A Political Thriller...

Guest

I've got this mad idea about writing a political thriller.

A european political thriller. I took 6 week holidays about 4 years ago and in that time I got a bit bored so I started to pen a short outline for an EU political thriller.

I'll post a few peices that I had saved but not worked on much since them. I was too busy lugging furniture up and down selected staircases of Dublin city.

Anyways here is a short outline. I might finish it in Spain.....

EU political history 2020

In 2020 the unfortunate denizens of the European Parliament in Strasbourg were finally given some real political clout and authority. For decades the national governments had chosen who the commissioners would be and had also decided amongst themselves who got which job. Not exactly the most democratic but at least a consensus was agreed without to much fuss and a new commission was installed for another five years. The Parliament on the other hand was considered a nice cushy number for long serving politicians across Europe. A kind of ´half-way house´,before gentle and distinguished retirement from public life. A lovely salary for five years then off into the wide blue mediteranean, or at least a villa overlooking it.

A change occurred in the early part of the new century. A new brand of MEP began to appear. They questioned the budget, the exorbitant expenses paid to MEPs, the direction of the Institutions. They demanded more power and influence, waving the election results and mandates won through hard fought democratic campaigns as a basis for that power and influence. They demanded that the commissioners be accountable. The Parliament became a kind of Frankenstein monster, straining at the leash to escape the confines of the national governments. The member states eventually relented and allowed the parliament to choose the President of the European Commission by voting in a special assembly for just that purpose alone. The member states still had control over who would be President as only they could nominate the candidates.

The Balkan States, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Armenia , Georgia and the Ukraine had been given `favoured nation´ status with zero tariffs on imports and exports and fixed exchange rates between the Euro and their individual currencies. This created great economical stability for these countries

Guest

EUPOL Historical stuff

Trying to police 550 million people using existing national police forces was an almost impossible task. National Police dealt with national crime but when the crime crossed borders that’s when it fell apart. The cops in one nation might not talk with the cops in another nation. Maybe they don’t like them, maybe they don’t understand them. Whatever the reason the simple fact remains that the fruits of crime are easier to consume abroad than at home.
So it was that in 2010 the European Commission created EUPOL, the European Union Police. Volunteers from existing forces were encouraged to apply as well as new recruits, usually from collage. The big difference with EUPOL was the requirement for all recruits to speak at least five different European languages. Once the recruits were trained they were sent to the EUPOL office in each of the member states capitol cities. Recruits could not be stationed in their country of origin.
This was the brain child of the Irish Minister for Justice at the time the rotating presidency was in Ireland. Since all politics are local, it was decided that the EUPOL Headquarters and training would be based in Dublin, Ireland. The thinking was that if the headquarters were based away from the centre of Europe, it’s investigators would be less influenced by the ferocious politics of the centre.
Since the setting up of EUPOL in 2010, all crime that involved a cross-border element had to include a EUPOL detective. In the last five or six years Paul Crowe had been a busy man. He was a 40 year old Irishman from Dublin. He had attended college in Frankfurt, Germany. He was fluent in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. He could also speak Irish Gealic, Scots Gealic and Welsh but as these language were spoken by a tiny number of people in Britain and Ireland, they were not counted in the criteria for selection to EUPOL.

From his location in Berlin he had been involved in many investigations. There had been some resistance in the beginning but the mandate of EUPOL detectives soon sorted that out. The most astonishing powers had been allocated to the officers of EUPOL. They had the authority to cross borders into any member state, to see police files on any subject relating to their investigation. They were of course subject to the rules and regulations of any state with regard to interviewing and searching people and property, but the big breakthrough had been the compulsory compliance of national police forces. The Irish minister for Justice had included this new organisation for approval late one Friday afternoon along with a raft of other EU legislation. The commissioners had approved it without giving it much thought.

“Of course more cooperation was needed, international crime must be combated, yes yes sounds great , where do I sign? I’ll miss my flight if we don’t get moving.” Six months later, police commissioners around Europe were hopping mad when they saw what the politicians had done. They had created a organisation similar to the America’s F.B.I. without any consultation. Politician’s being politicians, denied they had made any mistake at all and of course they knew exactly what they had being doing all along. In the spring of 2010, the Commission appointed Herr Günter Hausmann as the first Director of EUPOL.

