Week 6

It’s a fairly short chapter this week, but it’s an important one. A certain amount of Gooseberry’s back story is revealed (yes, there is more in the pipeline), and with it come some strong hints as to why the eight-year-old Gooseberry chose Mr. Bruff’s offer of employment over returning to his important and lucrative position in ‘The Life’.

Julius’s character starts to reveal itself, and we also learn a little more about Bertha. Though the chapter finishes on a relatively high note, the truth is, at the moment it’s a relatively fragile accord, and one which any of the characters can upset with a wrong word or a wrong gesture. I love it.

Although we haven’t met him yet, I now have a name picked out for the clerk at Mr. Bruff’s law firm who gave Octavius the nickname Gooseberry. It’s Mr. Grayling—first name, Christopher. Here’s the only mention of him so far, from the very first chapter:

I don’t object to Mr. Bruff calling me Gooseberry, though I would have you know that it is not my real name. It’s a name that’s been given to me by one of Mr. Bruff’s clerks on account of my eyes. They bulge. At least, that’s what this clerk delights in telling me almost every single day. Naturally I can’t help them bulging any more than I can help being blessed with brains, and blessed with brains I am—to a far greater degree than either of the Georges, or that fool of a clerk, come to that.

This is in response to author Kathy Lette’s call to fellow authors to use the name of the British Secretary of Justice for a villainous character in their books. Like Lette, I think the Justice Secretary’s ban on sending books to prison inmates is shameful. Prisoners should be encouraged to read and to improve their literacy skills, not discouraged. This ban is small-minded, shortsighted, and petty.

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.

Week 4

***Spoiler alert*** ***Spoiler alert*** ***Spoiler alert***

WARNING: AS THIS POST IS ABOUT THE PROCESS OF WRITING, DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KNOW HOW THE NOVEL WILL END!

First of all, a disclaimer. The Thames Tunnel was, as far as I can tell, never a venue for prostitution. The idea suggested itself when I was reading a contemporary review of the tunnel experience by the Frenchman, François Wey, who, in 1853, wrote, “These booths ought certainly to be closed by the Government, both for the sake of hygiene and morality, as it is patent that trade here is only a thin cloak for prostitution”. It’s almost certain that this was sour grapes on Wey’s part, typical of the petty rivalry—on both sides—between Britain and France at that time.

Well, at least now we know who put the daguerreotype in Aunt Merridew’s handbag. I wonder if anyone saw that coming? Do let me know if you did. It was the one trick I kept up my sleeve when I couldn’t come up with a plot in the allotted time.

Even though I still don’t have a plot as such, every single choice I make regarding my characters narrows down and shapes what the novel must become. For example, having just introduced mad Johnny Knight, even at this point I know that a showdown between Gooseberry and Johnny is inevitable, and should by rights provide the climax to the book. This is an example of what I like to think of as a story’s “imperative”—something that must occur due to what has happened already.

As soon as I knew there was to be a showdown, I also understood another imperative. Gooseberry’s change of circumstance from master pickpocket to office boy only occurred because his boots had been stolen, so when the climax comes, Gooseberry must have his boots taken away from him again. It’s a small detail, but it’s important both both physically and psychologically, for it should herald yet another change of circumstance for the boy.

What worries me is that, no matter how intelligent or resourceful Gooseberry may be, how can he hope to best a raging psychopath who’s twice his size and much, much stronger? Oh, why, when I had the chance, didn’t I give him some skills with a slingshot in the first chapter?

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.

Week 3

Loads of research needed this week, as Gooseberry finds himself following Bertha beneath the Thames. What I’m talking about, of course, is the Thames Tunnel, the world’s first sub-aquatic tunnel, which now serves as part of the East London Line for the London Underground network. A couple of years ago I went down what remains of the Rotherhithe entrance, a circular shaft that only descends part of the way, which has now been sealed off with an ugly plug of concrete. As nothing remains of the steps or the landings, I found it impossible to imagine what the tunnel had looked like in its heyday. Luckily this week I was able to find some nicely detailed drawings that I could refer to. I also found a number of fascinating contemporary accounts by its visitors of their experiences in the tunnel.

The problem for me as an author is how to bring this setting alive without making it sound like a history lesson, and deciding what to include—and how to present it—is very much part of that. So the turnstile, the organ music, and the stalls with their marble counters and cheap wares are authentic, as is the coffee shop (and also the waiter, but not his jacket). The Egyptian Rune Reader is simply The Egyptian Necromancer by another name, but I have to say that the monkey is pure invention on my part (although this doesn’t mean that there wasn’t one!) What was important to me was that tunnel should come alive in the writing, and I think that it has.

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.