Sunday, February 27, 2011

Dorothy Parker

The current WIP takes place in New York circa 1922 - the beginning of the party. The bootleggers had worked out the kinks and liquor was pouring into Gotham like a pitcher held above a parched mouth. Skirts had begun to rise, Harlem had begun its renaissance and jazz floated through the air, the music of a decade of excess.

The characters of the 1920s are larger than life - Rudolph Valentino, Fanny Brice, assorted gangsters and, of course, the Algonquin Round Table.

Dorothy Parker of the aforementioned Vicious Circle was the kind of writer I'd like to be - witty, smart, funny. I could do without the suicide attempts and the buckets of bath tub gin.

When the words just won't come, I tell myself, "You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think." Please don't take my fondness for the quote as a description of my moral code. It's just that ninety years later Dottie Parker inspires.

1 comment:

  1. Leading question…what then is your “moral code”…well you brought it up.

    ReplyDelete