Hausmann had been assistant chief of police in Munich. Due to some embarrassing business with an investigation into a local politician and a call girl, Hausmann found himself out of favour with the local political establishment. He was `volunteered´ for the job of EUPOL chief. The local politicians no doubt had congradulated themselves for ´removing the problem´ to some obscure desk job in Dublin, Ireland. Ten years on, Hausmann was head of the most powerful law enforcement agency in Europe. Revenge had never been sought over what had happened to him; there had been no need. At sixty two years of age he was quite satisfied with where life had taken him. He had built an organisation of professional, multi-national detectives. They were the elite of the language schools who had been policed-trained with the highest standards EU money could buy.

Guest

The Strasbourg/Brussels Storyline

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats, We will have no progress if this shouting and heckling continues. Please sit down now or I will have you removed from the chamber” The speaker , Mr Lech Walensky, was now standing and shouting at the two people who were obviously abusing each other in their native tongue without having any idea what the other was saying. Although he knew what they were calling each other, he also knew that the translators would not translate strong language. Both the Portuguese and the Lithuanian Members stopped and turned to the speaker. Everybody else who was standing and shouting also sat down.

Mr Walensky had been president of the European Parliament for four years now and had rarely had to raise his voice in that time. The last six months however had seen an almost total breakdown in the consensus politics generally seen in that chamber. Bitter arguments had developed between Left and Right, East and West and North and South. Where for years the parliament had been run with open and mature debate, much of it low key and often very boring, the recent past had seen an injection of real venom into the arguments.

Some extremely personal attacks had been made on various individuals and the halls in Strasbourg were filled with small groups of very suspicious politicians whispering and looking over each others shoulders. If this had been one century earlier, they would be already shooting at each other, thought Walensky.

Various behind the scenes negotiations had produced four names. From France came Ms Rene Lange, from Germany came Herr Helmut Struck, from England came Mr Anthony Black and from Slovinia came Ms Maria Kovich. Walensky was beginning to think that maybe the assembly was not ready for this election but he could sense that something was not quite right amongst the members. There was an anger there that was uncommon. He was going to have to find out soon what was happening or his beloved parliament would be in chaos.

Guest

1

The body lay amongst the boxes in the back of the container. Its outline could be seen through the bright glare of the Rostock port lights. The Alsatian sniffer dog was whining and struggling against the custom’s officers grip while the local police kept passers-by getting too close to the cordoned off the area. It was quite cold this far north in October in Germany. Corvin Crowe observed the scene from the warmth of his BMW 8 series. The restrained excitement of some of the young local police force was very obvious to see even from the car. It’s not very often that a homicide occurs in Rostock, but less common is the amount of hash, heroin and cocaine that was also discovered with the body in the container. When the call had come through to his Berlin office, the local sergeant had been beside himself with worry. “Surely an amount of drugs that size would need armed protection”. The reason Crowe was involved here in Rostock was because this was an international crime. A French container sitting in a German port awaiting shipment to the United Kingdom containing about thirty-five tonnes of illegal drugs and an unidentified body. Crowe grabbed his coat and hat and stepped out of his car into the cold Rostock air.

[size=21]He strolled across to the police cordon and gave his EUPOL badge to the nearest officer. The officer shone his torch on the credit card sized identification badge. The card had a photo of Crow with his name on it and the EUPOL logo of a map of Europe surrounded by a globe of connecting gold stars. The young officer looked shocked to be holding the card in his hand. The EUPOL I.D. cards were legendary among the national police forces. They looked like ordinary cards but every police officer EU-wide knew how they worked.

“Could you authenticate the card please Sir” the young officer asked, with more than a hint of apprehension in his voice.

“Of Course” replied Crowe. He held the card between forefinger and thumb for a moment and suddenly a three dimensional, holographic image began to appear above the surface of the card. A beautiful rotating globe of 12 interconnecting gold stars hovered just centimetres above the card. Crowe’s thumbprint was acknowledged as being authentic by this image. The technology to do this was kept as top secret at the EUPOL headquarters in Dublin where Crowe had been trained. The mesmerised officer blinked as Crowe inserted his card back into his wallet and then directed him over to Gunter Heinze, the detective in charge of the investigation.

Both Crowe and Heinze got on reasonably well and had known each other for about four years now.

