We are doing great things at Neopoet. Firstly, Collaborative Renga Poetry by Barbara Writes, a Japanese form of poetry writing that's been modernized and constructed for Neopoet. And experimental Collaborative Storytelling in Verse by Wesley Snow. Create possibly an award winning Horror/Murder story in the scotyard of 19th Century London. Check us out at the link http://www.neopoet.com/workshop/view/14935. Watch the story and work of Neopoets unfold on the stream.

1. The Victim:
Secretary of Indian Affairs Alabaster Fitzroy was fifty eight years old, pole thin and over six feet tall. A man of fastidious character he yet often found himself in the seamier parts of London Town. He was something of a sexual deviant, though no one in the government was aware of this fact. He did his job extraordinarily well and seemingly had no enemies… neither did he have friends. He lived alone with a canary he took very good care of and drank sparingly. He was not wealthy and never carried more than a few pounds with him at a time.

Never a man to be frightened, he was nevertheless a passive individual who could not defend himself in a physical confrontation.

He had no family to speak of and only those people who shared his sexual escapades knew the slightest thing about the man.

He was found (by whom?) on Fleet Street with his head removed which had the distinct effect of bringing his life to an end

2. Scotland Yard Detective Number One: The detective can be of any sex or nature, but must be consistent with 19th century London as is true of all the characters.
Urilla Maure a French female detective of color in her twenties. She has long natural wavy curls. With pecan tone skin she is slender built about 5'2". She is rather quiet but up front with any she encounter. She has a strong personality but at soft heart. She likes to write poetry about nature.. She often take nature walks in London gardens observing nature at its best for her writings. One day as she was observing the rats scavenging for food in the back alley of an Scotland Yard restaurant she heard a scuffle. As she cautiously look to see what had happened she saw a figure ran away from the scene as a body lay lifeless on the ground. A squeamish girl she stands her distance and notify auth,orities.

3. Scotland Yard Detective Number Two: Same as above.
Guy French, is a detective of twenty-five years and ready to retire. He has always stayed in the background of any case that he has worked on and let the others take all the credit. He is a spare man of slight build and blond going gray hair and blue eyes. Sixty-five years old, he keeps in shape by a martial-arts program of his own devising. Married twice, he is a widower; having been divorced the first time and his second wife recently dying of a tropical disease picked up while they were on vacation in Africa. In his spare time, he reads sci-fiction and paints. He has an old motor-cycle that he is always fussing over and occasionally rides. He has never had children and his line will end with him when he dies.

4. Suspect Number One: Any personality, not necessarily our killer, but someone who looks guilty as hell.
Anabel Sumner came into town bareback on her own horse. She was thirty years old, unmarried and childless. Anabel was tall for a woman (approximately 6ft tall), slender with short, cropped raven hair and oval shaped blue eyes so dark they were nearly black. Everything about her screamed “rebel.” She wore slacks instead of a dress, military style boots instead of sensible shoes and walked in a less than lady-like fashion. From the moment she jumped off the back of her horse, there was an inexplicable, mysterious aura about her. Locals began to speculate. Normally a woman of her age had a husband and children. Anabel moved into a room at an inn and had taken a job as a barmaid at one of the local taverns where she divulged very little to her customers. Once, she did mention her last serious relationship ended when her significant other committed suicide by way of hanging. She had found him upon arriving home from work one evening. When asked how the incident affected her, Anabel shrugged and walked away. It didn’t seem that Anabel was in any hurry to make friends. Anabel was moody and unpredictable. She would laugh one moment and the next would throw a drink in your face. She had once been sent home from the tavern after breaking a pitcher of beer over a patron's head. For this reason, the women didn’t want anything to do with her and the men didn’t seem attracted to her. She did seem to bond with another social outcast within the community, a woman. The two were often seen having drinks after work and leaving each other’s homes. Naturally, once the town gossipers got wind of this, they began to spin wild tales that these two black sheep were secret lovers, disgracing women everywhere. Anabel maintained her mysterious presence until she became friendly with a frequent customer. The events that followed this friendship would cast suspicion and doubt on Anabel’s moral character, prompting an investigation into who she really is and why she came to town in the first place.

5. Suspect Number Two: Same as above all
Arnold Winter, a well built young man in his early twenties, with dark skin, dark eyes and curly hair. He's a son of a very poor farmer. Arnold was orphaned at the age of ten, so his mother didn't have many options; it was either they live homeless for the rest of their lives or resort to the workhouse where he and his other younger four brothers were segregated from the mother. At the workhouse he was always humiliated and sent along with his peers to work in the ore mines for long hours, six days a week. It was almost slavery conditions under which he grew.

