Before you get all jealous because you didn’t get to spend your day living in a dead painter’s New York, let me explain that this wonderful vacation will probably come to an end soon. After raising five kids in a blended family situation, my husband and I are considering adoption. Yeah, we miss the emotional chaos.
But for now as I come close to finishing the rough draft of the fifth novel in The Tenafly Road series, I get to linger in Prospect Park.
After my husband, who is an itinerant engineer for his company as he learns the tools, happily talked about one of the nice guys he works with in Albany, he asked, “And how was your day?”
I was really happy that he’d had a good day because I didn’t want him to be too jealous of my day inside the paintings. “I had a GREAT day!” I burst out.
“So what happened to Buck today?” he asked. (Buck is my lead character)
I leaned in. “Okay, so, you know how I was wondering how Buck would be in Brooklyn at the same time as his sister Thankful when something bad would happen?” My husband doesn’t want details since he’s gotten really into the series and doesn’t want any spoilers)
“Yeah.”
“Well, I was thinking about Fred coming back to town.”
“Oh, no,” my husband said with a smile. “You really do love chaos.”
“I love Fred! Well, I hate him, but I LOVE writing about him. And he comes to town to buy art and Buck knows a dealer in Brooklyn. So they have lunch at Delmonico’s. Fred is disgusting and rude. I had so much fun with them at the restaurant. Buck was disgusted. And then they went to Prospect Park–in Brooklyn.”
“Okay.”
“You know how I was gonna make Buck buy Tiffany stained glass and the factory was in Brooklyn?”
“No,” my husband replied. “I don’t think you told me that.”
“Yes, well, I spent the day in William Merritt Chase’s paintings and it changed everything. I mean having Fred return is such a blessing. The BEST is that on the trip he tells Buck that’s he’s bought the plot of land in Englewood across the street from Buck’s!”
My husband laughs. “They’re going to have a building war, aren’t they?”
“Maybe.”
So there you go. My husband builds things in the real world that I hardly understand and I build worlds in paintings.
Author Adrienne Morris 
17 responses to “Husband asks, “How was your day?””
So much I love about this… That you spend time in paintings, that you and your husband miss the chaos, that you love writing about characters you hate, that your husband talks about the kind of day your characters had… And you like the X-Files!
All in all, a good find!
LikeLike
Haha. Thanks. I think my husband at first thought I was a little crazy (I thought he was, too), but craziness is the spice of life, right?
Thanks for reading and stopping by, Eric.
All the best~
Adrienne
LikeLike
This was such a fun post! I love New York, and I love the advance glimpse into the novel. Thanks so much!
LikeLike
I’m glad it made you happy! I miss NYC sometimes–especially Brooklyn where I spent the young years of my children’s lives. We used to go to the glorious Brooklyn Botanical Garden and the zoo. My faith in humanity is always heightened when I think of the amazing public works that were done in the late 19th century.
Have a great night!
A
LikeLike
Congratulations on the adoption decision, Adrienne. Amazing news! My sister and her husband adopted a few years ago and it has been wonderful. One of my closest friends has two children in elementary and they are currently adopting a trio of siblings. God bless’ em. I bet you so super excited.
Oh, and you two make me laugh. What a great post and conversation over your book. It is invaluable how supportive you guys are of your passions. A huge smile maker for me.
LikeLike
Glad to make you smile. God gave me a good husband. 🙂
LikeLike
That is so much fun. I love that he asks how your characters are doing. What a great hubby!
LikeLike
Yep. He’s a good guy. I learn a lot from him. 🙂
LikeLike
Hey, a new addition to the family soon? Wonderful!
And wonderful for me to learn there are four more books in the ‘Tenafly’ series. I had no idea. I’m still reading (and loving) the first. I am quite caught up in the world of Katherine, Weldon, Simon and the rest.
This spot is one of my favorite places in the blogosphere to visit.
LikeLike
We’re still in the very early stages of exploring the adoption thing, but we’ve been thinking about it for a long time so we’ll see what happens.
I’m so happy that you’re enjoying Kate, Weldon and Simon. I love them like real family so it gets me so excited when people care about them.
And thank you so much for the kind words about the blog. I never guessed I’d have so much fun at it and meet such wonderful people along the way, Kate.
Have a great weekend.
A
LikeLiked by 1 person
This post gave me all kinds of thoughts. The most vivid is – how smart to write a dialogue with you and husband about your book! Second thought comes next: how come my husband never asks about the characters in MY books? Third thought is: I need to get to a museum soon – I miss mulling about and jumping into those scenes. Nice to meet you here!
LikeLike
Once I was asked to give a book talk and waited until the last day to figure out what to say. I panicked. I thought after my husband read my first novel that because he didn’t say much about it that he’d skimmed it or didn’t like it. This annoyed me (privately). But on this day he came home from work and found me still in my pajamas.He knew something was wrong. Right there and then he sat down and wrote an outline of all the themes of my novel, which scenes I should consider reading out loud to illustrate the themes and draw in the crowd and some funny anecdotes. I was stunned that he’d been paying attention all along. Now I’m a little less likely to think he doesn’t care 😉 NIce to meet you as well and thanks for commenting.
LikeLike
An interesting thought, to “spend the day” inside a painting…
Been (back) to the Louvre this summer, and I wonder in which painting I would have liked to spend a day. A Corot maybe? 🙂
Berthe Morisot? A Renoir definitely. Not Pollock!
Lichtenstein?
Hmmm.
Take care
Brian
LikeLike
I think I’d have an awful day in most modern (not all) art. I think a John Singer Sargent world would be very nice indeed, but I’d probably be more comfortable in Winslow Homer’s world 🙂 Have a great holiday, Brian.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really enjoyed this, Adrienne. He sounds very sweet. =)
Xxxx and X
Diana
LikeLike
Thanks, Diana. Yes, he is very sweet. Today he’s building some sort of cement pedestal for a beautiful old garden dove statue my sister gave to me as a gift. What a guy.
LikeLike
Wow!
LikeLike