My New Novel about Detroit in the 60s

**Susan Messer** · June-29-09, 12:56 PM

1kiels,

Thanks for the tip on Little Prof. One of my friends had mentioned that one as well. And I know just where it is. I also know of some of those musicians you mention in your post. Probably, if I do a reading there, and you show up, I'll recognize you too. I lived in A2 for a long time.

Susan

**1KielsonDrive** · June-30-09, 08:41 PM

Susan, make sure to copy my email address to your mailing list. I'd like to receive updates from you. Thanks. = 1KD = 1KielsonDrive@live.com

**Susan Messer** · June-30-09, 10:39 PM

Thanks for the email. I will definitely keep in touch. Got an email today from someone at the Detroit Public Library about an author event in early August. Another one from the Detroit Metro Jewish Community Center, about their book fair in November. Tomorrow is the official launch day for the book. So . . . it's really happening. Such a long wait . . .

**tapstevenson** · June-30-09, 10:47 PM

I am in the middle of writing a suspense/horror novel that takes place on the northwest side of Detroit in the 1960's. I grew up there on St. Mary's Street near Outer Drive.
Patrick R. Stevenson
AKA Ian Mckenzie

**rustic2** · June-30-09, 10:58 PM

Congrats on the book. Looking forward to reading it. I grew up in Detroit in the 1970s and early 1980s, not too far removed from the era in which your novel is set.

I need a stimulus package of my own, so the library will be my first stop, I'm afraid to say.

Have you read "The House on Alexandrine"? A few weeks in the lives of some disparate, and desperate, Detroit characters, set in 1973. I thought it really captured that time.

Best to you, and keep writing.

P.S. It has to be a trash can, especially with the crude "Beautiful Detroit" label stenciled on it, though in a time before every single thing was filtered through focus groups and consultants and marketing experts, it clumsily asks only for "Paper." But I like that lack of polish -- keepin it real for real.

**Susan Messer** · July-01-09, 10:03 AM

All the best with your book. This era in Detroit history is fertile territory, perched right there on the edge of so many historical forces: civil rights era moving into Black Power; manufacturing economy shifting to service economy; development of the suburbs.

And I understand about having to take the book out of the library. Please let me know if your library has it. And I really like your comments about the trash can. It does seem to come from a completely different era--less polished, less self-conscious. Great insight.

Susan

**1KielsonDrive** · July-01-09, 08:13 PM

Requesting your library to buy a copy of a book is a good stimulus package in and of itself. You get the pleasure of reading the book and influencing other's reading habits. I often make suggestions to my library for reading promotions.

**Susan Messer** · July-02-09, 09:20 AM

Yes, 1kielson, stimulus packages of all kinds are welcome.

This forum is another kind of stimulus package--one of them most active and engaged I've seen.

**1KielsonDrive** · July-02-09, 08:34 PM

Randa Jarrar, author of 'Map of Home', is moving back to Austin, Texas from Ann Arbor in the next month. I still consider her a local author because she wrote most of 'Map' while living here in Michigan. She's currently working on her next novel.

**Susan Messer** · July-03-09, 09:27 AM

I received an email from a woman in Massachusetts who saw the Free Press article about my book. She grew up in Detroit but has lived in Mass for years and years. She said something like you can take the girl out of Mich, but you can't take Mich out of the girl. Though I've lived in Illinois for 25 years, I still think of myself as a Michigander. It's odd, how something as arbitrary as state lines can become part of one's identity.

**1KielsonDrive** · July-04-09, 12:50 AM

I'm just finishing 'The Lake, The River and The Other Lake' by Steve Amick. EXCELLENT! I'm going to recommend a few books here soon. This can become our book reading link at DY if anyone else would like to contribute.

**1KielsonDrive** · July-04-09, 12:53 AM

Hey Rick Beall, don't buy books from Amazon, buy from a local bookseller. It might keep the place in business and keep the money local. I know Hamtown doesn't have a bookstore. There might be one nearby though - Detroit, Highland Park or Ferndale. We oughtta start a reading club in Hamtown.

**Meddle** · July-04-09, 01:43 AM

Most of you wouldn't like my memories of the Grand River and Joy area in the 60's. Or more specifically, Livernois & W. Chicago where Engine 42 was a command post in July of '67.

**Susan Messer** · July-04-09, 07:59 AM

Meddle, I wonder what you mean by we wouldn't like your memories. There were a lot of hard times and hard things in Detroit and everywhere in the world. My book doesn't paint a rosy picture or glorify the era.

And I agree about buying from bookstores whenever possible. I'm in New Orleans now, and I was just at the wonderful, tiny, atmospheric Maple Street bookstore yesterday, talking about books with the owner and other customers, buying books, lingering. Bookstores are wonderful places.

