The ruination of my reading

I have always been an inveterate reader. Nothing altered that, not the passage of years or changes in my life, however substantial--until I became serious about writing. I truly believe reading is essential for good writing, but now I must devote my time to the creation of stories, and hope I did enough reading in past years to make up for the lack now.

Which is not to say I no longer read, but that I no longer grab up any book that looks like it might be interesting, or follow lists of what's new and notable. My reading now tends more and more to fall into various categories of research. (And this aside from pure research books, like guides to ship rigging or celestial navigation). Mind you, the categories are flexible, and I'm certain I'm still learning from the experts as well as enjoying filling in the information I require, but the categories of interest have certainly narrowed. Some apply more specifically than others, but all give me at least a sense of background or a flavor of a time and/or place that's relevant to The Stowaway.

On my current To Be Read list, in either paper or Kindle format (occasionally both), by the aforementioned category:

Edwardian:

• Coral Island, J. Michael Ballantyne (an influence on J.M. Barrie)
• The Journal of a Disappointed Man, Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion (you may be relieved to know that is the nom de plume of a man actually named Bruce Frederick Cummings)
• The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins (because I need to know if it really is likely to be Vivian's favorite book)
• Girl of the Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter 

Sadly, neither my paper nor electronic copy looks
like this. Would that one of them did.

Nautical:

• Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
• Ahab's Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund
• Evolution's Captain, Peter Nichols (the clash of science and religion in the era preceding and influencing the Edwardians, ships)
• The Navigator of New York, Wayne Johnston (polar exploration and ships)
• Master and Commander and Post Captain, by Patrick O'Brian (along with Sea of Words--at a whopping 400-plus pages--a companion glossary compiled by Dean King with John B. Hattendorf and J. Worth Estes). I have the DVD of the first novel too, and I'm planning to immerse myself in a Master and Commander weekend before too much longer.

Erich Lessing in John Huston's 1954 film of Moby-Dick. This
 would make me want to read the book if I hadn't already decided to.

England:

• Thames: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd
• Imagined London, Anna Quindlen

The Amazon/City of Manaus:

• The River That God Forgot, Richard Collier
• The Sea and the Jungle, Henry Major Tomlinson
• The Naturalist on the River Amazon, Henry Walter Bates
• State of Wonder, Ann Patchett

Miscellaneous

• The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us, James W. Pennebaker (because I want to make sure I don't get James's speech wrong)

So how am I doing with all this? Well, um, I'm a third of the way through Moby-Dick and halfway through The River That God Forgot, and I've started Imagined London and Thames: A Biography. And I've read a few books that don't appear on the list. Possibly I am going to start to need to block out more designated reading time, which will include pushing those ever-present temptations of Twitter and Tumblr off to the side of the map.

Edward Gorey had the truth of it.

But lest you think I've forgone all recreational reading, I've read almost the entire Inspector Lynley series by Elizabeth George this year, thirteen volumes so far. (And some of them are long!) Of course they are set in locations around England, thereby possibly qualifying them as, er, research...

The wrong Jolly Roger

Whatever I may say about the accuracy of character portrayals on "Once Upon a Time," I applaud the show regularly for getting Captain Hook's ship right.

You may also recognize the Lady Washington as the Interceptor from Pirates of the Caribbean.

The producers are using the Lady Washington as their Jolly Roger (some of the filming has been done on the actual ship, the rest on a full-sized replica). And the Lady is a brig, as is the Jolly Roger, according to J.M. Barrie. You will note she has two masts. I know right away when artists haven't done their research, or have chosen to dispatch with Barrie's vision, the moment I see three masts. 

A brig has two masts, square-rigged.

I call Disney as the original instigator of this travesty.

Yes, maybe I'd like to have one of these models, but that does not mean I think this is accurate.

James Coleman, "Moonrise Over Pirate Bay," current fine art for Disney by one of its animated film landscape artists. Beautiful! But not a brig.

I suppose Disney's version has become the popular default.

Nadir Quinto, 1982

But it's hardly just Disney.

Model for the ship in the 2003 film of Peter Pan. Looks to me like a clipper, maybe, not a brig

I don't know why it's hard to get this one right. It's easy enough to do the research, and a brig is a lovely ship--it's not as though it weren't just as pretty as a clipper or a frigate, even if less imposing.

A brig! Robert Ingpen, 2004

Of course, it's not as if I'm not also confronted regularly with the placement of the Captain's hook on the incorrect hand. I just realized even one of my favorite Peter Pan artists' renditions has that issue.

Gwynedd M. Hudson,  1931. It is almost impossible to find biographical information about her online, and I was sorry to discover this may be because she died at the age of 26.  Hudson studied at the Brighton School of Art, and is also remembered for her illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

At least I know artists have used the play as their inspiration at least as much as the book as regards the hook, which is an element that has changed from one production (and actor) to the next. I don't think they have as good an excuse for ship inaccuracies.

Finding my way

This beauty is a 9" brass sextant, which I just bought for the purpose of teaching myself celestial navigation, because my narrator can't learn navigation if I don't. Mind you, Vivian ends up better at it than I'll ever be, and does it faster, but I need to know what she's talking about.

The fact that it's also handsome decor is a bonus.

The sextant goes along with the book and the DVD and the diagrams and a couple of downloads. Unfortunately, the sextant is heavy enough that I won't be hauling it around me everywhere--the printed or online materials will have to do some days. I don't need much more than a rough idea of how to do this, really, and I don't plan to volunteer my navigational services on anyone's ship any time soon. I just need to know what I'm talking about, and presumably all this will provide enough basics for me to do so.

I have the impression writers are prone to developing odd hobbies. Collecting odd decor too, perhaps. Thank goodness nautical props and art and instruments are pretty.

A digression to Seattle

For the Wooden Boat Festival; this is not ridiculously off topic. Image-heavy, though--well, yes.

The approach.

Lotus, a 1909 houseboat (see? not off topic) and a few colorful kayaks.

The deck of the Lotus.

Lanterns for Vivian Drew. I probably shouldn't tease my characters, but she's the one who persists in mistaking them for weaponry.

View from 133-foot gaff-rigged schooner Adventuress, first launched in 1913. One year after the publication of "Peter Pan" as a book.

The point at which my composition skills returned and I knew I was getting used to the new camera.

Tugboat Arthur Foss.

Not as graceful as a tall ship, but darned useful.

Working boats can be pretty too.

And a star to steer her by

When I went looking for a tall ship where I could do some hands-on research for The Stowaway, I was lucky to discover that not only do we have the Lady Washington berthed not far from Seattle, she's a brig, the same type of ship sailed by Hook in the original Peter Pan.

She's also the same ship filmed by "Once Upon a Time" as the Jolly Roger. As some of you know, the battle sail my husband and I were originally scheduled to sail on was postponed a week because the show's taping ran long. I had no idea about any of this until I was standing on the deck of the ship--one of the weirder examples of the weird that follows this project. Don't even start me on OUaT Hook's true love being named Milah, because I still don't quite believe I heard that right.

As many things as Once Upon a Time gets wrong (some of you have seen my rants on the subject, ahem), they got this one right, which is unlike far too many depictions of the Jolly Roger. I've begun  doing a cursory count of masts whenever I see one of those depictions, because as much as I like some of the incorrect art, it's really not that hard to get it right.

Robert Ingpen gets it right. His Peter Pan illustrations are beautiful in general, but he won me over completely with this.