Amazon is building the Info-Swirl!
Are you kidding me?
What ELSE from my novel is going to come true?
I mean, REALLY!?!
Amazon just announced today they are building a new Headquarters in Arlington, VA, and it looks EXACTLY like the Info-Swirl from my novel! When my husband came to get me today, I knew something was up. He made me close my eyes and he walked me to his computer. When I finally opened my eyes and saw the article and the photo, below, I couldn't believe it!
For those who don't know, the Info-Swirl is New Canaan's Headquarters building, the site of many key scenes in my novel, and is almost its own character.
Check out my early sketches. The first one I drew in 2014, and the second one was a couple years before that. (I have better ones somewhere that really look like the final product, but they are buried with the novel's early drafts.) Compare with the photo from the webpage!
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Here is an except from Chapter 4
A strong breeze touched the back of Danforth’s neck. Instinctively, he reached out and retrieved his WORLD'S BEST DAD coffee mug from its precarious perch on the balcony’s top railing. One of his sons (he forgot which one) had made it for him years ago in Bible camp. At the time, Danforth had called the misshapen pottery “atrocious,” but when he went to throw it out, he realized the concave base might actually serve a purpose. Sure enough, when he took it to work, it fit the rounded railing perfectly.
He tested the mug to lips just as another gust, stronger this time, sloshed coffee against his chin.
“Dammit!” he spat and dabbed at his chest. This was the third time this week he had ruined a tie.
He swore the building moved just to irritate him. Due to its excessive height, so he had been told, the Info-Swirl could sway like a metronome as much as eighteen inches during an earthquake. In gale-force winds, however, it was supposed to only shift a quarter inch off center. That small distance was supposedly imperceptible to the human brain, but Danforth swore he felt it all the time. He was certain others had experienced it, too. Unfortunately, none of them were still alive to corroborate his theory.
Because its glass exterior resembled a giant waterworks slide, the Swirl attracted its share of thrill-seekers. Every few years, some fool invariably scaled the building, climbed onto his balcony (the slide’s unofficial start), and attempted to surf its continuous wave. Everyone who had ever tried it, however, ended up getting too close to the edge and going down. Straight down. Game over.
Danforth was certain it was because the building moved out from underneath them, but regardless the cause, the incidents meant more than the loss of an unfortunate soul. With body parts strewn over multiple glass-bottomed tiers, it also meant the loss of productivity in the offices immediately below the landing sites. Last time, it happened in mid-April. Two tax attorneys had arrived early one Monday and had noted a surreal sunrise-color filtering down through an outer Conference Room glass ceiling. Per the report, it had taken them a full twenty seconds to comprehend what they were seeing, and another ten to understand why the disembodied face, staring down at them from a pool of blackish-red, was moving. Then it dawned on them: Vultures. Danforth could almost picture the grizzled cheek as it smeared blood across the glass in stiff, jerky fits.
It had taken a week to return things to normal. Due to bad timing (it was tax season, after all), he had been forced to hire a special recovery team to collect the man’s remains, as well as additional cleaners to wash the building down.
You designed architect.