Chapter 27 - The smuggler

A serious chapter about a serious problem. If anybody wants to read more about the horror of human trafficking I recommend they read 'The Whistleblower' by Kathryn Bolkovac which describes in detail how the traffickers work and - worse still - how western institutions not only turn a blind eye but are also sometimes active participants in this crime.

The story so far ...
The Colonel apologises to Celia for the attack on her in Venice and promises that it was not at all his intention. He explains the background to his smuggling activities in the mid nineties and justifies its necessity. He then tells Celia that he has insisted to her boss, Dr Lenz, that she be reinstated in her job and points out that her brother Ned does not seem to want to be found, even if he is still alive. Would it not make sense for her to come back to the chapel and continue her work on restoring the paintings? What will Celia decide to do?

Chapter 27 – The smuggler can be found on the right under 'Good Stuff'.

Chapter 26 - Apologies

Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski, Munich

So, after a long period of silence, here is chapter 26 and I hope that the next chapters won't take so long. I realise now that I've been working on this project for 18 months already - and I foolishly imagined it was going to be ready by September last year. Never mind.
This chapter takes place in Munich in the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten which (and they're not paying me for this) I can honestly say does a very good job at afternoon tea. Much better than the Hotel Kempinski in Hamburg, though neither of them compare with Fortnum & Mason in London. But as a nice place to sit and watch expensive people going about their expensive business (without having to spend too much money yourself) I can recommend tea in the lobby of the Vier Jahreszeiten.

The story so far ...
After receiving complaints from Colonal Kaiec, Celia's boss Dr Lenz suspends her from the restoration project in Istria while the department considers whether or not she should be fired. This, combined with the attack on her in Venice, the burglary at her flat and the feeling that maybe her missing brother Ned wants to stay missing, depresses Celia and she starts to regret her attempts to track him down. To her considerable surprise, she is sent a bunch of flowers by Colonal Kaiec with a request to meet him. But what can he possibly have to say to her?

Chapter 26 - Apologies ... can be found under 'Good Stuff' on the right.

Finally - news about Celia!

It has taken a long time, lots of head scratching and rewriting but I'm now able to continue Celia's adventures. I've made changes to every single chapter and written the next complete chapter (26) which will be posted here tomorrow.

On the right hand side under 'Good stuff' you can find the new versions of chapters 21-25 as these were where the bulk of the changes took place. I've deleted all the other chapters (too out-of-date) but left the audio files for the moment. 

The main changes to the structure have been to make the Colonel's involvement with the attack on Celia unintentional and to make Boran Vukovic much creepier. The Colonel needs to be able to make Celia an offer in chapter 26 and with my previous structure this offer wouldn't have been remotely tempting.

You'll be pleased to know I've got lots of new ideas for how the story will develop and I hope you'll be entertained by the next chapters and revisit.

Franz and Amadeus

Franz and Amadeus

I'm working away analysing what needs to be changed in the earlier chapters at the moment. I think it's mostly a question of adding things rather than taking away. So, for example Celia needs to become nastier towards Franz (poor Franz!) about losing his job and she needs to become unpleasantly ambitious. I don't have a problem with ambition unless it leads to corruption of moral values and I think this is going to be where Celia will wobble.

As a change I'm also doing little sketches of the characters to add to the blog. Above you can find Franz and Amadeus.

Educating Celia

Not everything is this black or white for Celia...

First of all, thank you to the people who wrote with support or ideas or comments about my last post and my 'crisis'. I really appreciate your help.

Some people felt that I was worrying unnecessarily about Celia and that if I tied up the story successfully from the point where I am now, she'd have least learnt not to be quite so trusting.

While that is certainly a useful thing to learn it doesn't seem to me to be that interesting for the world at large. I still feel she needs to be a better person at the end of the story, not just a more suspicious one.

So I think I need something more significant and the clue I feel lies in the problem in the relationship between Franz and Celia. Looking at chapters 4-7 again it doesn't seem plausible that all the problems are caused by Franz, with Celia just a victim. I think she needs to play a part in the marriage's deterioration.

And I think a source of trouble could be Celia's background. I think she could be a lot more bourgeois than she cares to admit and Franz losing his job as a philosophy professor on a point of principle could be extremely annoying to her, especially if he then takes a job on the railways instead. Apart from the possible financial strain, there would be the whole status issue. It's all very well marrying somebody foreign to irritate your family (perhaps?) if they are prestigiously employed; it's something else if they are a night train conductor when you are a latent snob.

There could also be another problem for Celia. What if she's explicitly offered the choice at some point to carry on working for Colonel Kaiec and make a sensational art history discovery or carry on asking questions about her brother and lose her job? I like the idea of presenting her with a moral dilemma where she initially makes an unethical choice.

Anyway, that's the way I'm tending at the moment. If you have any comments, send them in!

Help! Help! Crisis!

Over the past few weeks I have realized that I’m not able to write any more with the book in its present form. There is a big hole in the centre of the novel, and it’s all because I haven’t followed the guidelines that I gave myself at the very beginning of this blog. Here’s what I said in October 2012 in my entry ‘Jamie's cordon-bleu guide to cooking a good thriller’:

1 genuine moral dilemma – the hero or heroine should have a certain amount of realistic doubt about the rightness of their course of action which the reader can identify with.  It’s also important that the hero / heroine is flawed but is able to overcome their deficiencies (unless it’s a tragedy, in which case they have to die). By the end of the novel the hero / heroine should have learnt something and become a better and stronger person.

My problem is that at the moment there is no moral dilemma. Celia just ploughs on getting closer and closer to the end of the book, but she’s not showing any development. She doesn’t seem to have any flaws which she needs to recognize and overcome. The result will be that the reader could get to the end of the book and say ‘So what?’.

This is very frustrating, because I now have to go right back to the beginning of the novel and decide if I can simply add stuff to make Celia a little less perfect or whether I need to start all over again.

Gaah!

I hope beginning all over again  won’t be necessary. I think there’s some good writing there but it’s missing the development element. But we shall see what needs to be done after a proper review.

Chapter 25 - Speculation

Ned ... perhaps

Finally, the man whom we've heard so much about, Ned Atkinson makes his appearance. Or does he?

The story so far ... Celia has made a powerful enemy in Colonel Kaiec due to the difficult questions she has been asking about her brother Ned. As a result she has been attacked in Venice and has now lost her job in Munich. What will be her next step?

Chapter 25 - Speculation can be seen on the right under 'Good stuff'