June 30th 2024

Welcome to my weekly diary charting the ups and downs of turning my Victorian whodunnit, Octopus: Octavius Guy & The Case of the Throttled Tragedienne, into a podcast. I'm its author, Michael Gallagher. Beric Livingstone is its narrator.

Where Beric is at:

I managed to phone Beric this week, and it turns out that he doesn't think the cover works because the choice of fonts and the turquoise background do not signal a Victorian whodunnit. He's right of course. They don't match any of the typical covers that currently get used. And that's sort of my point. I'm a target reader of the genre, yet I loathe those covers. And I guarantee my cover will stand out amongst them (to me, a good sign).

Beric is also considering packing up his studio where he records Octopus and moving it to Norwich (possibly temporarily; possibly not). He sent a photo of how it looks now. You can see the sound booth on the right.

From Chapter 9, Beric reads as Gooseberry retires to Mrs Grogan's eatery to contemplate what he has learned so far.

"Was I or was I not responsible?"

Learn more about Beric here:

Where I am at:

So I've started pasting in some actual flowers and the question now arises: how strong (saturated) should the colour be? I've mocked up three samples at different levels of saturation as a test. I wonder which you prefer and why?

Eagle-eyed may have noticed that I've been playing around with the setting out of the subtitle, and it looks awful. But worry not, it's still a work in progress.

Till next week, folks!

Listen to the full prologue here:

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