“Well Gunter, vie geht es ihnen? It’s been a while..“said Crowe slipping effortlessly into the German tongue. Gunter just grunted. He was without doubt a fearsome character with a foul mouth and a foul temper, but usually after his second Altbeir he would be smiling and telling jokes and was considered excellent company to be with. Crowe had spent a few days and nights drinking with him and many nights and days working with him and considered him a friend.

“Hello Paul, Thanks for getting here so quickly. We’ve got a few international details to follow up on this one and the sooner it’s done the better. A lot of the boys upstairs are panicking over this because of the owners of this particular container yard.”

]“Somebody important??”asked Crowe as he scanned the area, noticing the woman and the photographer talking to a police officer over by the cordon.

“This yard is owed the family of Herr Gunter Struck. The press are already here and it wont be long before ZDF and ARD arrive.”

Herr Struck was the man of the moment in Germany these days. With the election of the President of the European Commission only seven days away, he was in a very strong position to win. This kind of situation would only damage his chances.

“Is he implicated ?” Crowe asked.

]Innocence is usually an after thought in a story like this. It’s the story that counts. The Struck family have been in Rostock for generations. Wealthy, powerful and well connected. They are not known to be criminal in any way, but, you never know.” Said Heinze.
They walked over to the container with the drugs and body inside. The forensic officer emerged with his colleague and saw them approach.

“The victim was shot once through the back of the head. Execution style. He’s been dead about four days. He’s about mid thirties, south European possibly Spanish. Finger prints have been taken. I’ll send them to Berlin to see if we can identify him. Here is a set for your people to trace”

He handed Crowe a fingerprint set. Crowe would scan them and send them to EUPOL HQ in Dublin for analysis.

“What about the transport documents that came with the container, Günter?” Crow asked.

“I can only give you photocopies, Paul, but all the relevant info will be on them, so that should do you.”

]As Paul Crowe drove away from Rostock he passed three different T.V. news trucks on their way to the scene. EUPOLs Director Hans-Deiter Hausmann or´ The House´ as he was commonly known, would want a report on this one by tomorrow morning.

2

“Fuck Off!” said Crowe incredulously. As soon as he had said it, he regretted it. Huasmann was not the kind of guy to entertain idle gossip. He was deadly serious at all times and he was just plain deadly most times.

“ I assume you don’t mean that literally, Crowe” he answered in his usual dead-pan manner. “This man is, or at least was, in the employment of Mr François Bonini, Chief under-secretary of the Office of the Commission President of the European Union.”

Federico Bonnini was one of the most powerful men in European politics.

He had been chief under-secretary to the president for 23 years. A career civil servant from Brussels, he had served under 3 Presidents. Many believed that he and the other under-secretaries were the real power behind the throne. Making a political decision was one thing , but carrying it out was left to the commission civil service. If the under-secretaries were not in favour of it, these political decisions had a way running into “difficulties”. Now he was directly implicated in an international murder and drug investigation.

“Crowe, get yourself to Brussels right now and find out what the hell is going on there. The connection between a Presidential Under-secretary and a Presidential candidate is too convenient. Interview him and call me. I will continue to work on the French and British connections from here.”

He hung up without a farewell, which the friendly and social Irishman found to be most disconcerting.

Crowe grabbed a taxi outside the airport at Brussels and made his way to EU headquarters. His appointment with Mr Bonnini was for 10 o´clock.

“As you can imagine Mr Crowe, I am very busy at the moment so can we make this brief”

It was a statement not a request.

“Sure.”

Crowe placed a photo of the dead man from the container on the table and said” Do you know this man.?”

Bonnini picked up the photo and looked at it. For a split second Crowe saw shock then Bonnini was again in control.

“Yes, Inspector, I know him well. How did this happen?”

He was found in a container along side about 20 tonnes of hashish and cocaine in the german port of Rostok. More specifically, in the stockyard of the family business of a Herr Struck.”

Subject: Re: A Political Thriller... Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:36 am

Is Bonnini a baddie ? Shocked

He is. I know he is.

When do we get the rest then John ?

Guest

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:: Is Bonnini a baddie ? He is. I know he is.

When do we get the rest then John ?

Leave this well alone EVM. This is all part of a pro-Lisbon plot. The thriller is mere propaganda. Twisted Evil

Subject: Re: A Political Thriller... Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:50 am

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:: Is Bonnini a baddie ? He is. I know he is.

