis Sullivan, the great Chicago architect, panned it. But worst of all, Mr. Chrysler neglected to pay Van Alen. Van Alen sued Chrysler and won, but afterward no one would hire the architect. The Chrysler building was his last design. In desperation, he turned to his second love —sculpture.

I wish I hadn’t learned the history of William Van Alen. Now, whenever I look at his masterpiece, I wonder what other magical creations he might have produced if only he’d had the opportunity.

Robin Hathaway

* Secret View: SE corner of 33rd and 2nd Ave. (But don't tell anyone. I don't want hordes of people pushing me off the sidewalk!)

Testilying II: Bad-Cop Story-Telling by NYPD’S ‘Rape Cops’

Well, I just wrote 400+ words on the subject and accidentally erased them. I don’t have the heart to start over, folks, so…to be done for next week.

Robert Knightly

Writing Advice

I'm not going to give you writing advice. Instead I'm going to talk about other people's advice to you.

I'm not going to give you advice on surviving criticism, either. People in your writing group, your friends, or one of the dwindling ranks of professional reviewers, most of these folks will have something negative to say about your work sooner or later. All that means is that it's not what they want right now. If you throw up your hands and say, "Well, I'm no good," after that, you're not a writer. Nothing wrong with not being a writer. Being a writer is not the highest calling in life. I mean, think about it. Was Gandhi a writer? Was Escoffier? Heifitz?

But if you are a writer, and you feel that your craft needs honing, either because someone has told you so, or you have noticed your own deficiencies, or your self-confidence is faltering, or you're very young, you may find yourself turning to books on writing advice. This is not a bad thing, but you have to be selective. Many of these books will not give you what you want right now, which is useful advice and encouragement. Many of them are there to lead you up the garden path, waste your time and separate you from your money.

My personal criterion for a book on writing advice is this: Can I imagine writers I respect reading this and paying any attention to it? Having passed this initial sniff test, good books of writing advice fall into four categories:

1. Living the writing Life
2. Structuring your book and completing a first draft
3. Editing and polishing your book
4. Selling and promoting your book

The first category is the most fun to read. Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott, is my very favorite of these. Steven King's On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft is not to be missed. Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner is also a treat.

The second category is for me the most interesting, because plotting and structure are not skills that come naturally to me. When I get hold of a good one I study it ardently. My favorites are Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron and Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell. There's another one I truly love but I've lost my copy and forgotten the title. Writers Digest published it. It had a blue cover. It talked about Aristotelian poetics.

Don't read books in the third category while you are still working on the first draft. You will get all bogged down in grammar and the minutiae of elegant self-expression when you should be figuring out who did what to whom and when. When you are ready to edit, a different process from writing, you can't do better than Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King, and Don't Murder your Mystery by Chris Reorden.

I don't have a good book on selling and promotion. Things in the industry are changing so fast that a book might not be the way to go. You might be better off online, following things like Publisher's Marketplace, Mediabistro.com and the Query Shark's blog.

Kate Gallison

What Do You Do When Things Go Wrong?

I just washed my hands with Evian!

There is no water in my apartment. Over the holiday weekend, while we and our downstairs neighbors were out of town, the water heater in our flat decided to give up the ghost and leak hot water into the apartment below ours. The good news is that though the water destroyed part of the ceiling, it largely leaked into a shower and went right down the drain. The bad news is that the woman downstairs did not see the fortunate part of this and returned our apologies with insults.

In an unrelated incident, the batteries in our rechargeable cordless phones are all dying at once, so when the plumber called back, the phone I used to answer his call went dead as soon as I started to speak.

I grabbed my cell phone, though The World Health Organization says it could cause cancer, and called him back. I got his answering service. He is in New York. I am in New York When did all the plumbers in the United States decide to hire an answering service in Virginia?

“Screw it. I will ignore all this tsouris, and write my blog,” I said to myself. I had such a great topic. I was going to call it “Creating False Identities.” It was to be based on a favorite Radio Lab broadcast that posited that we get our whole sense of identity from the stories we tell about ourselves. So I tried to log on to the Radio Lab website to listen to the podcast once more—to be sure I had my facts straight. But the Radio Lab website must have crashed because it gave error messages no matter how I try to access it.

Now I am going to take a dance class that is supposed to reduce my stress. If the sound system goes down, I am going to bed until the gremlins get tired of listening to me snore and go torture someone else.

Picture of Annamaria's Nerve Endings

Wish me luck. See you next week.

Annamaria Alfieri

10 Ways to Beat the Heat

1. Do nothing
2. Drink cool beverages
3. Doze in air-conditioned room
4. Daydream
5. Eat ice cream
6. Read books set in cold places
7. Take a cold shower
8. Don’t wear any clothes
9. Listen to cool jazz
10. Think cool thoughts

Robin Hathaway