The Professor Gets a History Lesson

 

The Sequels to Rats in the Cellar

We’re still talking about my Rats in the Cellar series. So far, we’ve talked mostly about the first book in the series.

The second, third and fourth aren’t just more of the same. They’re not even about the same character. The original Oscar, A.K.A. Francis still makes an appearance, but the second in the series follows the one named Louis, the bad boy. He has developed a fiercely independent outlook, and plays nasty pranks on his doppels once he tires of them. We read about a couple of his nasties in the first book.

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Can you imagine being blamed for a very horrible prank that was done by someone who looked exactly like you - whom no one but you two knew existed? That’s how Louis got his kicks.

He has developed the mentality of a typical homeless street kid - except he’s not “homeless” in the way we think of it. He’s always in the same house, but moving on to a different universe when he tires of the old, while burning his bridges after him.

But the cat knows how to deal with him, and he mends his ways, and becomes a lifesaver to another of his doppels, one who takes the name of Blake.

“Doppel”, by the way, is a rarely used word in the English language. You’ve probably heard it as “doppelgänger”, someone who is either exactly like you, maybe a second you, maybe a clone. Louis and Blake end up together as twins, adopted by a different family who happens to own their house in a different universe. That’s a “happily ever after” for them.

We also meet other new characters. Remember, in a previous emailing, I said that the “Gandalf/Dumbledore figure” in this series is the cat? Actually, the cat isn’t the only one. In the second in the series, we’re introduced to another, in the form of a four or five-year-old boy, sort of an angelic creature. Just as the cat still acts like a cat, because, as the little boy describes it, he really is a cat, the boy carries his wisdom with the liveliness and emotions of a five-year-old boy. Then, we meet more creatures of the same order in the third and fourth instalments.

The third in the series is where we meet the scientist, Dr. James McSporrin, who originally built the old house and created the multiverse portal. He had successfully invented a time machine. The initial prototype didn’t actually travel itself, it only sent the person using it, while it stayed put. He tested it, intending to go only two weeks into the past. He took a few things along, intended to hole up in a hotel, and then work on the machine some more when he got back.

It sent him to the 18th century.

We learn of him through an old diary, in which he has recorded the history of his adventures. The diary entries are read by the adoptive father of Louis and Blake, in between further adventures of the Oscar doppels in the present day.

Dr. McSporrin, though an atheist, is impressed by how the abolition movement of 18th and 19th century England is fuelled by Evangelical Christians, who were then referred to then as “Nonconformists”. Back in his own century, he had perceived the Evangelicals as being the biggest hindrance to social change.

He also makes a mistake that he forever regrets, confiding in some of his students that he’s from the future. They had sort of guessed it anyway, and they caught him off guard when they suddenly asked him. With the help of his students he manages to build another time machine, an improved version that will actually travel itself.

But a couple of his unscrupulous students, ones with family connections with the slave trade, steal the machine, and manage to erase the abolition movement from history - at least from that timeline. They murder various ones in their cradles, like William Wilberforce, William Pitt, Thomas Pain, Hannah Moore, and anyone else who rises up to fill their vacuum, until they’ve achieved a timeline that’s totally under their control, a dystopia.

In the pages of that diary, we follow how Dr. McSporrin was tormented by the thought of having doomed his world to such an evil future, and was almost driven to suicide. He also meets others whom we’re pretty sure are our own cat and little boy and the others.

The house with the parallel universe portal was an attempt by Dr. McSporrin and his one good faithful student (a fan of Thomas Pain), to establish a link between the dark dystopian timeline and the other in which they were born.

One of the Oscar doppels stumbles into that bleak dystopian universe. But I’ll stop before any spoilers slip out. I’ll only say that there’s a fifth creature, this one immensely evil, who goes by the name Jack Rippley. There’s some spiritual warfare, which also involves more singing by the Oscar choir.

The fourth book in the series came to me after even I thought the series was finished. The end of the third book didn’t leave room for a sequel. But an idea came anyway; this time, a time travel story. Dr. McSporrin takes an active role in this one, not just from the pages of a dairy.

Dr. McSporrin has been tasked with the shutting down of the multiverse portal, as it has now fulfilled it’s purpose. He solicits the help of one of the Oscars, the same one who had stumbled into the bleak world. Some mix-ups happen, the two are stranded in a dead end universe, and while trying to fix things the universe splits again, and suddenly there’s two Dr McSporrin and two Oscars. But the Dr McSporrin’s do find that two heads are better than one, and they find a way out. On the way home, the two Oscars get lost in Victorian London, and are forced into child labour. It’s the Whitechapel district of London of 1890, where William Booth and his Salvation Army are active, and so is Jack the Ripper. In the end, Oscar finally arrives home as twins. I won’t spoil it any more, except that the ending is very satisfying

Again, you can download the books here…

Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Canada Amazon Australia.

