Big, Bold, and Utterly Unconventional

It seems like I've been working on this novel forever. It's the story of the creation of a musical on Broadway just after the Civil War, and involves gangs, young love, mistaken identities, revenge, blackmail, and spies. It's a lot. But at long last I feel comfortable with my cast of characters, to wit:

Dramatis Personae
In Order of Appearance

Dennis Carmody. The father of Katie and Michael Carmody, he’s an immigrant widower and a staunch Union man. Appalled by the Draft Riots that break out in New York City in July of 1863, he ventures into the streets in an attempt to stop the carnage.

Timothy “Black Tim” Kerrigan. Saloon-keeper and leader of one faction of the Dead Rabbits, an Irish criminal gang instrumental in starting the riots. Kerrigan is a clever thug, known for extortion, robbery, and an increasingly popular pale ale. He’s a known partner of Goo Goo Knox and Three-Finger Bobby O’Brien, and an unsuspected associate of a certain influential uptown swell.

Wilhelm Freitag, aka “Billy Friday.” Katie Carmody’s suitor. Big, powerful, and vicious. A sometime pimp and gangland shoulder puncher. An associate of the Dead Rabbits, but not a trusted member. Flashy and outwardly prosperous.

Sean Molloy. Dead Rabbits henchman and sidekick to Billy Friday. Lanky and pale. Hears God calling, but doesn’t understand the words.
Ferdinand Daguerre. Bumbling special effects expert, absent-minded engineer and sometime pyromaniac. Enthusiastic. Emotional. Sports a mustache big enough to hang a jacket on.

Clyde Bartos. A down-on-his-luck actor and playwright, plump and frequently perspiring. With customary imprudence, Bartos is taking a final swing at glory with a melodrama called The Golden Dove that he’s written and is attempting to produce.

William Blevins. A former actor and playwright, more esteemed as the former than the latter, now manager of the aging theatre called Cosmo’s Garden. Fastidious and severe. Judges books by their cover, though he seldom reads them in any case.

Henry Eccleston. Once Broadway’s golden boy, now a middle-aged producer/impresario with thinning hair. He’s planning a comeback with an elaborate French faerie play called The Magic Grotto when circumstances step up and kick him in the teeth. Mercurial and immensely sentimental. Hates to drink, but does it anyway, to keep up appearances.

Raymond St. Clair. Wealthy merchant and prominent member of Manhattan society. A son of the South, though he prefers not to advertise the connection. The city’s ninth-richest man, he owns a number of lucrative commercial enterprises—as well as the stately but outdated theatre called Cosmo’s Garden.

Alexander St. Clair. Raymond’s nephew. An Amherst graduate, Southern by birth but Northern in his upbringing and outlook. He briefly wore the uniform of a Union cavalry officer but never saw action. New to the city. Idealistic. An easy mark.

Gustav Favron. Assistant producer of a French ballet company who joins the production team of The Magic Grotto in Paris and journeys to America. Knows just enough English to get himself in trouble—and promptly does so.

Rose Catherine “Katie” Carmody. A struggling young seamstress, high-spirited, unambitious, and somewhat clumsy. Has trouble seeing horizons. Mystified by her own talent.

Leola Heins. Of African-American and Dutch ancestry, she lives with Katie in the Five Points neighborhood of lower Manhattan. A virtuoso with needle and thread, Leola is Katie’s best friend, and pays the bulk of the rent.

Jake Apple. Sixth son of free-thinking Jewish immigrants, Jake is the theater correspondent for the New York Sentinel. Grew up in Kleindeutschland on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Source of considerable information about the city and its criminal demimonde.

Margaret “Maximum Maggie” Mulvaney. A tattooed, beetle-browed woman of thirty-four years. Known to join the Dead Rabbits in their battles with cops and the Protestant Know-Nothings who target Irish immigrants. She looks after Katie and Leola Heins, and in fact is infatuated with Leola.

Jesse Wayne Scruggs. Trim and compact, a bitter unsmiling man who served as a sergeant in the Confederate Army. Lost his left hand during the siege of Vicksburg. Believes Lee should have kept fighting. He burns to avenge the defeat of the Confederacy.

Michael Carmody. Katie’s younger brother. Formerly a private in the 69th New York Infantry, the “Irish Brigade.” Shot in the shoulder and hip at Fredericksburg. He received opium pills to dull the pain of his wounds as he died. But he survived.

Menelaus Castor Klissas. Greek-American stage manager, burly and brusque but occasionally kind-hearted, which he almost always regrets.

George C. Jarrett. Henry Eccleston’s partner, and the more stable of the two. A stocky, thin-lipped individual with wiry hair and hirsute ears and knuckles, careless of his dress and manner. Mechanically minded. Likes wrenches, ropes, and pulleys.

General Lucius LeClerc. A retired Union general, gruff and gregarious. Brother-in-law of George Jarrett and one of Lincoln’s favorite commanders. LeClerc is believed to be on the short list for either governor of New York or vice-president on a future Republican ticket. Fears no one but his wife, and her only when sober.