I haven’t been to Rotterdam. The first time I ever heard of Rotterdam was probably sometime in the mid 80s when England football team were playing Holland.  The original short story just had generic places such as park, streets, corridors. A few years ago I looked into the kind of locations where the action could take place but the problem with this is that you could end up with a kind of naff postcard novel, you know like the films and books set in London which always feature  ‘St Michael’s Tower’, ‘Houses of Parliament,’ ‘London Eye’, etc. So with regards to locations the postcardy, landmarky bits would feature the govermental stuff, perhaps. However I had to feature the ‘Cube’ houses I displayed in an earlier post. 

I fictionalised a few places including ‘Set Square’ the name of a triangle of shops and businesses where some of the action takes place, partly as a satire on town planners/planning and the myth of urban regeneration. I also fictionalised most of the character names. If you think that they are off the wall you should actually look up real Dutch names. This link goes into a bit more depth than I have the time being arsed to go into.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_name

With regards to other research I looked into the Dutch infrastructure, politics, local politics, society, customs, history, transport, education, that kind of thing. I felt this would be helpful to know if I was writing a novel where this infrastructure is taken over by a new order, whether or not I would use all of it. One recurring aspect I found, which I was able to use, was the idea of the Water Boards in The Netherlands. Although they aren’ta utility they do, for various reasons, hold some significant power in the country. I felt I could exploit this a touch. I realise that the best research would be to live in Rotterdam for a few years but it isn’t a luxury I can afford and I feel that the imagination can create some interesting alternatives.

Since the novel it does have ‘clogs’ in the title, I researched the origin of the clog. I wrote section in one of the chapters which gives a potted history, although I’m debating whether or not to leave it in.

Right, must crack on with more redrafting and reshaping. I’ve spent the last week writing new bits again as the hallway and landing have been redecorated so it’s time to get a move on.