Books: “Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased)” by Emma Collingwood is now available as ebook!

From Emma’s blog:

“While I’m still convinced that a “Penny Dreadful” should be a printed book(let) you can hold in your hands to fully enjoy, I’m aware of the fact that many readers are disappointed that “Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased)” is not available as an ebook. Some prefer to read files, others shy away from the additional postage costs. Both are reasons I fully understand. So…

HEAR! HEAR! HEAR!

“LIEUTENANT SAMUEL BLACKWOOD (deceased)”

is now available on Lulu as an ebook in .pdf format!

And, even better news – the electronic version contains all illustrations by Mlle Amandine de Villeneuve!

The price is £ 2.50, which is about $ 4.95. And if you like what you read, you might consider buying the real thing – after all, Christmas and Yule and your aunt’s birthday are just around the corner…”

Looking for news about Damian O’Hare and Jack Davenport and RNotC fandom?

This is the wrong port to anchor then. The wordpress-issue of Joyful Molly has no fandom-content but focusses on historical resources and original writing (with the occasional “Whee! New movie!” exception). I’m aware that there are schools using this blog as a reference and link list, and while my “fannish” writings are so vanilla they only attract strawberries – let’s be honest, Horatio Nelson wrote higher rated material than me – I want to keep this place “safe for studying”. The old entries are still there because I’ve imported my LJ “en bloc”, and going through all entries and making selections would have been too time-consuming.

So, for everything fandom-related (discussion, tales, icons, meta etc.) please go to JM on LJ or JM on IJ. I’m still there.

I’ve noticed a significant increase in hits through searches related to Jack Davenport (because of his new show “Swingtown”) and Damian O’Hare (who will appear in the hospital drama soap “The Royal” from next month on). Again, this is not the place where you will find any news, I recommend the following two links:

If you want to keep informed about Damian O’Hare’s career – he will appear in hospital drama soap “The Royal” in June – you should bookmark the following pages:

Ambarussa – The Unofficial Damian O’Hare Website

or the website’s Blog on WordPress for latest news.

As for Jack Davenport, there’s

Good boy, Sparky! – The Unofficial Jack Davenport Website

or the website’s Blog on WordPress for latest news.

Both websites contain information and pictures only, with no “fannish” content. So the ratings for these websites is as high as the movies/series/plays the actors have appeared in.

Thanks!

Resource: “Longitude” screencaps – the second batch (278)

The second batch of “Longitude” screencaps with comments. Tons of interesting information, costume details and, hey, who would have guessed it, even more cute red-haired kids (though not as cute as wee William) and dashing officers in uniform!

This batch is a resource for: children, children clothes, ships, decks, life aboard, punishments, clocks, clocks, clocks and then some more clocks, royal navy uniforms second half of the 18th century, jamaica, clerics, everyday life, various workshops, fashion, admiralty, board of longitude, george III. and more. If there’s a picture you’d like to see in a higher resolution, please yell.

We left our heroes musing the importance of maritime chronometres; now let’s move forward a acouple of years…

Remember Mr. Campbell? He’s a lieutenant now, and quite a dashing one, if I may say so.

Resource: “Longitude” screencaps (first batch – 135)

As promised, here’s the first batch of “Longitude” screencaps with additional comments. Some of the pictures which show life in the lower decks are brighter than in they are in the movie, where the atmosphere is very realistic (means: dark). But screencaps where you see people sitting in the dark would not be very useful…

This batch is a resource for: children, children clothes, ships, decks, life aboard, royal navy uniforms first half of the 18th century, everyday life, various workshops, fashion, admiralty, board of longitude, extremely cute red-haired kid (awww…) and more. If there’s a picture you’d like to see in a higher resolution, please yell.

Writing/Meta/Resource: The 1805 Club and how writing can convey history

The following link will eventually be included in Molly Joyful’s List Of Useful Resources, but you might want to have a look at it previously. It’s not a new one; I guess most of you who have done research on the Royal Navy in the 18th/1th century have already come across the

THE 1805 CLUB
Preserving the memorial of the Georgian Naval Heroes

You could consider the link an update to my article

St. Paul’s Cathedral, Collingwood, Nelson, Old Jerv and the waste bin

I think it’s safe to say that many of us have found their interest and love for the RN of the 18th century through – fandom. I’ll be honest with you; if it hadn’t been for RNotC, I’d probably never cared about the Age of Sail. I knew who Nelson was, and that was about it. I assure you that I didn’t wake up one morning and said to myself: “Hey, the weather is lovely, I shall go and read a book about Nelson!”

Hands up: who of you would have bought and/or read Amy Miller’s “Dressed to Kill” if it hadn’t been discovered by fandom? Collingwood’s biography? Anybody? Bueller? Without fandom, I’d still fold paperships.

The work of The 1805 Club really deserves a lot of praise. In our fast-paced time, focussed on the future, it’s not easy to rise people’s awareness for the past, which is dangerous, in my opinion. To conserve memory and passing on history, our society would have to adapt to the tone and time we’re living in, though. Many museums have realised this and developed concepts that get visitors (especially the younger ones!) involved and allow them to interact. Gone are the days of stuffy rooms with glassy-eyed taxidermy nightmares on display, and let’s thank the gods for that!

So what does this all have to do with writing historical fiction? Well, I think it’s one of the basic rules of story-telling that readers care about the fate of the portrayed individuals and the conditions they’re living in. I’m not saying that everybody who reads one of our stories or books or sees our artwork will immediately run to order reference books, but we do have a chance there to spark interest. We can connect names, data, numbers with characters people care for. Personally, I find this exciting, challenging and very inspiring!

News: Pirates can claim UK asylum…

“(…) THE Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights. (…)”

Now we know who wrote the script for At World’s End…

Resource: St. Paul’s Cathedral, Collingwood, Nelson, Old Jerv and the waste bin

I’ve just returned from my two-day-trip to London. A more detailed report with additional pictures will follow some other place; for now, I will talk about St. Paul’s Cathedral, Old Jerv and the waste bin, tacky Nelson memorabilia and some musings on Old Cuddy.

Please say hello to John, 1st Earl St. Vincent. I probably don’t have to introduce “Old Jerv” to those among you who are interested in the history of the Royal Navy, but for everybody else: he was one of Britain’s great naval heroes, paved the way for Nelson’s success and has his own monument at St. Paul’s Cathedral. That one here is a “promotional shot”. The type of picture you might find in an art book. Nice, isn’t it? Good work.

NEVER TRUST PICTURES.