Historical Writing - Steven R. Southard (Poseidon's Scribe)

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First to Land on a Comet?

This week the European Space Agency (ESA) announced they will choose from among five sites on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the Rosetta spacecraft’s robot laboratory Philae to land, as reported here, here, and here. Crop_from_the_4_August_processed_image_of_comet_67P_Churyumov_Gerasimenko 300px-Rosetta

Philae_over_a_comet_(crop) They claim this will be the first time a human-built spacecraft has landed on a comet.

I beg to differ.

I’m aware of an alternate universe very close to our own, a universe in which an actual manned—not robotic—landing has already occurred.

In 1897.

It’s all documented in my story, “The Cometeers,” a story to be launched tomorrow by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. Yes, that’s tomorrow. The 1st of September.

That means you don’t have to wait for the ESA to take their sweet time choosing a landing site and preparing to send down the Philae probe. They’re not even attempting their landing until mid-November. That’s not for two and a half whole months!

Who wants to wait that long? You can be witness to a manned landing on a comet as soon as tomorrow.

Also, in my story, the comet isn’t some benign rock way out there at some safe distance. Not at all. It’s huge, and it’s hurtling toward Earth.

A planet-buster.

Further, the heroes of “The Cometeers” don’t have fancy computers, or Ariane 5 rockets, or robots, let alone nuclear weapons. All they’ve got is gunpowder. And a big cannon. And their ingenuity.

And a few sticks of gum.

I’ve got nothing against the fine folks at the ESA. Really. The Rosetta mission is exciting, and it has the added benefit that it’s really taking place in our own universe.

Sometimes, though, alternate universes can be fun, too. Read “The Cometeers” and see if you agree. Jules Verne said, “Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.” It looks like the ESA will soon make something real, something that first blasted like a cannon shot from the imagination of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

August 31, 2014Poseidon's ScribePermalink

The Story behind “The Cometeers”

As I mentioned in my News page, Gypsy Shadow Publishing has accepted my story, “The Cometeers” which will be published as part of the What Man Hath Wrought series. The intended launch date is in early September.

Here’s the marvelous cover, designed by Charlotte Holley. Yes, that’s a planet-destroying comet headed right toward the Earth. But if you look closer, you’ll see an silvery man-made projectile on an intercept course. Just possibly, its occupants might save the entire world.

Inquiries have been streaming in from every corner of the planet (and from some of the comets), asking what this story is about. Far be it from me to deny my fans information about my latest tale.

Here’s the book blurb: A huge comet speeds toward a devastating collision with the Earth, but no one will launch space shuttles filled with nuclear weapons. It’s 1897. Instead they’ll fire projectiles from the Jules Verne cannon and try to deflect the comet with a gunpowder explosion. Commander Hanno Knighthead isn’t sure he can motivate his argumentative, multinational crew of geniuses to work together. It turns out one of them is a saboteur. Then things get worse. Only a truly extraordinary leader could get this group to cooperate, thwart the saboteur, and jury-rig a way to divert the comet. Lucky thing Hanno brought his chewing gum.

If you recall the 1998 movie “Armageddon,” then you can think of my story as Steampunk Armageddon.

I don’t recall the exact inspiration for this story. As stated in this post, and this one, I use the “seed and twist” method of coming up with story ideas. In this case the seed is the standard save-Earth-from-destruction idea, and the twist is to set the action in Victorian times.

My problem became one of technology. They just didn’t have sufficient know-how in the Nineteenth Century to divert or destroy a comet. It’s an open question whether we really have the technology today.

Therefore, I assumed the world of Jules Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon. In that world, men had already achieved space travel in 1867. With funds from many nations, the Baltimore Gun Club had built a 900 foot long cannon outside Tampa, Florida, and launched a projectile containing three men.

My story is set thirty years later and no one has used the cannon since, due to the enormous expense. With a giant comet on the way, however, something must be done, so every country contributes what it can.

