Apocrypha is a fantastic word

I was thinking about the quote I ended with last time and, as many things do, it made me start thinking about Chicago. I didn’t live there long, just over a year in fact, but it influenced so much of my life. How I think, how I react to things, how I deal with crisis, and ultimately it built the person I am today.

Some days I miss it more than others, and on those days just grabbing my husband and cats and finding some way to make it back there feels more like a primal need than a desire. My Saturday walks to the bookstore and Sultan‘s Market, chanting at my temple on Sunday before visiting the fish at the Lincoln Park Zoo on the walk home, and spending hours at the museum campus are all things that I grieve the absence of regularly. It was in Chicago at the top of the Sears Tower that I first read the quote that seemed as if it had been written just for my book.

There’s quite a bit more of it than I used in the front material of the book. Here’s the quote in full:

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever- growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty.”

Apparently this quote was considered apocryphal by many, but Adam Selzer of Mysterious Chicago dug up the history behind it and it’s truly a fascinating story. Here’s the link so you can check it out! https://mysteriouschicago.com/finding-daniel-burnhams-no-little-plans-quote/

For me, seeing those words on the wall at the top of the building was like an affirmation that not only was I supposed to be writing this book but that I was supposed to be there, in that moment, starting my new life on my own and that I would be OK even if I literally was sleeping on couch and living out of a single suitcase. I knew immediately I was gonna use it for my books and wrote it on a piece of paper and stuck it in my journal for later.

It’s been a while since then and looking back, it feels even more significant. Re-reading my old work, there’s so much more that I can do with the story by doing less with the writing so I decided to completely rewrite it instead of trying to polish what I have.

I suppose in a way I feel like I’m adapting my own work, but as a lifelong fan of Stephen King I’ve seen that some adaptations of his work do a better job telling the story. I’m the same person but also a complete different person as the one who wrote the story almost 20 years ago. Maybe it’ll turn out better. Maybe it’ll be the same story told a completely different way. Maybe I’ll realize it was never any good anyway. No matter what, I’m hoping it reminds me why I loved this in the first place.

Next step is digging out my old story bible and reference materials. Send help