Steph has informed me that August is National World-Building Month, when writers all over the world come up with worlds to put there stories in. I have just checked the blog, Word Building Month: Participants, where they have my name. I'd like to say hello to all the World Builders.
From what I can see of my fellow World-Builders, your all concentrating on fantasy worlds, such as Tolkein's Middle-Earth. This is all well and good, and I'm going to be doing a bit of that at some point, but that's not the world I'm going to be writing about.
Instead, I will be writing a series of mystery novels about an Irish sorcerer named Jack Blackwright (That name may change because it's to close to the name of comedian Jack Black, which isn't what I want with the character). It's set in Paris during the time of the Beat Hotel, which was home to such great writers as Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. Jack lives in the Beat Hotel where he runs an off-beat private detective agency that utilizes a unique method of sorcery in his investigations. I have already written two short stories, but they are short and ignore most information on Paris.
The Jack Blackwright Stories are intended to be a mixture of historical mystery, occult mystery, conspiracy literature, absurdism and a tribute to the Beat Generation. It will be based on an actual historical period as well as various tributes to the work of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs.
Now that I got that down, I'll get to introducing you to the main characters.
Jack Blackwright
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: Ireland
Occupation: Sorcerer, Private Detective
Jack Blackwright is a man with a mysterious past. During his college years he was excepted into a mysterious secret society he refers to as "the Organization." For the last ten year or so, he has gone on several missions for the Organization that he defines as "Some of the weirdest shit that you’d ever think to see in your life." To recuperate, he has moved to the Beat Hotel where he spends most of his time seeing the sights of Paris and hiding in his apartment reading James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Despite this, Jack usually finds himself caught between the worlds of Paris’ crime, bohemia and occult circles.
Maxmillian Quincy
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: Canada
Occupation: Actor, Mime, Writer
Max Quincy is the Archie Goodwin to Jack Blackwright’s Nero Wolfe. A self-proclaimed Dandy, Max has come to Paris to write and study mine. He moves into the Beat Hotel because of the cheap housing and quickly becomes embroiled in Jack Blackwright’s twilight world. Max is largelly based on a friend of mine, who like Max is a dandy, actor and smokes tobacco from an opium pipe.
Allen Ginsberg
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: America
Occupation: Poet
Allen Ginsberg is one of the three main Beat writers, along with Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. He is the author of "Howl" and "Kaddish." Allen Ginsberg saw American society as to conformist and materialistic, and spent a lot of time in Paris getting his friend’s published and seeing the sights of Paris, along with other Bohemian types of activities such as writing poetry (Kaddish was started when he was in Paris) and sex. Jack originally considers Allen Ginsberg, "that annoying little American man who won’t shut up about his friends," but warms up to him when he finds a copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, on Apollinare’s Grave.
William S. Burroughs
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: America
Occupation: Writer, Junkie
William S. Burroughs is considered one of the three main Beat writers, along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. He wrote "Naked Lunch," and "The Soft Machine," both of which where published while he lived at the Beat Hotel. William S. Burroughs was into all kinds of weird stuff, such as Mind Control, Scientology, Drugs, Destroying the Constraints of Language, Gazing into Crystal Balls and Cut-ups. I’m pretty sure that he was daemonically possessed, and that his writing is a way of exorcizing his demons. He may also be a member of Jack’s Organization, through his long years in Tangier.
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: Ireland
Occupation: Sorcerer, Private Detective
Jack Blackwright is a man with a mysterious past. During his college years he was excepted into a mysterious secret society he refers to as "the Organization." For the last ten year or so, he has gone on several missions for the Organization that he defines as "Some of the weirdest shit that you’d ever think to see in your life." To recuperate, he has moved to the Beat Hotel where he spends most of his time seeing the sights of Paris and hiding in his apartment reading James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Despite this, Jack usually finds himself caught between the worlds of Paris’ crime, bohemia and occult circles.
Maxmillian Quincy
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: Canada
Occupation: Actor, Mime, Writer
Max Quincy is the Archie Goodwin to Jack Blackwright’s Nero Wolfe. A self-proclaimed Dandy, Max has come to Paris to write and study mine. He moves into the Beat Hotel because of the cheap housing and quickly becomes embroiled in Jack Blackwright’s twilight world. Max is largelly based on a friend of mine, who like Max is a dandy, actor and smokes tobacco from an opium pipe.
Allen Ginsberg
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: America
Occupation: Poet
Allen Ginsberg is one of the three main Beat writers, along with Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. He is the author of "Howl" and "Kaddish." Allen Ginsberg saw American society as to conformist and materialistic, and spent a lot of time in Paris getting his friend’s published and seeing the sights of Paris, along with other Bohemian types of activities such as writing poetry (Kaddish was started when he was in Paris) and sex. Jack originally considers Allen Ginsberg, "that annoying little American man who won’t shut up about his friends," but warms up to him when he finds a copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, on Apollinare’s Grave.
William S. Burroughs
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: America
Occupation: Writer, Junkie
William S. Burroughs is considered one of the three main Beat writers, along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. He wrote "Naked Lunch," and "The Soft Machine," both of which where published while he lived at the Beat Hotel. William S. Burroughs was into all kinds of weird stuff, such as Mind Control, Scientology, Drugs, Destroying the Constraints of Language, Gazing into Crystal Balls and Cut-ups. I’m pretty sure that he was daemonically possessed, and that his writing is a way of exorcizing his demons. He may also be a member of Jack’s Organization, through his long years in Tangier.
5 comments:
Actually bud, mine is not Tokien-esque fantasy at all.
If you read the accompanying short-story, 'Fallen' you'll notice it's more high-fantasy than anything else.
Oh, and just a regular comment: I think you're supposed to be creating the world itself - the environs, the planet, the landscape - at least for now. No specific characters... though I could be mistaken.
::goes to check::
Well to be honest, this will mostly be researching Paris during the time period selected, making up secret societies, creating weird conspiracy theories and such.
Tolkien-esque? Fantasy? Au contraire, Arnâron will be very un-Tolkienesque... and not really fantasy. Read the Intro posting to get a general idea of where I'm coming from (and going to go).
Anyway, welcome to the project!
That must take so much energy and imagination to create an entire different world or plane of existence. My favorite is still the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny my favorite of those 10 novels though is still Nine Princes in Amber
Hey Shelia. Havn't heard from you in awhile, where have you been?
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