You can’t simply launch projectiles full of gunpowder at the comet and expect to hit it. The target is too small, the distance too great, and the calculations too imprecise. You must send men up also, in separate projectiles, to travel with your gunpowder bombs to make the necessary course corrections along the way.

That plan should work.

Unless something goes wrong.

“The Cometeers” will launch in September. For further updates, keep visiting this blog and reading the posts by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

August 10, 2014Poseidon's ScribePermalink

The Story Behind “To Be First”

As the launch date for “To Be First” and “Wheels of Heaven” nears (this Tuesday, July 1st), and excitement builds, I think it’s time for me to reveal the story behind “To Be First.”

A few years ago, I watched an episode of the TV show Mythbusters where they replicated a feat supposedly performed by Lagâri Hasan Çelebi in the Ottoman Empire in 1633. Çelebi is said to have constructed a rocket chair, launched himself into the air, and flown down safely using a wing-like apparatus. The event was intended to commemorate and honor the birth of the Sultan’s daughter.

The Mythbusters team considered the myth busted, but it got me to thinking. What if such a marvelous flight had taken place? What if the Sultan had understood the geopolitical and military implications?

Think of it. Manned rocket flight in the 17th Century. Defensive city walls and high castle walls would mean nothing to a country with armed rocket-men. Rather than expanding and then beginning its slow decline to finally die with the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire might have spread much more quickly and farther.

Had the Ottomans also embraced the science behind rocketry, they might have hastened other technical achievements, and been the source of those advancements rather than watching America and the rest of Europe prosper.

It seemed like an interesting basis for an alternate history tale, so I wrote one. In my version, it’s 1933, three centuries after Çelebi’s flight, and two Ottoman astronauts (called lunanauts) are returning from the first manned flight to the Moon. Yes, I said 1933, not 1969.

I imagined their space capsule being about the same size as the Apollo capsule, but dome-shaped with a central spike like the roof of an Ottoman mosque. The capsule would have a couple of windows and there would be some of that beautiful, flowing Ottoman Turkish writing on the outside.

As the story commences, the lunanauts encounter a strange ionic storm in space, and their capsule passes into an alternate universe. The tale takes off from there.

My central characters, Yazid and Kemal, hold differing views on what it means to be an explorer. What are the motivations behind those who roam beyond all prior journeys, who probe far into unknown regions? Do they do it for the money? For fame? For love? Or is it something simpler?

If you read my story, perhaps you’ll be motivated to become an explorer, and you’ll write your own gripping story of heroic and fantastic adventure. You, too, can manage ‘To Be First.’ At least, so says—

Poseidon’s Scribe

June 29, 2014Poseidon's ScribePermalink

The Story behind “Wheels of Heaven”

With my story “Wheels of Heaven” about to launch on July 1st, I thought I’d tell you how I got the idea for the tale.

The series What Man Hath Wrought consists of alternate history stories involving technology. Basically, they’re “what if” stories that ask what would have happened if things had gone differently. While doing some research on interesting ancient technologies, I came across the Antikythera Mechanism. Or perhaps I saw a mention of it on a documentary on the Science Channel, Discovery Channel or History Channel.

300px-NAMA_Machine_d'Anticythère_1 It’s a fascinating machine, advanced well beyond what anyone gave the ancient Greeks credit for. Moreover, until x-ray tomography was conducted on the device in recent years, no one knew what it was for.

Intrigued by the mechanism, I then had to think of an interesting way to fictionalize it. Some outlandish, but really fun, ideas occurred to me, but other authors had already explored notions such as the device being a time machine, teleportation machine, or even an alien communicator.

My story ended up being more plausible. I portrayed the mechanism as being exactly as it really was, a device for computing the position of the sun and major planets—the wheels of heaven.