He was not a bad guy of nature, however, the hard conditions that he experienced all through his life, starting with the brutal landlord whose father was working for and ending with the miserable conditions at the workhouse, left in his deep unconscious all the reasons to seek revenge from those whom he thought hold high posts, or are in charge of governmental positions. According to him, those and the aristocratic class controlled even the morsels of the poor.

He often ganged with some of those of his age or sometimes older. More than once he was caught and sent to the jail for months after being accused of robbing or trying to rob the rich and ladies with valuable handbags or even snatching whatever jewelry he could reach

At the cheap bars he was regularly seen drinking until he's drunk and unaware of what he's saying or doing. One night and while Arnold and the rest were ready to leave, he clashed with a man wearing all in black. His friends told him later that he tried to kill him by smashing him on his teeth and nose with his strong fist more than once only because the man in black asked him to step aside off the bar's door

At the murder's night, Arnold and his company- starving, were roaming somewhere around the next block to Fleet streets, looking for the right person so that they could have some money to eat after many nights of starvation.

7. A Protagonist: This is harder. This is a character who has a vested interest in seeing the crime solved and is willing to do most anything to see it happen.
The protagonist is Roy Mackwill. He owns a luxurious hotel, catering to the needs of the weathy foreigners who visited the city for business dealings and the crime scene area is just outside its entrance. He feared that his hotel business will be affected so he is offering a reward for anyone who can solve the mystery and stop the evil that has caused the death. He is a fat man with balding hair and he likes to smoke. He likes to be in control, thus the thought of his business failing is very disturbing to him. He is at home on that fateful night, resting after attending the wedding celebration of a friend's daughter. One of his staffs believed she has seen the killer and has become fearful of her life.

8. An Antagonist: This is a character who has a vested interest in seeing the crime NOT solved and is willing to do most anything to hamper the investigation.
John Creel I am, this murder is so good for me.
I am the owner of the Grosvenor Hotel
I speak many languages
I am 50 this year and need some muck on that Roy Mackwill
The stinking little shit.
Caused me a lot of problems with the peelers a while back
Now it is payback time
He does so well
Now with this murder on his front step I love it.
I have a grand house just outside the smoke.
My own landau covered of course, this is how I travel to my Hotel when needed
I own a few other seedy places but that is kept a secret.
The people there I shall use to sling dirt at that urchin lover Mackwill
I think a series of notes to throw the police off the track of the real killer will do to start.
It is wonderful what a few coins will do,
Just you wait I have many things to do yet Ha Ha.
Yours John Creel.

10. Witness Number Two: (unknown) This person saw the crime, but the killer did not see them.
I am Milford Lowe the richest guy around, next to Horrods, with a bushy moustache, un-mistakenly American. Settled in UK. A cigar like Churchill and a rose like Nehru. I adorn...Love to show off my pot belly, as if its a modern mobile ATM. I have a body guard standing by in the crowd, who'd be like the bouncer in a bar downtown, where nudes dance. I was making love to a new date, a beautiful young bubbling belle, when I saw what I did from the corner of my eye. I can't disclose it, as my face was dug deep in her boobs. Well Sir how would such a character do for you.

And lastly,

11. The Monster: This is a horror story after all. There is a monster roaming London's streets and it may or may not be our killer. It may or may not be an actual monster. It may or may not be simply a horrible man.
Call me Mog. I am the last survivor of a race which predates man. For eons I "fed" on the beasts of the field. I feed on emotional energy and the energy level of beasts was always low. Until I came upon a new type animal on the African plains thousands and thousands of years ago.It called itself "man" and it was/is succulent in its rich and varied emotions. So I feed on only it unless one of my "hosts" dies when another man is not near. But since I have learned to control these awkward things that seldom happens. I am only ever seen by those who are either already insane or on the border of sanity . This is because my body consists of little more than ionized gasses. I am the basis of the tales of ghosts and goblins. I have been alone and bereft of the company of my own kind so long that even I know I'm now insane. And upon attatching to a new host it's not long before I drive the host insane also. I do this because it pleases me and also because the emotions of the insane are both powerful and succulent. My latest host was named Jack. It was I who took his gory fantasies and caused him to turn them to reality in the foggy nights in London by disemboweling whores.Alas Jack just died from syphilis. So I leave his diseased body in the gutters and am in search of my next host.

The story unfolds on the stream in "Study in Pink" WS.