When do we get the rest then John ?

Leave this well alone EVM. This is all part of a pro-Lisbon plot. The thriller is mere propaganda. Twisted Evil

Ha! I'm not EVM. I'm Hausmann.

Guest

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:: Is Bonnini a baddie ? He is. I know he is.

When do we get the rest then John ?

Leave this well alone EVM. This is all part of a pro-Lisbon plot. The thriller is mere propaganda. Twisted Evil

Ha! I'm not EVM. I'm Hausmann.

As in the architect of Paris?

Subject: Re: A Political Thriller... Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:59 am

No. Director of EUPOL.

Johnny Keogh wrote:: “Of course more cooperation was needed, international crime must be combated, yes yes sounds great , where do I sign? I’ll miss my flight if we don’t get moving.” Six months later, police commissioners around Europe were hopping mad when they saw what the politicians had done. They had created a organisation similar to the America’s F.B.I. without any consultation. Politician’s being politicians, denied they had made any mistake at all and of course they knew exactly what they had being doing all along. In the spring of 2010, the Commission appointed Herr Günter Hausmann as the first Director of EUPOL.

Hausmann had been assistant chief of police in Munich. Due to some embarrassing business with an investigation into a local politician and a call girl, Hausmann found himself out of favour with the local political establishment. He was `volunteered´ for the job of EUPOL chief. The local politicians no doubt had congradulated themselves for ´removing the problem´ to some obscure desk job in Dublin, Ireland. Ten years on, Hausmann was head of the most powerful law enforcement agency in Europe. Revenge had never been sought over what had happened to him; there had been no need. At sixty two years of age he was quite satisfied with where life had taken him. He had built an organisation of professional, multi-national detectives. They were the elite of the language schools who had been policed-trained with the highest standards EU money could buy.

Guest

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

No. Director of EUPOL.

Johnny Keogh wrote:: “Of course more cooperation was needed, international crime must be combated, yes yes sounds great , where do I sign? I’ll miss my flight if we don’t get moving.” Six months later, police commissioners around Europe were hopping mad when they saw what the politicians had done. They had created a organisation similar to the America’s F.B.I. without any consultation. Politician’s being politicians, denied they had made any mistake at all and of course they knew exactly what they had being doing all along. In the spring of 2010, the Commission appointed Herr Günter Hausmann as the first Director of EUPOL.

Hausmann had been assistant chief of police in Munich. Due to some embarrassing business with an investigation into a local politician and a call girl, Hausmann found himself out of favour with the local political establishment. He was `volunteered´ for the job of EUPOL chief. The local politicians no doubt had congradulated themselves for ´removing the problem´ to some obscure desk job in Dublin, Ireland. Ten years on, Hausmann was head of the most powerful law enforcement agency in Europe. Revenge had never been sought over what had happened to him; there had been no need. At sixty two years of age he was quite satisfied with where life had taken him. He had built an organisation of professional, multi-national detectives. They were the elite of the language schools who had been policed-trained with the highest standards EU money could buy.

Well I'm President of the European Union so get me my tea!

Subject: Re: A Political Thriller... Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:02 am

Hmmm. Does it need a massive financial scandal ? Or is that old hat now ?

Subject: Re: A Political Thriller... Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:05 am

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:: Well I'm President of the European Union so get me my tea!

On the way Mr. President.

**Now where did I put that Sodium Pentatol**

Guest

"Here's your arsenic dear/And your weedkiller biscuit./I've throttled your parakeet./I've spat in the vases./I've put cheese in the mouse-holes./Here's your.../...nice tea, dear."

Under Milk Wood's recipe for a nice cup of tea of an evening.

Guest

Helium Three wrote:: "Here's your arsenic dear/And your weedkiller biscuit./I've throttled your parakeet./I've spat in the vases./I've put cheese in the mouse-holes./Here's your.../...nice tea, dear."

Under Milk Wood's recipe for a nice cup of tea of an evening.

Helium Three after his annual review...

Subject: Re: A Political Thriller... Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:30 am

Shock and awe for HE3.

Helium, was that a Hitchcock reference ? Cary Grant ? Chaaaaaaaaarge !

Guest

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:: Shock and awe for HE3.

Helium, was that a Hitchcock reference ? Cary Grant ? Chaaaaaaaaarge !

Charge? Whatever at EVM?

