Day 21 – Marriott Marquis
1535 Broadway.
“If you want to make an omelette, you’ve got to break some eggs.”
So said that doomed Robespierre and broken eggs come to mind when you dig into the story behind the massive Marriot Marquis.
This place has no historical literary associations whatsoever that I can uncover. Type ‘Marriott Marquis Great Authors’ into Google and you won’t be overwhelmed. However, try ‘Marriott Marquis Historic Theatre Destruction’ and you’ll find yourself in much more fertile soil. You see, no less than five old Broadway theatres were demolished to build this 2000 room space-age monster. When it opened (way back in 1985 when Bobby Brown ruled the airwaves) Times Square was nasty, nasty and so the city was keen to try to turn it around. Demolishing five theatres was part of that plan.
As such, I like to think working here is true to the intention of writing the new novel in an artistic space (the ghosts of five theatres and countless performances surely can’t but help the muse). Plus the views are kinda amazing.
Yes, it was Saturday night and time to head into the office so I chose this place – right in the middle of Manhattan madness. New York gets a million visitors a week and most of them end up in Times Square. At night the place glows for blocks around (we can see it from our pad on 85th Street – that’s 40 blocks away) and sure enough if you want to experience the true city that never sleeps, Times Square is it. Goulburn this ain’t.
And so it was I headed off at 9pm, iPad in my man-bag, rode the elevator to the 48th floor, ordered my Blue Moon (a perfectly acceptable local wheat beer), and clocked on. As I rotated in the sky watching the lightning storms over Jersey, the hours spun by and Roger Spoffin came to life.
Productive night, you ask? Well, who cares really, but the answer’s, ‘Yes. Good enough’. Hourly word count was more than acceptable and incidentally, the novel ticked over 50,000 words to date.
When I’d had enough, I rode the elevator back down to the street. As if from Mount Olympus, I descended from the lofty heights back to the grit and lights and rain-soaked streets and of course, New York was still abuzz. It’s never let me down yet.
Today’s word count: 2086
Word count to date: 50,553
