Andy Luke's Blog, page 5
June 21, 2018
Chapter 46
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Kobe Police Station, Japan.
Sunday 13 May, 1934
Beyond Hyogo Port, a weary-eyed keisatsu officer sits at a table in a bare lit cell. Matsumoto, a senior in his department, transcribes with the energy of youth. Without looking up to the Frenchman, he asks another question.
“What did you do then, Mr. Chauve?”
“Went straight to my wife, of course.”
“Marie?”
“Most of them were still in prayer. Eyes do...
June 14, 2018
Chapter 45
You can pay for chapters and over 75 pieces of exclusive content at http://patreon.com/andyluke
Sunday 6 May, 1934.
Duchess of York, North Atlantic Ocean.
Marie counted the hours since Ottawa, to the minute, to carry out his command. Walking to the cabin she was met by Steinke, his face white and full of shock. He pushed by her, avoided eye contact. They knew each other a year: he’d never lacked composure. She carried on to Room 427, knocked, then opened it. Adeline kneeled in prayer.
“The A...
June 12, 2018
Patreon Year 2 (X-post to Patreon & LJ)
Thank you! I wouldn’t have had as much fun with all these writings without the encouragement of my patrons.
In June, I’ll be running the last commentaries, Season 2 audios, artblogs and the promised Trebitsch conspiracy vid. There’ll also be bonus poems and posts.
Year 2, I’ll be working up back-room material. Out-front, I’d like to create shorter works. On Patreon I’m now accepting commissions patrons want to see me work on.
Want SF prose? Ask, and I’ll go for it. Want specific? Ditto. After...
June 7, 2018
Chapter 44
Image Source: Pacific Press Ltd / Wasserstein, B. (1989) The Secret Lives of Trebitsch Lincoln, Penguin.
You can pay for chapters and over 75 pieces of exclusive home-grown content at http://patreon.com/andyluke
Great Western Road, Shanghai.
Friday 25 August, 1933.
The north-west suffered a devastating earthquake and armed conflict, but Shanghai had returned to a state of relative peace and sunny serenity. The door opened at Buddhist House, 131 Great Western Road. Martin Steinke, Marie Chauve...
May 31, 2018
Chapter 43
You can pay for chapters and over 75 pieces of exclusive content at http://patreon.com/andyluke
Cologne, Germany.
November, 1919.
Something about him troubled Olga Nieuwkamp. Not at first, when he’d come to them from the Prince’s residence at Wieringen. He was charming, knowledgeable, and well connected. He had done some favour for Elsa, Olga’s secretary, at the American embassy. Elsa von Nagelein undertook charity work with Austrian and German P.O.Ws, one of many jobs she did brilliantly. Gi...
May 27, 2018
Video: Talking Trebitsch with Richard Barr
Author Richard Barr remembers how Andy Luke discovered Trebitsch Lincoln. In this twenty-five minute interview, we talk about the great chameleon’s interest in his family, mysticism and the Nazis.
On Richard’s question to why Trebitsch was so obsessed with travel, I think a part of it has to do with Story. His own tale was for him a fixation therefore he used to travel to bolster his identity and create new dialogue, weave sub-plots and twists, and to make an end or sequel when the going got...
May 24, 2018
Chapter 42 (Series 5×1)
You can pay for chapters and over 75 pieces of exclusive content at http://patreon.com/andyluke
Shanghai.
Wednesday 27 January, 1932.
Three and a half million people, a tenth of them foreigners, milled around the free-market gateway to the East. Harbour improvements in the twenties brought in more ships, more businessmen and opium. The largest of the immigrants were from Japan, and the least popular with the Chinese. At the Versailles conference they’d delivered China a humiliating ‘Twenty-On...
May 17, 2018
Chapter 41
You can pay for chapters and over 75 pieces of exclusive content at http://patreon.com/andyluke
Kowloon, Hong Kong, South China.Monday 16 April, 1928
Rain sloshed by the glass, fall shelves of transparencies, damp seeping into the crammed apartment. He moved, skinned head above ochre robes. His identity: kitchen cleaner. The moments of surface wiping, cloth folding and dusting re-energised his space and his health. Then he became tenzuo, cook. He arranged two carrots, a potato, parsley, as k...
May 10, 2018
Chapter 40
You can pay for chapters and over 75 pieces of exclusive content at http://patreon.com/andyluke
The Port of Shanghai.
Friday 9 March, 1928.
Colonel Max Bauer boarded the steamer for Hong Kong. At sixty he was no less imposing. The triple turbines took them into the East China Sea. She was a large ship: 480 feet by 146 metres. Cruising at twelve knots made it a three day journey and Bauer spent the first in his cabin, reading and preparing papers. On the second day they’d only passed Pudong wh...
May 3, 2018
The Watch Thief: Chapter 39
You can pay for chapters and over 50 pieces of exclusive content at http://patreon.com/andyluke
Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Wednesday 23 December, 1925.
The silence was tangible. The houses at night barricaded by wall and leaf were remote and vulnerable. The Triumph bike stood still on the tarmacadam at the front Edward Richards’ home. Ignatius ‘John’ Lincoln was looking from open door into the unlit kitchen. On an overcast morning at Trowbridge Barracks, a soldier devoid of passion stood fixed o...
