New Story Idea - Suggestions, Help, Ideas & Comments Welcome

[Shangas]

To anyone who read the story that I posted in here entitled "Bloody Christmas", you may be interested to know that I am embarking on yet another Golden-Age-set mystery story involving my detective character Richard Haines.

Details are sketchy at the moment, but the story takes place in British Singapore in the Straits Settlements and in the Shanghai International Settlement in Shanghai, China, during the 1930s. I haven't decided whether it will be the Early 1930s (if it is, then it will be 1930-1932) or if it will be the Late 1930s (in which case, it will be 1938). I'd like suggestions to help me make up my mind!

Details So Far

Partial Character-List:

Richard Haines - American - Private Detective.
Dr. James Holloway - British - Medical Doctor - Richard's Friend.
Marion Holloway - British - James's wife.
Colin Holloway - British - Their Son. (Born 1920).
Francis 'Frank' Kallon - American - Journalist - Richard's Friend.
Members of the Shanghai Municipal Police Force.
Criminals.

These last two groups still require some thought.

Locations:

I've included brief descriptions and historical facts about the locales in which my planned story will take place, along with photographs and postcards of the era, to show what they looked like.

Singapore, Straits Settlements

In the 1930s, Singapore was part of the British Empire and part of what was called the 'Straits Settlements', a collection of settlements belonging to the British Crown that existed around the Straits of Johor between Singapore and mainland Malaya (hence the name). Singapore was a popular holiday destination with western tourists during this time. Because Singapore had very few natural resources, it relied heavily on international trade and tourism and its status as an Open Port, to sustain its economy.

Singapore in the 1930s

Orchard Road, Singapore, in the 1920s(?). Orchard Road was (and still is) a popular shopping and hotels district in central Singapore

Raffles Hotel, Singapore

Along with the Raffles Hotel and the Hotel de l'Europe, the Adelphi Hotel was another one of Singapore's famous colonial-era hotels that catered to the rising numbers of Western tourists in Asia during the Golden Era:

The Adelphi Hotel

The Hotel de l'Europe (which closed in 1933 and was demolished in 1935 and was replaced by the Supreme Court of Singapore, which is today the Old Supreme Court Building).

The Hotel de l'Europe

Shanghai's International Settlement

Established in 1842, Shanghai's International Settlement was comprised of the French Concession and the combined International Settlement in central Shanghai, fronting on the Huangpu River that divides the city. The International Settlement was home to British, Italian, Russian, Japanese, American and French nationals and expatriates who lived and worked in China. The International Settlement was not territory that belonged to Britain, America or France, it was Chinese territory which the Chinese Republican Government allowed foreign powers to occupy, under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking, which opened Shanghai as a trading-port with the West. The Japanese occupied Chinese Shanghai in November, 1937. It occupied the International Settlement in December, 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The International Settlement ceased as an entity in 1943, 101 years after its formation, when the British formally handed back the land to Chinese authorities. Due to the Japanese occupation, this handover wasn't made official until 1945.

The Shanghai International Settlement. Aerial photograph from the 1930s. The row of buildings along the far bank of the Huangpu River (as well as the street that runs in front of it) were (and still are) popularly called 'The Bund'

Nanking Road, Shanghai International Settlement, in the 1930s. Nanking Road was famous for its big department stores and retail shopping until the 1940s when the Japanese invaded. The buildings in this postcard are still standing in the modern East Nanjing Road today (which is still a major shopping-hub in modern Shanghai)

Shanghai had an extensive streetcar network that was established in 1908. By the 1920s and 30s, it was running at peak capacity every day. It lasted until the 1970s when it was finally ended. Due to heavy congestion, Shanghai has reintroduced streetcars starting in 2010.

A Shanghai streetcar on Nanking Road in the 1930s

The Cathay Hotel (today called the Peace Hotel) was opened on the Bund in Shanghai in 1929. It was one of the most luxurious hotels in Shanghai. Next door to it was the Palace Hotel. Both buildings (operating as luxury hotels) still stand today:

The Cathay Hotel. 20, The Bund, Shanghai International Settlement (the building with the triangle roof) You can see the Cathay Hotel in the aerial shot of the International Settlement. It's building #9 from the left along the waterfront of the Huangpu River. Directly to the left of the Cathay Hotel is the Palace Hotel

The Canidrome (photograph below) in Shanghai's French Concession was a popular entertainment complex during the late 1920s and the 1930s. It housed a greyhound racing-track which doubled as a sporting-ground, and a ballroom for parties and dances.