In 1900 and 1901, divers discovered the device amid other shipwreck debris off Antikythera Island. “Wheels of Heaven” is my fictional account of how it came to rest there. An arrogant Roman astrologer will discover he can make predictions with greater speed using the device, but will come to question the connections between people and the stars.

rimtrade When research revealed the wreck to be a Roman merchant ship, I checked out what those ships were like. They differ from trireme warships in interesting ways. The carved neck and head of a swan which I describe in the story was actually a common feature of these ships.

For the most part, of course, “Wheels of Heaven” is about the struggles people have, the struggles we still have today. If you were certain you were right about something, an idea about which you’d formed a long career, and you found out it was all wrong, could you accept it? Are we all slaves of predetermined fate, or do we have free will?

Go ahead, take a trip through time to about 80 B.C. and voyage with my characters Viator and Abrax aboard the Prospectus. I know you’ll enjoy it; that much has been written in the stars by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

June 28, 2014Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Conveying a Sense of Wonder

One of the things that drew me into fiction as a child was the sense of wonder I experienced when reading certain fiction, notably that of Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clarke and later science fiction writers. The question is, how does a writer evoke that in readers?

First, let’s try to define it. The book Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction defines it this way: “a feeling of awakening or awe triggered by an expansion of one’s awareness of what is possible or by confrontation with the vastness of space and time, as brought on by reading science fiction.”

Although often associated with science fiction, that emotion needn’t be. Rachel Carson’s book The Sense of Wonder was about sharing a love of nature with a child.

I like the associate with childhood. To children the natural world is new, and they experience that sense of wonder more often. Then it fades as we age and it takes more than mere nature to astonish us. Here’s an example of that fading-with-adulthood phenomenon. How many times have you heard the finale of the William Tell Overture (the Lone Ranger theme) by Gioachino Rossini? Ho hum, right? But do you remember the thrill of that first time you heard it? Can you image what audiences of 1829 felt the first time that finale ever played, anywhere?

Up until Jules Verne and authors who followed him, adults most often experienced the sense of wonder in religious contexts, or in fantasy literature. Through his writing Verne showed the world what engineers and scientists of the time were bringing about—a better understanding of the natural world, and the amazing things man might do to achieve his ends. Verne showed readers something new and vast, and it had nothing to do with God or dragons, but with people.

Arthur C. Clarke was another science fiction author who captured the sense of wonder better than most. He carried the science far beyond Verne did, and showed a future humanity achieving, through engineering, the capabilities of gods or wizards. It was Clarke who said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

For writers seeking to induce the sense of wonder in their readers, then, how do you do it? I think there are four elements involved:

A “thing” that is new in some way, or an old thing in a new context
A powerful description of that thing, emphasizing its newness
One or more characters confronting the thing
A depiction of the awe felt by one or more of the characters. How does the thing make the character feel? Again, you’re striving to recreate in words the amazement a child feels for something new.

If you do this well, if your characters are compelling, if the thing is truly worthy of awe and you’ve described it and your characters’ impressions well, then your readers will feel the wonder of it right along with the characters.

In my fiction, I strive to create this sense of wonder, most often in association with technology. Many of my stories are historical, so the characters see something outside their experience, but not necessarily beyond that of modern readers. I confront my characters with such things as a flying trireme, a clockwork lion, a giant mechanical elephant, a steam-powered oared galley in the 1st Century, and steam-powered human limbs (coming soon).

Is there anything to this “sense of wonder” stuff, in your opinion? Have you experienced that feeling from reading fiction? Have you tried writing it into your fiction? Leave a comment and let me know. Wondering about the answer to these and other questions, I’m—

Poseidon’s Scribe

November 18, 2012Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Writing “Against All Gods”

In a previous blog post I’ve explored how writers take a basic idea and build it into a story. Here I thought I’d show you that process at work in the development of one of my tales.

Recently, Gypsy Shadow Publishing launched my story “Against All Gods.” It’s the latest tale in a series called What Man Hath Wrought.