Guest

Unnhhh... what hit me?

Subject: Re: A Political Thriller... Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:10 am

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:: Shock and awe for HE3.

Helium, was that a Hitchcock reference ? Cary Grant ? Chaaaaaaaaarge !

Charge? Whatever at EVM?

Arsenic and Old Lace. Starring either Cary Grant, Gregory Peck or Jimmy Stewart - can't remember which. A B&W Hitchcock classic.

Guest

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:: Shock and awe for HE3.

Helium, was that a Hitchcock reference ? Cary Grant ? Chaaaaaaaaarge !

Charge? Whatever at EVM?

Arsenic and Old Lace. Starring either Cary Grant, Gregory Peck or Jimmy Stewart - can't remember which. A B&W Hitchcock classic.

I see.

Guest

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:: Shock and awe for HE3.

Helium, was that a Hitchcock reference ? Cary Grant ? Chaaaaaaaaarge !

Charge? Whatever at EVM?

Arsenic and Old Lace. Starring either Cary Grant, Gregory Peck or Jimmy Stewart - can't remember which. A B&W Hitchcock classic.

Grant.

The thing about writing a thriller is that it must be

- human

- interesting

- easy to explain

- easy to understand.

The EU might be difficult to do a thriller about because so few people know how the EU works.

So the storyline would have to focus on people, not institutions, and avoid technical stuff. Make it straight forward and focus on the person and how what happens impacts on them. As with all good thrillers the main character must be flawed and weak, and undergo redemption by his or her experience.

Having written a thriller before, one thing to remember is that you will not make money with it. For every 1 author who gets a million advance another 20,000 will get an advance of less than a grand, if an advance or not. In effect you will do almost all the work and the publisher and bookseller will make almost all the profit if it makes any at all. (Most don't.) You will get 9% of the takings.

So don't expect to make money on it. And expect it to take a long long long time before it gets published.

Some other tips:

Before you write, draw up the characters' personal details in intimate detail, and not just the detail you think relevant to the story. Define his date of birth, names of parents, jobs of parents, career path, if he ever ran for election before and lost list out the dates and the number of votes received. It may seem like a silly thing to do but authors say it is the most important thing to do. You need to get into his head to write the story, and so you need to define him in your own eyes first. If he had an unhappy childhood that could explain his gruffness with some people in the story. If you have defined his childhood you can use the background information then to throw in information, just as the fact that he is a loner in parliament, or not in a relationship, etc, is because of his childhood experiences. Even if you don't spell out the details, by being aware of them it will enable you to see the world through his eyes and understand why he is bitter/angry/funny/a conspiracy theorist or whatever. It also is an almighty pain in the butt if you describe him as tall in the first paragraph and medium in a later chapter, with blue eyes in the start and with brown eyes at the end. You need to have a sheet in front of you so that when you are describing something about him you have already worked out every little detail. Working out the details in advance helps ensure consistency in terms of characterisation and physique.

Also, and be ready for this, when authors say a story brings them to places they never planned, you'd better believe it. I killed off a character for no other reason that my story had developed to the point where he was in danger and if in real life he had got into that situation he would have been killed. (My editor was horrified. She loved the guy, thought he was very funny, and described saying 'No' out loud when she turned a page and discovered he had been stabbed to death.) You may know where you are starting from, and where it is intended to get you to, but the journey will surprise you. I had a character at the end walk through a snow-storm to go to an old cemetery down the country simply because I had had him discover the truth about his parents' deaths, had him having only one memory concerning his parents, of attending a funeral in that cemetery, and it felt natural that he would want to find out what that memory a real one or something he imagined. Would he recognise the cemetery again? I had to have him go there again, but as I had already had that chapter start with a snowstorm that became a blizzard that became a story in itself - how he was so desperate to find out the truth that he put his own life in danger to talk through the worst blizzard to hit Ireland in a century to get there. He'd started off the book a rather snobby rich D4 politician and ended up bedraggled and soaked, struggling through the snow finding the truth about himself, that his hatred of rural Ireland came from growing up in a country town where he throughout everyone's sympathy was sympathy for his poverty. In fact, as he realised at the end, it was based on sympathy for him as the only survivor of an accident that had killed his parents and siblings. People were really concerned and sorry for him, not looking down their noses at him. So his entire life-story, and the story in the book, was based on his not realising the truth about his family life and parents and what happened to them.

