When I wrote my first story featuring Josef Slonský, Lying and Dying, I had plans for a further two up my sleeve. Now the eighth has just been published, and I still have ideas for further plots. Woven around those plots are stories of the characters’ lives, so for each one I have had to create a biography. Not everything that is in the biography immediately gets onto the page. For example, Lucie Jerneková’s difficult relationship with her father was always in my mind but is coming out in stages. Slonský’s own past is revealed as it becomes necessary, though most of it is provided by the man himself, who may be an unreliable narrator.
The comments I receive from readers suggest that they value this fleshing out of the characters. It makes them feel real — except, of course, that they are not. They are all imaginary — but I hope they are consistent.
Take the police headquarters as an example. The building I describe is in the same place as the real one, but it looks a little different. The police are reluctant to let visitors wander through the corridors, so I have created an internal architecture that probably bears no resemblance to reality. The only thing I will claim is that the building is the same size and has the same number of floors.
Similarly, it is unlikely that the detection of homicides in Prague is in the hands of just six officers. I had to simplify the police ranks system (do we really need three grades of lieutenant?) and give Sergeant Mucha a lot of shifts on the front desk. He is rarely not there.
But sometimes characters write their own story. Rajka was only supposed to appear for a few moments in one book, and found himself appointed Slonský’s new boss. I needed to explain how Mucha could leave the desk at short notice, and thus Officer Fintr came into being. Now that Navrátil and Peiperová are married, we see less of their mothers, though rest assured, they are still there.
The latest book, The Ladies’ Lounge, came about when I saw a sign saying just that over a doorway. What kind of place was behind it? In no time, the idea of a communist-era club for successful women was born. The kinds of women who would join produced my cast of characters, and they needed backstories too. Again, only part of their history gets into the pages, but it all has to be written.
I hope you enjoy The Ladies’ Lounge. If it never existed; perhaps it should have. It is very real to me.
