August 19, 2011 by Amy Elliott Bragg
Finished!
So I turned in my manuscript on Monday. I’m still kind of confused (but happy) about it. I expected a wave of joyous relief and a week of staying up late drinking champagne. Instead there have been a lot of last-minute pieces to scrabble together, a frantic rush to complete non-book-related tasks that I’ve been putting off for months, some hard-earned naps, and a sap of residual stress. (Cocktails at The Oakland have helped.) We visited both sets of parents to say, ”Hello, thank you for lending me to Detroit history for the summer.” Today we leave town, mostly to avoid the Dream Cruise. Next week, we are moving to a new place.
I just want to say hi, and thanks for your patience, and your lovely cheerleading notes and emails, and I will be back to blogging in no time at all. And once again, huge gratitude the fabulous friends who guest blogged while I was away: Emily, Mary Catherine, my mom and Christina. There will be more guest posts next week, too, from Midwest Guest and Gourmet Underground.
As a token of gratitude, here are some photos I loved but had to cut from the book.
The first steam railroad passenger train: Looks pretty much like a stagecoach on a track.
The People’s State Bank, Detroit, c. 1905-1915. Library of Congress.
I love the lady with the umbrella.
Plan of Fort Lernoult (L’Arnaud). National Archives of Canada. c. 1812.
A ticket to see Felix Meier’s American National Astronomical Clock. 25 cents!
Voyageurs passing a waterfall on the French River. Painting by Frances Anne Hopkins, 1869. I had to cut it when I realized it wasn’t a period piece, but a painting of the artist and her husband on a business trip. See the passengers in the middle?
Let them be numbered with thy saints. Gov. Henry Porter Baldwin’s gravestone at Elmwood.
See you soon – with more details about the book!