30 Day Photo Challenge – Day 29 – A Picture Of Someone You Miss – My Grandfather

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1997, 30 Day Photo Challenge, A Picture Of Someone You Miss, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Cuba, Day 29, family, Grandfather, Key Yemaya Walker, March 7th 1997, New York, Photography, Queens, Rene C. Sotolongo, Rene Cecil Sotolongo, Rene Sotolongo, The Bronx

My grandfather Rene C. Sotolongo.

The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.

30 Day Photo Challenge – Day 7 (Late) – A Picture Of Your Most Treasured Item(s)

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1997, 30 Day Photo Challenge, A Picture Of Your Most Treasured Item(s), Atlanta, Blue Lines, Blue Lines Blog, Cuba, Day 7, Granfather, New York, Photography, Queens, Rene Cecil Sotolongo, Rene Sotolongo, Santa Clara

In March of 1997, after my grandfather had past, we arrived in Jamaica Queens, New York and the first night there, I slept soundly in the basement on this pillow, with his blanket (brown with tiger, not sure whether it’s from Cuba) and the knit blanket that my Mother has made, and had recently sent him. I treasure these items, and if lucky enough, will pass them to my progeny.

The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.

Blue Lines Blog – Issue #2.1

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Blue Hurt, Blue Lines, California, Common, Cuban, Death, Grandfather, Hip-Hop, Jay-Z, Kenneth A Suffern Jr, Key Yemaya Walker, MW, Myla, Myla Watson, Myla Windham, New York, psychology, Queens, Rene Sotolongo, Sacramento, School, Tower Records, UNC Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Origins of Blue Lines manuscript…Part 1

                Let’s say that somewhere around 1996 I wanted to write a manuscript, book, whatever.  It was more of a focus on what was one of my loves at the time, Hip-Hop, therefore the plan was to tell the story of an aspiring MC and the girl that he meets along his way as a struggling artist.  Other than the concept, there was no plan for the story, no outline, development, or clear cut path for this to go.  It simply consisted of its Hip-Hop background, and somehow creating a story that at the end of the day was a parallel using live characters to illustrate that “love.”  I guess for those who listen, Common’s “I Used to Love H.E.R.” would be the best musical description of what my initial aim was. 

So it begins…

With that said, the initial 5 page story followed the story of an unnamed male protagonist, and pieces of him meeting a female antagonist simply names “L.”  Now, if you will indulge me, again we are looking at 1996-ish, Lauryn Hill was being promoted at the “IT” woman in Hip-Hop.  Rather than initially using her name, I simply shortened it to “L” until I could actually name the character.  Character names were pretty bad, her friend was listed as (homegirl) , and his friend was “Mello Smoothe” a self moniker that a friend gave himself around the time that Maxwell came on the music scene.  This initial version grew from one page, to two pages of scatter story development, and stalled out at 5 pages that gave a clear development of the opening, middle and an outline of an ending, the only problem is that it stalled out there.  And the dream to write a manuscript was stalled by an aspiring writer who had no inspiration.