I haven’t written in this journal in a couple of weeks. This was because I was traveling out of state. This trip was one part vacation but also about three parts research trip for future writing projects.
I have been thinking about a writing a novel or possibly two set in St. Louis and New Orleans. These would be set in the late 1930s and feature a classic hard boiled detective (you know fedora, trench coat, .38 under his arm) who allows a woman to drag him into something that is more than just a mystery. One story would be set in St. Louis and a possible sequel would be set there and in New Orleans.
Since my wife had commitments in Louisiana I took the opportunity to make a trip own that way myself. Although I spent a some brief months in the South courtesy of Uncle Sam a long time ago, I haven’t really traveled there much at all.
First I spent a few days in St. Louis doing research. I have to say while I thought the climate atrocious (the heat and humidity is brutal in the summer), I found the people warm and friendly. I spent considerable time at the State History Museum, The State Historic Society and the archives at the old Federal Court House and everyone I met was incredibly helpful. I came away with old maps of St. Louis from 1935, a list of books about St. Louis to order and access to huge historic photo archives.
Combine that with all photos of historic buildings I took as well as just driving around various neighborhoods for hours and I now feel comfortable setting a novel in old St. Louis. For those of you who haven’t visited St. Louis the old Union Station downtown that was the main train station is still there. The huge building was designed to look like A French Chateau and has been restored and is now a very large hotel. St. Louis’ City Hall, also designed to look like a European palace with turrets ornamental cornices everywhere, is still in use as the City Hall. There is a long list of historic building s in Downtown St. Louis that I visited and photographed. They will make a great background for my novel. St. Louis prides itself on it’s history and it showed in my time there.
Since I am a big history buff, I also took the time to stop off and visit the Vicksburg Battlefield Park in Mississippi, Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines in Alabama (yes and a side trip to the Battleship USS Alabama) as well as the Chalmette Battlefield in New Orleans where future president Andrew Jackson defeated the British in 1815. And, yes I geeked it up running around taking photos and oohing and aahing . . . but I had a lot of fun.
Finally I met up with my wife and we spent four days in New Orleans seeing the sights and hitting a lot of historic places and museums. So outside of the weather I had a great time. For the record, New Orleans is hot and humid in June as is most of the deep south; 95 degrees and 70% humidity is too much for me. By the time I left I was really missing our mild Oregon summers. Oh, I almost forgot; we got caught by Tropical Storm Cindy while we were on the Gulf Coast. I’ve never been through a full blown hurricane and after experiencing Cindy’s winds, heavy rain and local flooding I’ve decided I don’t want to have anything to do with any real hurricanes.
All in all it was a great trip that my wife and I will remember for quite a while. And I got a lot of good background material which will hopefully see the light of day in future stories.
So now it’s back to my keyboard. I am working hard on my new aerial adventure for volume 2 of Aviation Aces.
More on that later,
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