Research, or another way to get lost on the Internet

So while I am busy waiting to hear back from editors about my second submission (anyone? Anyone?  Hello?) I have decided to finish my NaNo book from November 2013.  It’s a good contemporary story set in my fictional Northwest Ohio town featuring a local girl and the movie star that she has to drive around while he is on location.  Part of my work this week has been planning and writing a few final scenes that I didn’t get to in November and editing what I did write.  Coming back to it after a couple of months away has been fun, I’ve gotten more detail in about the characters and that means doing more research than I had time for when my goal was to get about 2,000 words a day on the page.

So here is some of the research I have done this week:  Ohio Art Pottery, atmospheric theatres, modern sculpture, the Met, MoMA, luxury apartments and condos in Chicago, and looping. I have also made a lot of requests for books from the library.  Thanks to all of this, I know how my female character has decorated her apartment and I had the brilliant idea for a very romantic penultimate scene.  I am still not sure how much my female character likes to cook because I have a thing for cooking in every story I write, mostly because I like to cook and it just bleeds through.  But Mel (that’s her name) is a bit more contrary about things, so she might not like to push herself in the kitchen. Maybe more meat and potatoes than quinoa and kim chi.  We’ll see.  I’ll just have to do some more research!

And here is an interior shot (I don't have the copyright to this, if you do, let me know!) of the Holland Theatre in Bellefontaine Ohio.  I used to go to the movies here at least once a week when I lived there.  It was a fantastic place and once the owners turned on the mechanicals for me and I was able to see the windmill turn.  Oh yes, there is a windmill inside the theatre.