Introducing Mickey Macgillicuddy, the Flaky Burnout at Aquarius Harbor
When I turned my play (“Sausalypso Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery”) into a novel (Pirates of Sausalito), the toughest challenge was how much to get into the characters’ heads. You don’t have to write that in a play, though it’s useful to think about.
I chose to let ten characters narrate their parts and some had inner lives very different from their public lives. Mickey Macgillicuddy, for example, lives in a tiny houseboat in Aquarius Houseboat Harbor, which developers want to turn into a luxury harbor. Mickey is a flaky burnout, but he’s also funny. He loves an audience. The first time we see Mickey is in Chapter 4, which is told from the point of view of Honest Abernathy, one of the leaders of the houseboaters’ resistance. Mickey is preening for the young woman lawyer who is helping out with legal strategy.
“Yeah,” Mickey says, “like, I went to college. Like Grateful Dead University. That’s where I got my higher education, a PhD in LSD. Hey, like, how do you know deadheads have been staying at your pad?” He pauses. “They’re like, still there.”
But Mickey is not the flaky hippie he appears to be. I can’t tell you more that that because I want you to listen to this chapter, from my audiobook. This is Micky narrating Chapter 5, “Eviction Raid.” It starts as he watches the police boats on their way into the harbor to evict the houseboaters.
[AUDIOBOOK] Pirates of Sausalito, Chapter 5. Eviction Raid (Mickey MacGillicuddy)
I would love to hear what you think. There are four chapters before this, so you’re jumping on a moving train, but this is the first time we see things through Mickey’s eyes.
Later in the book, Police Chief Tin Alley asks Mickey if it’s true he lives in a small houseboat. “It’s so small,” he says, “if I order a large pizza, I have to eat it outside.”
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