Gill Lee
Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
Hi Kat,
Yes, I loved it! Will watch anything with either of those leads, mind you.
Gill
Thanks for such positive comments and interesting questions. I’m itching to get redrafting already, but trying to hold back and reflect! So many of the concerns of the 80s left – gender and racial injustice, police corruption and bias – are very much still relevant today. As you say, Kate, not having mobile phones or email or social media helps with miscommunication and missing people no end! And it’s interesting how many of the old conspiracy theories – police spies especially – have turned out to be truer than many of us would have believed at the time. The podcast ‘Bed of Lies’ deals with the real life infiltration of women’s lives by police spies (subject to the Mittings Public Inquiry – ongoing) and is a great listen for anyone who is interested.
Total sense and really works.
There’s very little retrospective telling. The second half (after Laura discovers Mike is a spy) is pretty evenly divided between a forward pushing narrative focused through Mike which tells a story Laura was completeley unaware of (about the file and how he ends up murdered) and Laura’s discovery of what happened to Mike. But you’re right about the danger – Laura’s section has involved lots of editing to make sure there is v little overlap with what we learn from the narrative focused on Mike – and I’ll re-read again after your comment!
Hi Alison,
I love the premise and think it will be absolutely work without too much backstory – I’m already sucked in! The only point that left me wondering was ‘the Hummerites weaponize weather to pressure governments, risking accelerating Earth’s demise’ which could so badly go wrong. I’m sure you’ve got a sound reason for this, but it certainly complicates things morally in a tale that is otherwise pretty straightforward…
Hi Steven,
Your synopsis is extremely clear as is your outline for the first chapters. I’m guessing there’s something behind Serafina’s homesickness – an ill relative, an adult child in difficulty? I understand nothing about cricket, so excuse my ignorance, but how do you get to be captain if you’re the worst player? Sounds like a novel of very English stereotypes and I can see how Serafina’s Polish-ness will further emphasise those – so lots of comic fun available.
Hi Gillian,
You’re right. She distrusts Eric too. His revelation about Mike comes as the final nail in her belief in Mike and belief she can track him down. Most of her friends think he’s simply gone because she is pregnant. She also gives up because she’s knackered and pregnant! These 150 words make nuance hard, but you’re right. That needs work.
Thanks for pointing it out!
Gill
Hi Anja,
This sounds like the makings of a good comic tale, the interest coming from either bending into the stereotypes or breaking from them. My question about your synopsis was the relevant weight you give to the ‘domestic’ problems versus the secret Russian lab which comes in near the end of your synopsis. Is this where it comes in the book? Given the comic possibilities of juxtaposing bird spotting with a Russian spy drama, I wondered whether it should occupy a bit more of the book, and therefore of the synopsis?
Wow! Yes, you have got it all in here but wrapped into plot and characters the reader will care about it! Would agree with Chithrupa that there are a lot of names to swallow in the synopsis. Maybe focus on Dr Boyle and leave the millionaire and lackey unnamed?
Hi Richard,
Think you have loads here to make this a fascinating memoir. I particularly like the way you indicate using your career to explore ideas of change (Zimbabwe, political correctness, workers’ rights to name a few you’re referred to) and those wider themes integrated with your personal story sound fascinating. Lots of dark humour to be milked as well, I’m sure.
Hi Paula,
Yes, Ending is a hard one. Realistically – Harry would probably get away with it! But in the novel it’s hinted that together with a journalist, Laura has enough information to ‘out’ Harry and the police for their abuse of her. I was advised readers want justice, and a hint at it is the best I can do! Maybe they will be able to pin the murder on him….I hope so! But Harry is a slippery guy….
Hi Chithrupta,
Thanks for your questions. and your close reading!
1) It’s a dual timeline with sections – (chunks of chapters) with close third narration focused through Laura, and then sections with close third focused through Mike. Laura’s timeline start on the day Mike disappears and works forward from then but with a leap of ten years. Mike’s chapter is right at the beginning – shortly before he disappears – and then chronologically from meeting Laura. He’s in at the very beginning both to establish he hasn’t simply abandoned her (an early problem I had), and to prepare the reader for his story coming back in again later – at the point where the reader and Laura discover he was a spycop (50%), and then coming in again at the point where he discovers Harry is her father. I’ve found it really hard to show all that through a synopsis and used present and past tenses here to try and indicate it, but still not satisfied with it!
2) At the moment. it’s friend phones, Laura checks with Bristol but Mike’s not there, she goes to police station. Quicker and easier to phone Bristol than walk to police station, no?
3) Eric tells a friend, who tells Laura. Friend and Laura assume he means Mike is sick. It’s later revealed Eric has in fact told Mike to get out of London because of his suspicions, but for various reasons keeps quiet about those suspicions, covering up with the ‘out of action’ line.
4) Mike’s shady past – she thinks he may have run from organised criminals – and her own suspicions of the police – both as an activist and because of her family links to a father she has run from – make her loathe to involve them. She does consider it!
5) The ten years break come in about 40% through. I wanted to show the long term effect of Mike’s deception on her and the change in her as a result of having a child which prompts her to restart her search.Thanks for all your interest! Good questions!
Hi Gillian,
The tension between personal ambition and family relationships might be one lots of people will relate to, despite the high-achieving jobs of your characters – and your different characters reflect different balances within that. Have you a way of quickly showing the commonality of their lives to other peoples? or is your attention to play up the difference with Simon as a bit like the Murdoch character in ‘Succession’? If he’s horrible enough, he could be very entertaining! I want to know tonally which way you’re playing it, I guess
Everything reads quite clearly to me in your chapter outline, except perhaps with chapter 3, where you first say that Dani and Simon share memories of Simon’s kind grandfather. But then Simon’s parents are described as emotionally illiterate – which makes me wonder how the grandfather managed to have an emotionally illiterate child. I guess this might be part of your theme – the various ways parents manage to mess up even when their intentions are good…?Hi Chithrupa,
Like others, I’m so impressed with the 24 hour countdown and the unique standpoint of the victim trying to solve his own murder in a closed room mystery. Like Steven, I’m definitely for The Three Deaths of Xander Crewface. Once you suspend disbelief everything seems to work logically!
Hi Katie,
This sounds like a very dark read. I’m getting ‘Girl A’ and ‘Sharp Objects’ vibes and those are both hugely successful! Like Gillian I wondered about the mother’s role in Mary’s desire to escape her current life. Is the pain partly psychosomatic? In the synopsis, I was a bit confused about the quick transition between saying Mary finds the other participants hostile and her desperation to stay in the place. Also a bit confused about her affair with Roman which I understood to be an attempt to help the institution get money… so why is Ida then furious with her? Sorry if I’m misreading things and missing clues which are there…