None of that was in the original outline. But as the story developed, so did his character and motivation.

In summary,

make the story about people, not institutions.
make the main character undergo a redemption.
make what the story is about mirrored by what is going on in the lives of the characters.
make sure you define every basic fact about the characters first - how they look, what they wear, what they eat, what they hate, where they live, what happened before the story line. You can then did into that definition as you need to to ensure facts match from start to finish.

One thing also: you will have to have things happen that normally would not happen. It is fiction after all, so you will have to cut corners and not have certain things truthful. To be credible you need to explain why you have things happen that way. Dan Brown, who writes dreadful books, had in one the murder of a senior Catholic Churchman by a junior cleric on the basis that the cleric had discovered the senior guy was his father and a nun his mother. Brown's supported twist was to reveal that the cleric and the nun never had sex and he had impregnated her using IVF. Brown thought this would mean the junior cleric saw his murder as being in vain, as daddy had not broken his vows. In fact if Brown had done his homework he would have known that it would have made it even worse for the murderer - Daddy hadn't just impregnated mammy but done it by unnatural means, an even worse sin! If he wanted IVF to be the twist, he should have shown that in the view of the murderer IVF was OK. But without explaining that motivation the book looked like shoddy rubbish.

For example, you may need to have your main character be in Luxembourg at a crucial point in the story. But the European Parliament no longer meets in Luxembourg, just Brussels and Strasburg. If you simply say that parliament was meeting in Luxembourg your book will look inaccurate. If you say however that it was having a special plenary in the old parliament building in Luxembourg to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of some mythical declaration, then that gives you an excuse to have him there without sounding as though you don't know what you are talking about. In fact older people who remember the Luxembourg meetings (until I think 1981) will think you really know your stuff. So if something that is false is happening (a meeting in Luxembourg, etc) create an explanation that the reader can believe. If you don't the book will appear to have been written, as with Brown's books, by someone who hasn't a clue what they are talking about.

Guest

Still groggy from that stun gun blast, but can just about use the keyboard again now for short spells...

Arsenic and Old Lace is not the source for the quote about the arsenic tea - it is from the great play for voices by Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood. All about a day in the life of a Welsh village, Llaregub.

Which is Buggerall, backwards.

Strange but true, and a wonderful auditory experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuPO2Kvqlms

We are not wholly bad or good
who live our lives under milk wood.

Wiki

Now back to the recovery ward.

Guest

Fascinating advice, Papal Knight.

Guest

cactus flower wrote:: Fascinating advice, Papal Knight.

Preeeety cool, eh?
I will study this advice at my leisure and try to follow it. As for the "making money out of it", to be honest I'd rather write a good story and be acknowledged for it.
Dont get me wrong, Papal Knight, money is great but in this instance, the book is basically an itch thats begging to scratched.

I have some insight on politcal affairs from my PD days and I'm completely fascinated by the EU "project". Throw in a healthy respect for all things "James Bond" and thats the basic recipe; an opportunity to have some "fun" with serious, and oftimes dull, material.

Guest

Johnny Keogh wrote:

cactus flower wrote:: Fascinating advice, Papal Knight.

Preeeety cool, eh?
I will study this advice at my leisure and try to follow it. As for the "making money out of it", to be honest I'd rather write a good story and be acknowledged for it.
Dont get me wrong, Papal Knight, money is great but in this instance, the book is basically an itch thats begging to scratched.

I have some insight on politcal affairs from my PD days and I'm completely fascinated by the EU "project". Throw in a healthy respect for all things "James Bond" and thats the basic recipe; an opportunity to have some "fun" with serious, and oftimes dull, material.

I would say the closer you keep to reality, the more the story will seem like fantasy. Btw - love your writing style. I hope we get to read more.

Guest

cactus flower wrote:: I would say the closer you keep to reality, the more the story will seem like fantasy. Btw - love your writing style. I hope we get to read more.

Thanks for the compliment CF. I have this crazy notion that I'll write the way Dickens used to write; in instalments for a newspaper.
Maybe I can add my instalments to this website every few weeks over the coming year.
I'll have to update this story as Papal Knight suggests. When I first wrote this outline four years ago, I had no idea that Europol already existed.
The idea that I had for EUPOL is reflected in Europol anyway so the stitch should not be difficult too cover.

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