I hope to get to 2000 words today, which is rather slow for me. One thing I have to take into account, however — hours spent in online research.

When writing about a place, visiting the place helps. I feel really good about writing about Chicago, even if I have to revisit now and again to check out the non-tourist Chicago that I knew about 20 years ago. When I write about my home town — nothing to see there, move along.

However, the person who penned “Write about what you know” gave excellent advice and I should have heeded it. I set the first part of the current novel in a foreign country. I do not speak the language. Google’s page translation brings such delights as “Puget’s outbuildings provide new home for dying swans”, with a photo of a bird which is most definitely not a swan. Apparently, looking at a photo on Instagram of a dark, moody coffeehouse is not the way to pick the setting for the next novel.

Does anyone have a floor plan to the Donimirski Palac Pugetow Business Center? In English?