The Gospel According to the Cat

 

Though, as my bio states, I’m sold out to the Kingdom of God (in other words, Christian), I find that an “in-your-face” approach isn’t always the best way to express it. It’s about presenting the beauty of the message in an inviting way, which hopefully draws them closer to view more of that beauty. That expression may not appear to be Christian at all, simply because it’s done without the traditional trappings and paraphernalia that they’ve come to associate with Christianity - which, to be honest, I also find tiresome at times. The only thing forcing them to stay should be their own fascination with the products of my artistic imagination. Though at some point, they may realise that they’ve been “preached to” without knowing it, it should elicit a response like, “Okay, that’s one way of looking at it,” or something similar. At any time, they should feel that it’s okay to leave without feeling like my religious sensibilities have been hurt – without even a hint of, “You step out that door to a Christless eternity!” They know the invitation is always open to come back later for more. .

For that reason, my books tend to be targeted to secular audiences. Once you get into them, you will detect Biblical themes. Some are more obviously Christian from the start, just not “in-your-face” with the message

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were both Cristian authors. Lewis was more obvious about it in his narratives, though his style was still not “in-your- face”. Tolkien was more subtle. Reading Tolkien, one comes away with the awareness that the world can be changed by the small and insignificant, and that kindness and compassion are forces more powerful than military might and raw energy. No wonder the Hippy culture of the sixties loved it!

I’m sure both Lewis and Tolkien would love my cat. Now, we don’t have a cat in our house as my wife is allergic to animal hair; I’m talking about the feline character in Rats in the Cellar.

You’d think that putting a cat into a story about rats would indicate a dangerous situation (even if “rats” is only a metaphor). C.S.Lewis threw a lion in with a group of children. By the lions own admission, he wasn’t even a tame one. So, what could go wrong in my story?

Plenty. In the first chapter, the cat gets Oscar lost in the multiverse. Later, the cat leads the boys in and out of places that are definitely not child-safe. Once, he darts across a busy highway at a blind curve, with Oscar following. “Not a safe thing to do unless accompanied by a wise cat.”

Of course, the cat knows what he’s doing. Sometimes the seemingly safest places to be are actually the most dangerous and vice versa.

The cat can also purr. As I said in my previous email, the purring generates a change of mood, and sometimes induces mental images. When the cat curls up next to Oscar at night, Oscar dreams that he can purr. He dreams that he’s purring for his young cousins, who are going through an especially traumatic period, and the purring does for them what the cat’s purr does for him.

But boys can’t purr. That thought crosses his mind the next day when he just happens to find himself with the same young cousins. The four-year-old says, “Mummy tried to kill daddy.” The two boys talk about how Daddy punched Mummy in the nose, and how Mummy went at him with a knife, before the police came and took her away. Then the seven-year-old (the oldest of the four), can’t handle it any more.

“It’ll be alright,” Oscar tries to comfort her.

“No, it won’t!” sobs Becky. “You’re just saying that!”

Oscar knows she’s right. The situation is hopeless, and all he can give are empty words.

Later, as the boys are fighting and things are out of control, he remembers the dream, that he’s purring to the children.

Boys can’t purr. But, they can sing.

Oscar’s favourite school activity, when school isn’t closed, is voice practice. The music instructor, Boz, gives the boys singing lessons, developing their male soprano voices.

Their favourite song is one Boz wrote himself.

Remember what I said about characters named Boz appearing in any of my stories; it’s me making a cameo appearance. However, in this case, the only thing he and I have in common is that we wrote that song.

The song is based on the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor… etc.

As Oscar is standing in the room with the two boys fighting over the toys, the four-year-old bouncing on the settee, and Becky not on speaking terms with the world, he remembers the song.

He begins singing it, and that begins to make a difference. It actually does have the same effect as the cat’s purring.

Here’s the quote from the book:

As he sang, he knew that so much of it might have sounded like a pipe dream, what with all that was happening, the war, the riots, the actual hunger and poverty, even the state of these kids. But this wasn’t the hollow sounding “It’ll be okay” that he told Becky earlier. Somehow, as he sang, he knew each word was meant to be.

Somehow, so did Becky. So did her younger siblings. The whole mood changed. The cat has bestowed on Oscar the gift of singing. That’s how I portray faith - Kingdom of God faith.

That was just Oscar, singing it solo. Later in the book, the many instances of Oscar make for a whole choir. How much more hope would that bring?

The cat knows that.

