All right. After starting with Hannity (before giving that name to the missing professor), then switching to Hawthorne, I have landed on the FINAL name for my hero and narrator: Valentine. At last!
After a solid week of woodshedding on Hard Lesson, a solid picture is starting to emerge, including of course the cast of characters that drive the story. Provided here is a list of major characters that have appeared so far.
That’s right, folks: Somewhere in Hoboken, New Jersey, circa 1935, at fictional Lester College, a private dick and occasional college professor sits in his office, planning moves for his play-by-mail chess games. Pulp Novel BETA 0.1 is underway, under the working title The Hardest Lesson. And that means that I’ve got excerpts for you.
After finally landing on a concept for my novel and its protagonist, I’ve come up with working names for both: The Hardest Lesson, and “Professor Jay Hannity”, respectively. Both are subject to change, of course…but for now, I’m happy.
This is my preliminary sketch of the protagonist of our story, and some basics about the mystery he finds himself involved in.
A really great description of my project and the purpose of this site…probably way better than the actual book will turn out, frankly.
To better sort out what I expect to be some fairly scattershot posts, I’ve set up some categories. You can find them to the right, and if they’re not self-explanatory, I’ve done something wrong.
This template is called “The Morning After”, and was created by Arun Kale, who distributes (and supports!) it for free at his website. If there’s any ugliness on this page, you can bet that it’s not his fault…it’s mine.