On September 14th I checked into a rented room in Brooklyn, NY. The room was in a warehouse complex of studios, filled with artists from around the world working in different mediums who were all staying for varying lengths of time. On the desk I found an informative sheet that listed everyone who was staying and what they were working on. The first thing that caught my eye was: theimpossibleplace.blogspot.com - "Hey," I thought to myself, "I'm impossible, that sounds like a place for me." So I checked it out. And that is where I found The Impossible Girl. The (other) Impossible Girl is a 36 part melodrama about a fashion designer and her rockstar boyfriend. Which has deliciously painted art and has just been published into a book.
My brain did this really neat thing then that felt like collapsing and expanding all at the same time. As though suddenly everything made sense and stopped making sense at once. As it comes together it falls apart. KABOOM!
Ok, look: "The Impossible Girl" is a good name, I'm totally willing to share it with other creators. Of course other people will think of these things, and have, and will again. But there are two Impossible Girls, one is a book, one is an album, and they are both being launched at the same time. And their respective creators - from different places in the world - all ended up staying in the same house in Brooklyn at the same time.
Of all the gin joints in all the world in all of the universes and all of the time lines....you had to walk into mine.
There are differences of course. But damn. And SHAZAM!
I started to write an email to the creators of the story but then I felt really strange; like I was a fictional character writing to my authors. Suddenly unsure of how to proceed I abandoned the missive and just went for a lie down while my brain did laps around the universe.
A few days later I met one of my authors on the rooftop garden. Nikki, the writer, was delighted and took me down to meet her partner, Chris, the painter. We walked into their studio where he was engrossed in painting a large canvas. Nikki announced, "Hey, I've brought The Impossible Girl."
Chris turned slowly from his work, said, "Yeah...right..." Then looked at me startled as I handed him the postcard with my album art that states clearly who I am. And he looked a little bit like his brain was doing what my brain had been doing when I first discovered his art.
Then we drank vodka. And they came to my NY show and I went to their book launch/art show closing party and we all marveled at the world and talked and had a lovely time. They're off to Mexico next and I'm off to Berlin. And I may never see them again. But we're linked in our imaginations. We both dreamt up the same girl.
And she is me. And not me.
She is The Impossible Girl.
**
And The Impossible Girl has RAD t-shirts!
In pink or green ink on black organic cotton, for girls and boys and everyone else too!
Buy them HERE
That is a cool story. My very first young adult novel I wrote had the same exact story and title as another author's very first young adult novel. Needless to say his was better and published.
ReplyDeletevery cool. i love when different aspects of the universe collide.
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