This is the photo that got me started on this journey. Photos have always been starters for my writing. I see an image and my mind goes wandering. This particular image is from the Vivian Maier collection found on John Maloof's blog. 

Vivian was an itinerant photographer whose photos were only discovered recently by John. Her story is mysterious and fascinating in its absence of information. But her photography! Amazing and stirring in so many ways. It started me writing a novel set in Chicago, 1956.

Now there may be some of you who actually remember that Chicago in that time. I happen to be one of them. But I would have been seven years old at the time and the things I remember may or may not be useful to my novel. So, this is where this blog comes in to being. Research! Hah! That dreadful and frustrating, but sometimes gloriously satisfying excursion into the past for a writer.

I hope you will enjoy the adventure with me!