The song itself is based on a tune that I composed when I was 17. Though I’m by no means a professional in that field, I did manage to create a Midi file, using Muse-Score, and then I created a YouTube video showing the lyrics as the music plays. If you want to listen to it, you can find it Here

Again, you can download the books here…

 

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Australia

 

Nightengale Blues

 He said he was expert in making a nest
But look at the place! It's such a mess! 
Got eggs on the way, I need some rest

     I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuues

Rock-a-bye three babies in our treetop
They show me their tonsils whenever I stop
So I'm hunting for worms until I drop

    I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuues

Tried to teach the kids to sing real sweet
But our son says “Coo coo” instead of “Tweet tweet”
What the neighbours are saying I won't repeat

    I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuuues

I'm not a nurse I'm a nightingale 
And my name's not Florence, but I'll never quail
So that's my life, I've sung you my tale

    I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuuues

Experimenting with Multiverse

After I wrote my heart out about the Time Orphan universe, I was plagued by yet another “what if”: What if a little boy wandered into a forbidden part of his house, and got pulled into a parallel universe?

Not a Narnia universe, but more like in Dr. Hugh Everrett’s Many Worlds Theory - a world almost identical to the one you just left.

Thus began my adventures in writing Rats in the Cellar.

At this point, I have to make a vigorous denial: I don’t have an obsession with rats. I don’t own a pet rat, I don’t fantacise about rats - at least I didn’t then, as I wasn’t actually writing about rats.

Had I known that I would later write a series titled The Rat Queen, I would have named this series differently. The Rat Queen is about rats. In Rats in the Cellar, they’re only a metaphor. 

Rats in the Cellar is about nine-year-old boys - or one nine-year-old boy - one nine-year-old boy in multiple universes, therefore, many nine-year-old boys, all named Oscar Wilde Dougherty. 

The thing about nine-year-old boys is, that’s the prime age in which they could just as easily be a whining mama’s boy or a street-wise survivalist. In the many instances of the Dougherty household throughout the multiverse, the Oscar Wilde Doughertys cover the whole spectrum in between. They’re eachother’s best friends, eachother’s worst enemies, they’re a threat to each other's security, and there to give a helping hand. I’m talking about all the different instances of Oscar.

And why are there so many instances of the same boy?

They discover the portal in the forbidden part of the house - actually two, one down in the cellar, and one in the attic. They've been warned to keep away from both places, but it's an easy warning to heed, because both parts of the house send “bad vibes”. Later, we find this is “cosmic static”, caused by the friction of time-lines rubbing against each other. The genius who built it found that he could use the cosmic static as a power source to keep the portals forever switched on. But I’m getting way ahead of myself. 

But the cosmic static makes the two parts of the housefeel feel spooky, so no one ever ventures into the cellar or to the third floor.

Once having gone thorugh a portal, getting back isn’t straightforward. You can’t just turn around and re-enter the world you just left. There is a way to get back, but you have to do it in five steps, in the right order, which isn’t always easy for a nine-year-old. They’s why they’re lost.

As I said, they’re eachother’s best friends or worst enemies. They develop traditions, rules of the game. They pick alternative names to be known by so they don’t get confused (by opening a phone directory and randomly pointing). There’s a room in the cellar where they can sleep in any instance of their house, and they’re sworn to secrecy about that room. And they steal food from the kitchen. That’s why they’re called “Rats in the Cellar”. 

To throw in a bit more fun, it’s a dystopian future. Most western counties are no longer united, there are national borders where there didn’t use to be, some are at war, some have nukes, there’s political unrest, and governments don’t have enough resources to keep the police department going. There are police, but they only protect those that pay a special “police tax”. And the rich are still oppressing the poor.

Yet more fun - or horror - whatever: Oscar’s Uncle Milton is supposed to be in prison, but in some universes, the prison has broken open, and he’s terrorising the family. He’s a sex offender of the worst type, and some instances of him have found their way into the multiverse.

But justice is met in a satisfying way.

Then, there’s the cat. While there are many instances of Oscar, Uncle Milton and others, there’s only one of the cat. It’s a very wise cat. 

In my assessment of various fictional narratives, one type of character is the “Gandalf/Dumbledore” figgure. I probably don’t need to say that’s the wisend, supportive, elder figure who helps move the plot along. In Rats in the Cellar, it’s the cat.

It appears to be just an ordinary cat. It doesn’t talk, but it can generate visual images by its purring. Sometimes the purring just sets the mood. As I said, it’s a very wise cat. There are other wise creatures as well, which appear in the sequels.

But in the first book in the series, the cat has a plan, which leads to the climax of the first installment.

  

Anyway, here’s where you can download the first Rats in the Cellar novella:  

Amazon US

Amazon UK 

Amazon Canada 

Amazon Australia

I may write more about this next time.

 

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