Murder Mystery - Historical Novel Started

I took a novel writing course a few years ago, which is how this project began. I had a rough plot and various versions of it. The professor, who studied under Isaac Singer, added this unusual requirement - write a sonnet based on the novel's theme.

He did not like my sonnet.

John Boland, our famous writer from MHS 66, The Class the Stars Fell On, sent me some of his books, and that revived my interest in the novel. I kept working on it, creating some files and working out ideas. John said I was in good shape with knowing how the murder was accomplished and solved.

I tried to invent an area as a setting but decided that my memory was better than my imagination. That gave me a chance to include a lot of Quad-City history, thanks to Dave Coopman and many others. Research by itself is rather dull, but research for a project is exciting. The driest history book is no longer a tedious volume of facts and dates.

The book is also an apologetic, which will become clear as the main character encounters the fetishes of modern academic life, the jibes of students.

All the characters are invented but historical and geographical details will be as accurate as possible.

The official deadline is our Medicare birthday party, in 2013.

Three dentists had daughters in the Class of 1966: Paschall, Streed, and Flatley.
They all had offices at the Fifth Avenue Building at one time.

Some are wondering, "Why is he telling us about a book not written?"

My time management system has always been to tell my friends about my next project, so they will keep asking me, "How is it going?"

There are too many people who have said, "Some day I am going to write about..." They never do. The Net has made publishing fairly easy, in many different formats. The hard part, about writing itself, will never change. If I only had a plot, I would not bother. I thought this was a good way of presenting an appreciation of Moline and the Quad-Cities.