Brief Blurb

Richard is invited to join the Holloway family on their tour of Asia. During their stay in Singapore, Richard receives an urgent letter from an old friend currently living in Shanghai, that he is in serious trouble and requires his help. Richard is uneasy, both for his friend and for his jusidiction, which technically, doesn't extend outside the United States. Knowing that his friend will probably have no-one else to turn to, Richard and James cut their holiday short and sail to Shanghai while Jame's wife and son travel to Hong Kong. Once they reach Shanghai, it's up to these two friends to discover what tangled-up mess Frank has managed to get himself stuck in...

So. What do you all think?

Comments, suggestions, help and ideas are all welcome.

 

[rue]

I don't really have any suggestions, but I think it's going to be great

As for the timeline, I can't remember when the last story was set, but I'd have it later than that, because Richard was introduced then.

PS Thanks for posting all the pictures and history!

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

The story doesn't sound bad. Is there a demographic you shoot for with your writing style at all?

My friend just had some poetry published and an offer on a mostly non fiction story he wrote about me and a few other characters. The publisher said he was refreshed to get something that didn't read like it was written in a college creative writing class.
While I'm not familiar with how/what your style is, my point is I guess would be to get an idea of the reader you're writing to. I assume this would be for a general audience to read and not so much like R rated or appealing to the people at the back of the room as its said.

~Cheers

 

[Shangas]

I write my stories for general consumption. They're aimed at anyone from teenagers/young adults and upwards. These stories are certainly not for kids. I know what stories written for university creative-writing classes are like (I've written three of those) and no, I don't intend for this to be one of them. It's a project entirely of my own making and enjoyment.

Rue, the other story was set in December, 1933.

I've started typing a draft of the story. I've put a date on it of starting in October, 1937. This may or may not change as the story, research and planning continue.

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

Well good luck, I'll check out your blog.

 

[Shangas]

Well good luck, I'll check out your blog.

Thanks Travis. I hope you like my blog. Feel free to post comments there & star-rate the postings that you read.

Well I have officially commenced writing the story. I have settled on a date of October, 1937 as a starting point.

So far, I have researched...

- Maps of the Shanghai International Settlement.
- Telegraph companies of the Far East.
- Shipping Lines of the Far East.
- Colonial-era currency.
- Famous buildings in Singapore and Shanghai.

I also started looking at the online archives of old Asian newspapers to see what things were like in print at the time. Found some really neat stuff from back issues of the Straits Times (Singapore's leading English-language newspaper for over 160 years).

Draft Count: 12 PAGES

 

[Shangas]

First Draft is finished.

Total page-count: 50 Pages.

Total Glossary-count: 4 Pages.

54 pages in total.

It may be 1:26AM and my brain is leaking out my ears and my eyes are melting out of their sockets from tiredness...

...but it's finished!

 

[davidraphael]

You might be interested in reading Kazuo Ishiguro's 'When We Were Orphans', which not only dips into the detective genre but is also set in Shanghai in the 1930s.

 

[Shangas]

Hi David, thanks for the suggestion. I've been chasing books and films about/set in the period & location to give me a better idea of things. I've finished the story and I'm currently editing it.

 

[Taz-man]

Sounds like a good idea for a book. I was trying to write one set in Shanghai during the 1930s too. Mine was going to be set during the mid to late 1930s and was about a US Marine stationed there. He was going to fall in love with a local "White Russian" woman. One of my favorite movies was called the White Countess. The movie might help you.

 

[Shangas]

I've watched "The White Countess", found it very enjoyable.

 

[Pompidou]

I think any idea for a detective story is ambitious. The challenges of writing a great detective story are daunting. Foreshadowing is terribly tricky. For example, everyone seems to know that you never introduce a thing that won't get used later. In Aliens, Ripley shows she knows how to operate a futuristic humanoid forklift of sorts, right in the beginning, like everyone else, I thought, "she's gonna save the day in one of those things". If there's a gun on the table in act one, it'll get fired in act three. Those rules all make sense. In a detective story though, they're never obvious. They shouldn't be, anyway. You, ideally, at the conclusion, think, "That's right. I remember that but didn't put 2+2 together!" Without enough foreshadowing, your resolution will look contrived, and with too much of it, your reader won't need to read on to reach it. I'm not that good of a writer.

 

[Shangas]

It's never easy writing crime stories. That's why until Doyle came along, it was basically a neglected genre. But writing crime is, as I'm sure you know, so much more of a challenge than writing most other stories. Anyone can write action, adventure, history, comedy, hell, even romance. But crime takes real talent. So I write it to give myself a challenge. For most of my writing life, I wrote history and action/adventure stories. Now I wanted to try something a bit different.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I love to write, but have not done so in years. But, I write very dark realism, wet blood, cunning knife wielding looney murderers, milkmen, postal workers, supermarket clerks being the victims.

Trees and mailboxes hide the evidence, and sweet Grandmother keeps the murder weapon, unknowingly, in her knitting bag.

Cup of Earl Gray, anyone?