historical novella project:plans and summeries.

boring and sopiolar warning: the following has nothing to do with my usual scribbles, and somewhat to do about my life. there are also spoilers. you have bean warned.

my original idea for my novella was rejected by my english teacher, but a couple of modifications make that all better. the rough draft is due on the 6th of june, and i have three and a half weeks to write it. that is about 6 pages a week, so you can expect a fair abount of content commig through here. for those who don't like it, i hope to have other pieces up as well. any how, the following is the plot outline (along with some descriptions) of my novella.

• Introduce Charles Babbage.
• He is a “shady” merchant, who has violated trade sanctions, taxes etc. and deals with shady people who use slave labor etc. to make their products.
• He also supplies certain “hard to obtain items” that are illegal (I’ll have to look up what exactly that is, probably black market sugar, maybe gunpowder, I think Britain still controlled it at that point.)
• He is greedy. He cares for nothing and no one, he is above the law, and does not care the slightest bit about any suffering cased by his practices and products. The only thing that maters to him are his money, and his business, which he built from the ground up.
• While he has not yet done so, he would kill to keep his business going.
• Physical appearance
• He is middle aged, and in good shape considering.
• While he considers his brain to be his cunning and ruthlessness to be his greatest asset, his is fairly good at physical activities.
• He has black hair, and gray eyes
• He is tall (equivalent of six feet nowadays, don’t know average height then) and thin.
• His height is only accentuated by his unusually good posture
• He wears reading glasses.
• His father was a watchmaker, and he was an apprentice under him for several years before opening his own shop. After a year or so he realized there was a lot of money to be made in being a merchant. Over time he realized he did not have to play by the rules. He thus dislikes the cops as they are an added expense for him.
• One of the murders happens outside his shop. The police com and bring all sorts of unpleasantness unto him. This also causes a drop in business. Charles is much displeased.
• Charles has an epiphany and sets out to hire a private detective.
• Introduce Arthur grey. (probably as he finishes an “investigation” for a gang)
• Arthur was a detective until he ran into allegations of taking bribes and was fired from the police force. His wife divorced him and he did not support her (either due to social reasons if there are any, or else because of his lack of money.) she had to turn to prostitution, and was killed by jack the ripper. While Arthur would like nothing else but to catch Jack, he cannot because he must work at all available hours.
• Arthur is the de facto go to guy for law enforcement under ground. Ganges, criminals etc. all come to him if they need to find out who did something. Because of this, he is able to get information in ways not available to the police force.
• Arthur is world weary and bitter. When is ex-wife died it took most of him with it. He has lost everything. He stopped believing in justice, and is only attempting to survive from day-to-day. He stopped caring about his actions, or the consequences the bring, and is not above killing, though he only strikes back in self defense. He no longer cares about honor, merely about getting the job done. He is smart, and has a touch of Sherlock Holmes.
• Physical appearance:
• Tall, but not as tall as Charles. He has dark brown hair, blue eyes, and is frequently dressed in entirely in black or near black. He has a sallow, somewhat forlorn face, with the look of a man who has seen the cruelty of the world.
• Charles hires Arthur.
• The next day Arthur pokes around out in front of Charles shop. This causes some discontent on the side of Charles, as he is scarring potential customers. Arthur will find a scrap of fabric (just enough to find that it is pants).
• Arthur uses some old police contacts to examine the body. He will find a couple of hairs (dark) in the victims hand. He will also get some details about where she worked)
• Arthur will also manage to get some notes on interviews with witnesses to the murder.
• Arthur then realizes that he knows a hit man by the description given (dark hair, whatever the witnesses say). Arthur informs Charles to this, and Arthur goes to talk to him. (The hit man owes Arthur a favor)
• They go to him to find he was a middle man who contracted several hit men (though they may have gone by a different title then) by gangs in a turf war (or other story depending on what would be plausible at the time). He then tells them whom else he hired.
• After interrogating all but one the other hit men (most of which will probably be implied, could get boring “the all said the same thing, let’s hope this one cracks”) our “heroes” head to talk to the last one on the list they have. This one reveals that the middle-man works for the government, and that he (the hit man) is occasionally hired by him (the middle man) to kill discreetly people of interest to the monarchy.
• Arthur and Charles go back to the contractor, and interrogate him again. After a while Arthur tells Charles that he will not divulge information willingly, and that he may need to torture him. Charles has trouble with this, but ultimately concedes to do so. Arthur leaves the room, and tries to block out the screams of pain from the other room. Charles exits room looking spaced out, shocked etc. (might cut that if it is to violent). Charles reveals that the murders where performed for prince eddy.
• Scene in which a messenger. He checks up on the contractor to find him dead. In his final moments he managed to write out a letter (in code) stating that prince eddy’s secret was out.
• code will probably be rot-13 (make all the letters 13 places more. A=m b=n c=o etc. I’m fairly sure that cipher existed then.)
• Introduce an advisor to prince eddy. One of his charges is to ensure embarrassment does come to the prince. His job is to hide his various affairs. He contemplates how difficult his job is as the prince has another prostitute taken into his room. His various musings include how that lady in India (I’ll have to check that) was one thing, but that this was getting out of hand. Common prostitutes could not be trusted to keep a secret. As he muses, the messenger comes in and tells him about the middle man. Enraged he exits the castle (palace, nice building, whatever princes lived in those days).
• Just as the advisor leaves, Charles and Arthur arrive. They begin to pester the advisor with questions. The advisor realizes they are the ones who found out about prince eddy. He takes them to an abandoned room (dark warehouse style) and the do a Q and A (just a Q and A, nothing the advisor will not try to conceal anything). ultimately Charles and Arthur get the whole truth.
• The next day Arthur goes to Charles shop to find him dead. The door closes, and out comes the hit man they interviewed who apologizes, before raising a gun (if impractical to have a gun, a hand will go over his mouth, and a knife next to his throat, then “sorry”).


Things I will need to know:
• Criminal slang from England in the 1800’s
• Where princes lived.
• Divorce status between husband and wife (is it possible to divorce, does the husband pay alimony, etc.)
• Ganges (all possible info.)
• How corrupt the police where (could you get fired for taking bribes like Arthur?)
• Investigative methods of police at the time. (was there any physical evidence, i.e. scraps of clothing, hair etc.)
• What people would have worn at the time.
• What would be common black market items (which if any drugs, imports etc.)

Appeals for help. I can’t make character descriptions. Every time I try I come up with about 6 feet tall, dark hair, pale white skin. Everyone looks like this in my mind.

i will have this okayed or rejected on monday. *crosses fingers*