Vienna 1938
In Mia Man Alfin Tu Sei from Norma by Bellini
Chapter 2 is now complete and uploaded, and I have earned my 5,000 word badge. I enjoy novels that jump around in time, so mine tend to do the same. This chapter begins in 1938 and is set in a photography studio in Vienna run by Andrei and Ilse Kanitz. Andrei is Russian, but he is suspected of being Jewish and so is hauled from his bed and dragged away early one morning. Ilse now needs to decide what to do for her own safety and that of her daughter, Jelfriede. But while she’s making her mind up, there’s a lot of exposition (way too much) about the beginnings of photography and how Ilse’s mother, Dorothea, used to work for Madame D’Ora. I definitely have not mastered the Margaret Atwood art of giving the reader the exposition without them knowing it. Her précis of the Tempest in Hag-Seed is a perfect example of the maestra in action. But hopefully, this is something that can be sorted out in the post NaNo editing stage. For now, it’s words on the page that count.
Today’s opera track is from Bellini and translates as ‘At last you are in my hands’. I should have perhaps saved this one for nearer the end, because the novel is not completely in my hands yet.