How did I come to write that story? I’ve long been fascinated with ships, ship design, and the beautiful vessels of the past. Among these is the trireme of Ancient Greece and Rome. Well suited for naval warfare in the Mediterranean, triremes sailed and fought for hundreds of years using a basic design that changed little during that time. If Hollywood made a movie featuring the adventures of a trireme crew, I’d stand in line when it opened. Can’t you just see the deadly ram; the painted eyes; the jutting prow; the churning rows of oars; that single rectangular sail; and the graceful, upward curve of the stern?

As an engineer, I’ve also been enthralled by the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Using only the simple materials available to them, Bronze Age people of the Mediterranean constructed architectural marvels whose memory lingers across the millennia. Six of the seven are gone, but that only heightens their grandeur, for our imaginations build them anew to a magnificence the originals probably lacked.

How, I thought, could I write a story featuring a trireme and the Seven Wonders? Clearly a sea voyage to each of the Wonders seemed in order. Moreover, it must have some appeal, some relevance, to modern readers who might not share my interests. As to that, it had not escaped my notice that my only previous romance story, “Within Victorian Mists,” had been selling rather well.

Could I manage, then, a tale involving a trireme, the Wonders, and a romance? Time for a mind map to brainstorm various plot ideas. First, all seven Wonders had to be in existence, and since that was only true between 280 B.C. (when the Alexandria Lighthouse was built) and 226 B.C. (when the Colossus of Rhodes collapsed), those dates roughly fixed the story’s timeframe. Early on I abandoned the notion of bringing the woman character along on the voyage as being too far-fetched. That meant my two lovers would be separated for most of the story. And what should the woman do at home while the man voyages on his sea adventure—strum her lyre and pine for him? No. Today’s readers seek strong and independent female characters.

Think, for a moment, about the story you might have written given those constraints. As for me, I explored a few options in my mind map, considering pros and cons of each, rejecting ideas with unsolvable flaws, weighing the remaining notions, and finally selecting the one I believed held the most promise.

As it says in the book blurb, “In ancient Athens, trireme commander Theron and the woman he loves, Galene, have each earned the wrath of jealous gods. To marry Galene, Theron must voyage to all seven Wonders of the World. At every stage the immortal gods test their love with all the power and magic at their command. While Galene suffers anguishing torment in Athens, Theron faces overwhelming challenges at every Wonder from Ephesus to Rhodes to Babylon. Theron and Galene may be devoted to each other, but how can mere mortal love survive…against all gods?”

There it is…a glimpse into the mind of a creative writer at work. Comment if you found it helpful. Or unhelpful. It’s all part of the service provided by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

August 20, 2012Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Change the Past in 5 Steps

Some time ago I blogged about historical fiction, but today I thought I’d discuss Alternate History fiction, or AH. In this genre, the author supposes some historical event turned out differently and it affected all subsequent history; the story then takes place in that altered world. Other names for this genre are Uchronia, Allohistory, and Counterfactuals.

To find out more about AH definitions and terms, go to this great site. For lists of AH stories to read, go here, where they’re listed not only by author name, but also by the date of historical divergence. The Uchronia.net organization also issues an annual Sideways Award for the best AH fiction.

The alternatehistory.com site distinguishes AH from other genres, such as Secret History, Future History, Time Travel, and Parallel World stories. Many of my short stories are Secret History, where the altered event does not affect subsequent history. I would classify my stories “Alexander’s Odyssey,” “The Sea-Wagon of Yantai,” “The Vessel,” “The Steam Elephant,” “The Wind-Sphere Ship,” and “Leonardo’s Lion” as Secret Histories. More about that genre in a future blog entry.

My story “Within Victorian Mists” is AH, since it features a Nineteenth Century inventor coming up with lasers and holograms, and demonstrating them on a large scale. I chose to have the story take place at the Point of Divergence (PoD), but I could have set the story at some later time.

