Rewriting the Novel: Gary's Input

I told Gary two things about the novel.

It begins with a train derailment.
Gary's response: Does the heroine DIE NO ONE SURVIVES A TRAIN DERAILMENT ELLEN DON'T YOU KNOW THAT (followed by many pictures or train derailments) THERES NO SUCH THING AS A MINOR TRAIN DERAILMENT. It now begins with a train impact at a crossroads with a currently unspecified Vehicle Large Enough to disable a train.

There is a Turkish Baths place in town and it is Key. This is straight from Jerry's page long description of the town: "one illuminated sign read TURKISH BATHS." 
Gary's response: SO IS THIS AN LGBTQ NOVEL?  I thought there were straight Turkish baths, but even if there are, too much nuance. It would be the Chekov's Gun of Turkish Baths. We'd all be waiting for a steamy scene. So, there is no longer a Turkish Baths sign. 

I am wonder why I shared those two things with Gary. I was pleased with them. Did I subconsciously want scrutiny?  

Well, no matter. Scrutiny must make me write furiously. I intended to pare the first chapter down into an haiku, yet after Gary's input, it has doubled in size. 

Comments

[KC]

There were gobs of train derailments in the late 1800s/early1900s that did not kill everyone (in fact, I don't think I've heard of one that did?); I assume part of the difference vs. modern is the speed they were going and the surrounding terrain. I'm not sure about your time period precisely.

There were a lot of injuries/deaths most times a train derailed, though (and, uh, more, if there was a bridge or fire involved). So unless you want a mass casualty event, yeah, either an accident with a vehicle crossing the tracks *or* the railway switches malfunctioning would be the way to go. (the most common some-but-low-fatality train incidents I've heard of are basically "the engineer of the train wasn't keeping a good enough eye out and rammed the train into the back of a slower-moving train; engineer dies, rest of train is shaken up and/or has some injuries from falling over, but largely just inconvenienced by being stuck there until they can get a new train engine to the spot")

Anyway. I've got opinions. :-) (but I know of zero turkish baths in the US before the public domain cutoff line)(but the ones I've run across that were in books written in the UK were not sexy/scandalous, unless you count scandalous in that people there might be able to get you hashish; but maybe they became scandalous later, or maybe they varied or maybe the books I've read have cleaned up their image to be "restorative, naked, and occasionally slightly awkward" instead of "naked and... something else")

[TheQueen]

KC - Actually, the derailment adjustment was a nice opportunity for exposition. The Turkish baths will have to be changed because of modern-day nuances, I think. Towels and baths? I'll think of something.