**Kathleen** · July-04-09, 11:24 AM

Meddle, many of us recall the 1967 Detroit riot and how it affected our neighborhoods and our daily lives that summer. Certainly we would welcome your stories and memories of Grand River and Joy and the fire station during the Detroit Riots. It is a topic of high interest on this forum as evidenced by this DYes Hall of Fame thread:
http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1235953895

As for buying books from your local bookstore...absolutely!! Or using your local library!! We need to patronize and spend our money at local establishments to keep them in business and serving customers!!

**vetalalumni** · July-04-09, 11:36 AM

Where might one find a bit more preview prior to considering purchase?

**Susan Messer** · July-04-09, 03:39 PM

Veta, if you mean more preview of my novel, see the first message in the thread. It has a link to my website as well as the article about it in last Sunday's Free Press. University of Michigan Press, the publisher, also has information--an excerpt, a press kit, a blog entry by me.

http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do;jsessionid=4E458866CC564BFCFE85 4AF0F25D10B7?id=364373

**kit1007** · July-04-09, 03:46 PM

Originally Posted by Bobl

I'm looking forward to reading the book. I spent many weekend evenings nearby, at the Grande Ballroom and an acquaintance's father had a wholesale and used furniture business in the neighborhood, back in the sixties.
Congratulations!

Anything on Plum Street, remember Open City Medical Clinic. I spent many a day wandering up and down Plum Street. Way Cool !!

**Susan Messer** · July-04-09, 04:00 PM

Oh, Plum Street gets a brief mention. How could it not, in a book about the 60s? [[but it's a brief mention)

**1KielsonDrive** · July-05-09, 01:15 AM

Meddle, I graduated from St.Theresa in June 1967 - quite near the epicenter of the riots, and got my first factory job soon thereafter. I contracted mononucleosis in July and was laid up in Delray Hospital when the riots started. I could probably tell you a few stories also. Regardless, if you were stationed at a firehouse, you probably have some great [[yes, sad and bad also) stories for everyone to hear. Please do take the time to tell us. I'm sure some of them are difficult and hard to relate, but give it a shot.

**1KielsonDrive** · July-05-09, 01:30 AM

A little clarification about buying books: I usually order them through my library first. This accomplishes two things: one, I get to preview a book to decide if I'd like to buy it and two, the book gets in circulation to library patrons. Some books are very important and need to be read for a good rounded knowledge of history. Example: 'Legacy of Ashes' by Tim Weiner. Weiner's subject is the CIA, but in the process of writing about the CIA, Weiner reveals much history surrounding the subject, from the cold war right up to the present. He also didn't use one, single, unattributed source in the entire book. It was that well researched. I thought it was a great addition to my library's collection.

**1KielsonDrive** · July-05-09, 01:42 AM

Kit1007, I remember 'Open City very well. It was located in the Sheridan Apartments building on the northwest corner of Canfield and Second, kitty corner from the Traffic Jam. Open City not only included a 'medical clinic, but also a switchboard', or phone line to call in time of need and crisis, a free food store, a free furniture store, a crash pad, and other community functions. The board meetings [[they didn't like to call them that) were held in various places around the neighborhood, including backyards and porches. It didn't last more than few years, pretty much like the whole counter-culture of the late 60's, early 70's. My mother, newly divorced in the late 60's, got involved in Open City as I was attending school at CMU. She and friends got me involved in Open City while home summers from school.

**Susan Messer** · July-05-09, 08:20 AM

I grew up on the northwest side of Detroit. Looking back, I think I had a fairly insular, neighborhood-oriented life [[maybe most people do?). All my family and friends lived in that same northwest neighborhood. When I left it, say, on a Saturday afternoon, I took the bus to the DIA and that WSU neighborhood, Hudson's/Greek Town/Downtown, or to Northland. Other than that, I walked or rode bikes to friends house, school, etc.

**Bobl** · July-05-09, 09:27 AM

Yes, the memories and experiences of the insurrection of 1967 are worth discussion.
I lived at Third and Prentis, and a roommate left the morning after the confrontation began to her Good Humor ice cream route, along Trumbull. She was greeted by an elderly black man who walked up to her truck. "Maa'm, don't you know there's a riot going on? You'd better get out of here!"
She came back to the apartment in her truck, woke us up, then headed for her parents' home in the suburbs. Called Good Humor to let them know that she quit, then and there. Their response? "Could you keep the truck for a few days...you can have the ice cream"!!

**Susan Messer** · July-05-09, 09:36 AM

Bobl,

That is a great story. Especially "Don't you know there's a riot going on?" and "could you keep the truck . .. "--just goes to show how blurry and confusing the borders of the experience were. And I'm glad you used the word "insurrection." This has been an issue for me in the writing and the promotion of my book. Using the word "riot" is a kind of shorthand that people recognize, but I'm not completely comfortable with it. My book has 13 chapters, and they all have one-word titles except for the chapter called "Riot/Rebellion." I meant to show that it all depends on one's perspective.