The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Midnight's Last Gleaming, Chap. 12

    By Rootman on Sun, 12/11/2011 - 11:16am |

    The president pondered the two messages. The first, from an African country's deposed president whom he did not know, was warm and supportive, offering to share assets that would otherwise fall to undeserving usurpers.

    How could his African peer have known how close Lincoln himself had, again and again, faced the same risk of failure at the hands of rivals? There are connections between kindred hearts, he thought. Not just wires, but connections of a spiritual composition.

    The second message was more dire. Like he had done so many times, when the way forward seemed dark, and the choices were too many, Lincoln turned the dial from "Mail" to "Search." He tapped out the dots and dashes for F-O-R-D-S-/-T-H-E-A-T-R-E-/-D-A-N-G-E-R-S.

    After a minute, ribbon strewed into the president's waiting hands, and he read from right to left. Like Hebrew, he thought.

    D-I-D-/-Y-O-U-/-M-E-A-N-/-F-O-R-D-S-/-T-H-E-A-T-R-E-/-D-A-N-C-E-R-S.

    What followed were lurid descriptions and interviews involving a number of lady entertainers who work in the city of Washington. Lincoln read them for an hour or so. Then, tired of the day and tired of the world, he went to bed.

     

    Comments

    Weirdest thing I ever read. 


    by Richard the Ele... on Mon, 12/12/2011 - 12:23am

    Brilliant!


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 12/12/2011 - 8:24am

    Great concept and well written.  As good as it is, I'm not sure I personally could keep my ADD mind wrapped around it for a full length novel. So I'll make a suggestion from my own reader's perspective--which is, to perhaps interleave these as flashbacks somehow against a straight overall narrative of a contemporary President in crisis who somehow has access to this as a kind of harbinger or muse. 50% of your work is done in the fine ending and other vignette---which I would put in the middle connected to the handling of the crisis. Really fascinating.  


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 9:28am

    I think you are right. Another way is to make Lincoln only a minor character (he seems kind of flat anyway) and really develop some fresh and vivid characters in a parallel drama. Maybe some folks who are caught up in the online slave auctions.


    by Rootman on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 2:42pm

    In any case I don't think I would ever change a hair in Chapter 12 as written.  It's the model and the inspiration, a gem, a gift. Somehow I would work back from it, as it stands. The same with the vignette in Chapter 1, although for some reason I see it more in the middle of the work than the beginning. I'm not sure I see Lincoln as flat.  


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 6:03pm