Week 2

Well…

It’s a photograph after all.

In all honesty, one night was not long enough to come up with a better idea. I think this is something I’m going to have to get used to when writing Gooseberry. Unlike where I’m writing a novel in the normal fashion, I do not have the luxury of being able to wait around until inspiration strikes; I just have to go with what I can.

This week I was faced with taking a key decision: whether or not to make the flower girl a man. Originally the flower girl was to be a very minor role, whose task was simply to bring Gooseberry back into contact with his comrades from the Life. Earlier in the week, I was sitting and thinking about what I’d written that day, and planning what to tackle the next—which I tend to do in the evenings over a glass of white wine—and after the second or third glass it suddenly occurred to me that I should make her a man. The enormous benefit of this is that he suddenly becomes an instantly recognizable comic character who can accompany Gooseberry throughout his adventures, a major character in other words. The drawback is that it somehow lends the story a less-than-authentic feel, even though during this period there were obviously men who dressed as women and women who dressed as men. I guess the reason it begins to feel less authentic is that the novelists of the time would never have written about them, despite the long (and often literary) English tradition of cross-dressing. But I’ve been clear from the beginning: Gooseberry is not a sequel; it’s a spin-off, in the kind of comic detective genre where Bertha (as I imagine him) would be a star. I don’t think this is a choice I will come to regret.

Gooseberry himself seems to be shaping up rather nicely. We’ve seen him in action as a pickpocket, and we’ve had a tantalizing glimpse—not just of his past—but of his home life, too. I for one can’t wait for him to renew his acquaintance with Bertha in the next installment.

Till next week,
Michael

P.S. Do let me know what you think of it. If you can, please post your comments on Goodreads (my blog has a comments box!)


Michael Gallagher’s Gooseberry is serialized in weekly installments every Friday from July 4th 2014 on Goodreads. Michael Gallagher is the author of The Bridge of Dead Things and The Scarab Heart, as well as the popular non-fiction title Why the Victorians Saw Ghosts.