The Marquetry Box

Help! My main character has taken over the story!

As you know, I am now working on The Epiphany of Geert Vandiest which is coming out towards the end of the year.  I also have another manuscript which is on the back burner. I don’t know how long it is going to stay there.

The reason it is on the back burner is that I am emotionally entangled in it. You would think that I am talking about a love story, wouldn’t you?

Would you laugh, if I told you that The Marquetry Box is about the furthest away you can get from a love story?

The Marquetry  Box  ( see blog on Dedication for more info) is about a young Belgian deserter , who runs away to join the French Foreign  Legion, and then ends up in the penal colony of French Guyana. The entire story is very Pappillonesque (have I invented a new word?)

I want to base the novel on Valentin (convict 37885). Please note that the operative words in that last sentence is  “Base on”.  Problem is that the main character, Valentin has sort of taken over.  I can hear you say, and I partly agree, “It’s his story, and he can do what he wants to!”

Well, yeah, but I am the writer. Don’t I have anything to say about it?

All kidding aside, I think I know too much about him.  Let me give you an idea of the research I have done so far:

1. I have spoken to members of his family (who actually never met him because he died in 1911.
2. Valentin’s birth certificate is in my possession. I tried to get his death certificate and failed.  I stopped trying to obtain it when I realized how they disposed of their dead inmates.
3. Received documents from the Belgian Army concerning his desertion, including a list of clothes he took along. Although it is barely veiled that Valentin stole them, I want to insist on the fact that he didn’t steal them.  That’s all he had to wear and the 2^nd of December 1906 was very cold.
4. Been in contact with the French Foreign Legion
5. Been in contact with the IREL (the French National Archives of Outre-mer  (Overseas), which, of course,  includes French Guyana.
6. I know about Valentin’s Tattoos and I can describe them. All Legionnaires like tattoos, I am told.
7. I have a picture of Valentin, his mother, his father and his brothers dated 1895
8. I know about the chargers. (Er . . . .this is not the place to ask me about them.)
9. I have a copy of the doctor’s log from the “Loire”. Dr. Leon Collin was in charge of the convicts’ “well-being” on the ship that took them to South America between 1906 and 1911. Notice that “well-being” is in quotes. This is no black mark against Dr. Leon Collin because I think he did his best and for sure he was not in favor . . . partly or in toto . . . of the French South American Penal Colony System. You may, however, gleefully confer a double black mark to the French Government under Napoleon III, as it is more than well deserved.

It’s not as hopeless as it sounds. Really. I will get back to writing it.

Interestingly enough, writing this blog has made me realize what is holding me back. Because of Valentin’s strong personality and all the information I have, I practically feel obliged to write a biography. BUT, I DON’T WANT TO WRITE A BIOGRAPHY! I want to write a fiction based on true events. Valentin may be the one with the story, but I am the one with the laptop. So, I guess, that means I won!