Before I started Rapunzel's Revenge, I had a perfect record for meeting deadlines. I never missed one. I always got the job done in time. I have a real thing about meeting deadlines, it probably comes from working so much in theater set design. The set has to be ready for opening night, you cannot extend the deadline for opening night--the show must go on.
Anyway, when Rapunzel's Revenge came along, I figured I could finish it in about four months. I ended up taking over a year. I missed that deadline, I also had to shift deadlines on several other projects that got bumped by Rapunzel.
Three years later, and I'm bumping deadlines for Calamity Jack. As you know, last week was WEEK ZERO, and I had a big bag of candy to help me finish by the deadline (today. ) Well, the candy's gone, the deadlines here, and I'm not finished. I still have 14 pages left to finalize. I now have until this Friday to finish Calamity Jack. Phew. I'm going to need more candy.
Enjoy the sneak preview panels! (If many of these panels seem a little boring, it's because I don't want to leak any spoilers--I have to single out panels that don't give away too many plot points.) Here's the Provo Library panel in color:
One commenter mentioned that this building was the old Brigham Young Academy building, it was, they did major renovations and turned it into a library. The building was built in 1896 as a boy's school. It was derelict for decades and had a high barbed wire fence around it. This building was THE haunted building of my childhood. It was very scary and had "Devil Worshipper" graffiti all over it. What the heck, now I need to find an image to post (I don't have time for this, but now I want to see if there's an old image of it online...)
Here's a really old picture of the building in the 1800s.
But I couldn't find an image of the derelict boarded up building from my childhood. Anyone have one? Google Image Search couldn't find me one. Anyway, here's what it felt like:
Only imagine it with barbed wire and smashed windows. Spoooooooky.I don't have time for this. Talk about being easily distracted.
When I was a freshmen at the Y(and easily influenced) someone talked me into slipping through some of the broken widows of the basement and exploring that building. Scary! There was occult graffiti everywhere and firepits and when we were in the theater we heard a loud maniacal laugh (probably just someone else exploring). But the most telling thing was when we went up onto the roof and found pigeons in cages. It seems weird that I actually did that. I'm so glad it's a nice place now and they didn't tear it down.
ReplyDeleteNO WAY!!! I can't believe you actually went inside there--you are braver than I! This wasn't at night was it?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child my brothers and I snuck in while my aunt was babysitting-she lived across from the Academy. Spent about 4 hours exploring and were grounded for a few weeks afterwards. I remember some dead birds, that appeared to have been intentionally killed-pigeons I think. Also the occult graffiti. There were old books from when it was a school, a stage, it was a lot of fun until we found the dead birds and got creeped out.
ReplyDeleteDo you know when the barbed wire went up? I'm pretty sure my parents dragged me to that building to play guinea pig for psych graduate students in the early ‘70s. When I visited the new library last summer for a conference, I flashed on walking through dreary hallways on ancient linoleum, and sitting in dusty rooms with threadbare carpet while I waited to take my next IQ test.
ReplyDeleteNathan, thanks again for taking time out of your hellish week to come to our school. The kids are still abuzz, and Yellowbelly is circulating daily throughout the 2nd grade. I hope you met your deadline.
Wow! Boys School, dead birds, maniacal laughter and psych studies--sounds more like a Japanese horror movie than a library!
ReplyDeleteAnyone else have story? This is one fascinating building!
I love it!
Yes it was at night. And I think it was around Halloween time.
ReplyDelete