Would you like to write an AH story? Here are some steps you might follow:

1. Choose the Point of Divergence. Select a historical event and imagine it turned out some other way. Many people choose wars, since much is known about them and they have clear and significant influences on history. Instead, I generally choose events associated with technological development. I suggest you avoid the over-used events such as World War II and the American Civil War, or come up with a unique take on these. Consider opting for a time in history you’ve studied to some extent. It’s a good idea to select a plausible outcome for the event, or come up with an explanation that makes it plausible. Having the Incas sail east to conquer Spain, for example, would take some explaining.

2. List as many consequences for the new historical outcome as you can. How would this altered event affect national boundaries, culture, language, technology? What subsequent events might happen as a result? Start to map out a logically consistent chronology of subsequent history along the most probable and plausible lines.

3. Figure out when and where to set your story. It can take place around the time of the PoD or relatively long after. For a story set long after the PoD, keep in mind no empire lasts forever, and cultures and languages always change.

4. Write the story as you would any other, with engaging characters, vivid settings, tight plots, a conflict for your protagonist to resolve, and the aim of passing the So What? test. The story can be a romance, steampunk, western, horror, mystery, or anything, really, but it must take place in the alternate world you’ve created. You need to be consistent with the norms of that world. There’s no need to show the reader the PoD, or even refer to it in the story, so long as the reader can understand it from context.

5. Avoid the AYKB trap. Also resist the urge to have characters speculate on how things might have been if the PoD event had turned out differently.

AH is a fun genre, with infinite possibilities and good readership. Did this blog entry help you understand how to write an AH story? Do you disagree with things I’ve stated here? Leave a comment and let me know. In the meantime, there’s a new version of the past about to be written by–

Poseidon’s Scribe

July 22, 2012Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Book Review – Tree Soldier

A relative suggested I read Tree Soldier by J.L Oakley, ©2010, and I did so. Usually I read books on CD, but I read the paperback version of this book. Yes, I read the “dead tree” version, and yes, I see the irony in that, considering the book’s title.

The novel takes place in 1935 in the Pacific Northwest. It is mainly about the character Park Hardesty, who hails from Pennsylvania, but joins the Civilian Conservation Corps, partly to escape the guilt over some events of his past. He falls in love with a girl who lives in town near the CCC camp, but there is a rival for her affection and Park’s past eventually catches up to him.

The book seems to be well researched, and gives a vivid picture of life at a CCC camp in the state of Washington during the Depression. It seems a realistic portrayal of the interactions of a quasi-military camp of young men from various parts of the country living in close quarters, and their interactions with each other and with the “locals.” We see their rough behavior, rough language, jealousies, and developing interests in some detail. It’s clear the protagonist is trying to make a new life and put his past behind him. The romance between Park and Kate seemed realistic and blossomed with the right mixes of thoughtful tentativeness and emotion on both parts. The ending is exciting and well-paced.

Before I review the novel’s weaknesses, I should note I read the book in brief snatches over a period of months. It’s possible a more concentrated reading of more than a few pages at a time would have yielded a better impression.

Although the beginning and ending are both thrilling and action-packed, the rest of the book is very slow. It’s as if the author wanted to include all her research in the book to give it credibility, but much of it ends up slowing down the plot. Also the work suffers from poor editing, with word errors, missing quotation marks, a name spelling change, and anachronisms (people didn’t say “no way” in 1935).

For me the most maddening part involves what happens following the commission of a vicious crime. The entire town seems to leap to a conclusion about who did it; that’s just human nature. However, the victim comes out of her recuperation to announce a fact about the prime suspect. Not a peep about who might have done the crime, and no one seems interested in asking her. The authorities launch into an investigation of footprints and combing the territory with search parties, etc. All the while I’m wondering why no one is asking the victim any questions. Perhaps she has some clue about the perp, or even knows who did it. No mention of any of that until the scumbag is caught and locked up. Then we learn the victim remembered the smell of his breath and one facial feature. The only part important to Oakley’s plot is that announced fact about the prime suspect. After that, there’s no point in concealing the victim’s knowledge from the reader. In fact this reader began to suspect the town of being populated by idiots.

