One rainy Sunday afternoon when I was working on my novel The Altered Boys Club, one of my characters, Sebastian Stephens, commented on the exterior of the townhouse owned by his friend, Detective Cliff Nolte, exclaiming it to be decidedly French. I typed the scene and then stopped. 'I can't write that,' I said out loud, 'unless it's true.' Sebastian's voice replied in my ear, 'It's true.'
I turned off my computer, grabbed an umbrella and headed for the subway to Brooklyn. Like a film maker, I had previously scouted locations that would play in the story, so I knew approximately where Cliff lived. I had not, however, ever seen such a townhouse.
When I arrived in the Fort Green section of Brooklyn, I first looked for the hospital which would come into the story later and found it adjacent to the park where Cliff goes for his morning run. There was a coincidence, since I hadn't written about that yet! This gave me a clue to the location to his home. I commenced walking up and down every street. Part of me kept chiding me as a fool to roam around like this in the rain. Sebastian kept telling me to continue walking.
The a few streets over proved Sebastian right. In the middle of the block, among the typical red brick townhouses was one with a mansard roof! This one was a story taller than the rest which led me to believe this was the result of an add-on. Nonetheless, here it was. A single French-styled structure just as Sebastian had described it.
While I was in the neighborhood, I decided to search out the place where Ajit's body had been found. This also held true to Sebastian's description. The church used by Monsignor Flint was also only blocks away.
On the subway home, I thought about all of this. I knew for certain this wasn't my story. Sebastian was filing his report of events through me. When I arrived back at my home in Manhattan, I sat down to the computer once again and typed well into the evening.
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