As a writer, you have the privilege of making up imaginary friends – and even share them with other people. These two are my leading characters:
Anna Elizabeth Catherine Lendorph
Born on April 3, 1882, MSc in Chemistry from University College, London – foreign correspondent for Aftenbladet (The Evening Post). Like her mother, she is emancipated and a member of the Danish Women’s Society.
Tall, pretty, red-haired, fiercely intelligent, impatient, and with a twinkle in her eye. Wears a Trilby hat and tailored suits in modern cuts. With a ‘no thanks’ attitude towards marriage and back from years of travel, she has to decide what to actually do with her life as marrying a title and doing charity work is really not her thing. But then what, when closing in on becoming a spinster?
Anna attended boarding school in England and Switzerland, where she was a favourite confidante because she never gossiped and was willing to engage in a bit of assorted mischief (she still has her school set of lockpicks). She’s fluent in Danish, English, German, and French, and is ok at Italian.
She is related to Arthur Conan Doyle through her grandmother. This family connection played a role in her employment at Aftenbladet.
Christian Erik Francesco la Cour
Born on October 14, 1880, tall, black-haired, his father’s family of French Huguenot descent, his mother of Italian heritage. Brown eyes, intelligent, extremely handsome, and trustworthy. He has a graceful posture and elegant movements – walks like a panther and dances like a god. He speaks Danish, German, English, and French.
He was a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet but sustained an injury and had to leave the ballet. He keeps fit by continuing his ballet exercises. His theatre experience also gives him a knack for reading movements and go undercover. Having lived his life at the theatre he has to reinvent himself from scratch.
He grew up as a ballet child in a tough neighbourhood, so he knows all about bullying and fought his way out of it by being able to fight until he gained respect and was left alone. He cannot ride a bicycle – he has actually never tried.
So – why these two?
Well… I wanted a female lead but while I was contemplating, there was all that fuss about a female 007, and I thought. Nah. Not going there. So – there must be two. And why not a bit of romance too. But, of course, she must be independent and fierce and preferable wealthy, so she can engage in whatever I come up with without me having to come up with silly excluses as to how she can afford it.
I made her a journalist as a perfect excuse for her being nosy while not in the police. There were no female officers in Denmark in 1910. And no, she is in not my alter ego.
And Christian? He had to be the policeman as I had decided to use real cases and – well, you need one of those in a crimestory. And like this? Because I was utterly fed up with frustrated, women-fearing, chubby, alcoholic, chainsmoking middle-age chappies marinated in frustration and at odds with their boss. So I had a go at the opposite. And I made him a ballet dancer because to dance you need stamina, willpower, elegance, being able to relate to and read people, have one hell of a pain-threshold and a memory like an elephant – most of which is often related to intelligence as well. Not bad qualities in a police officer, especially a detective. Ok, elegance not required, but all the rest of it. I wanted a leading man that was different.
And, yes, I like both of them. And, you can give them families and friends and colleagues you would actually like to meet apart from the actual and very real villains also in these stories. And – as they are fictional – you can make them do your bidding as needed. Of course, this is just how it starts. To know their journey, you must read the books.
And, you can make sure there is a wide range of possibilities for stories to go in all kinds of directions should you need it, because the people are already there. And they just might. I wanted from the start to have international families and international stories, and my chosen time fits perfectly in this regard. Before WWI Europe was very well connected. Including the police.
I don’t know about you, but I needed people I actually cared about. Liked. Wanted to spend time with (and it’s a very long time when you’re the writer). And, as it is my prerogative to write whatever I like – I did. I took real crooks, and villains, and real crime, and real newspaper articles, and mountains of files at the National Archives, and chose 1910, because in a lot of ways, the past, as they say, is another country, and also a rather safe one. For one thing – it’s over.
I dissed the mother-in-law from hell, the do-they-or-don’t-they, the flaws, and all the rest of the clichés as they turn me off like nobody’s business. And with the real crims I had all the bad guys I could ever ask for.