Tree Soldier is getting excellent reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and has won some awards, but I’ll have to dissent from that majority. If you have an interest in that historical period, or setting, or the CCC, you might enjoy it. It is a nice romance between two strong and well-drawn characters. But the weaknesses lead me to give it a rating of 2 on my seahorse rating scale.

Whether you agree or disagree I’d like to know your comments about the book. Leave a comment for–

Poseidon’s Scribe

July 17, 2012Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Book Review — Ship of the Line

It’s clear to me now: reading C. S. Forester’s series of Horatio Hornblower novels in the wrong order is not the way to go. After reading Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (1st in chronological order, 6th one written in the series) some time ago, I just finished Ship of the Line (8th chronological, 2nd one written).

I listened to the Books on Tape version of the book, narrated by Geoffrey Howard. This novel features Horatio as captain of the 74-gun HMS Sutherland. He is shown as being more in love with Lady Barbara Wellesley, wife of Rear Admiral Leighton, than his own wife Maria. He struggles to find enough sailors to man his crew and is forced to settle for untrained ruffians. Once his ship is fully manned, he conducts a series of attacks to harass the French forces on coast of Spain. He chaffs under the incompetent leadership of his squadron commander, Admiral Leighton.

If you know little about the British Navy of the early 1800s before reading the book, you’ll feel like an expert afterward. Forester gives just the right amount of detail for a reader to picture the scene without getting bored. There is also so much to admire in Hornblower himself. His strengths (bravery, audacity, cleverness) make him the perfect naval hero, while his weaknesses (jealousy, tone-deafness, and obsessive self-criticism) don’t detract from his professional life. If, like me, you skip from Hornblower as a midshipman to Hornblower as captain, you’ll marvel at his maturity and the traits he’s taken on. Geoffrey Howard did a fine job with the book’s narration.

I wish I’d read these books while I served in the U.S. Navy. Actually I couldn’t have, for I served during Hornblower’s time period, long before Forester even wrote the books. Seriously, all Navy personnel can learn much from Hornblower’s decision-making methods, his boldness, his tactfulness, and his leadership style.

There were things I didn’t like, however. Hornblower’s jealousy, his secret love of Lady Barbara, and his disdain for his own wife were off-putting. Hard to maintain sympathy for a protagonist like that. I was dissatisfied by the book’s ending. Without spoiling it for you, let me say this was more like a long chapter in a huge book than an integrated novel in its own right. The ending of a book ought to resolve the main conflict in some way. This book’s ending seemed to resolve nothing. But it did set things up for the next novel.

Using my world-famous seahorse rating system, I give Ship of the Line four seahorses. I enjoyed it a lot, and you will too. For these nautical stories, you should just take my word for it because, after all, I’m–

Poseidon’s Scribe

March 31, 2012Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Book Review — Remarkable Creatures

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. To that I’d add “or its blurb.” I just finished listening to a book on tape, Remarkable Creatures, © 2010 by Tracy Chevalier, put out by Recorded Books Productions, narrated by Charlotte Parry and Susan Lyons. More about that blurb below.

The novel is the story of a lower class woman in England in the early 1800s, and her dealings with an upper class spinster. The story starts with the first woman, Mary Anning, as a child when the spinster, Elizabeth Philpot, is in her twenties. They end up sharing an interest in gathering and understanding fossils. Fossils had caused a stir in the scientific community since many seem to be from animals that no longer exist, which called Biblical teachings into question. The two women develop a knowledge of these fossils that equals or surpasses some of the learned men of Europe, but it is a time when women were sadly powerless in many areas, including science.

The author really puts you in the timeframe, and you come to care about the characters. If you don’t think you’re interested in fossils before you read the book, you might well be fascinated with them when you’re done. You’ll be drawn in as the two women become frustrated with their inability to be recognized by the male scientific community, and with their lack of success in finding husbands. All they really have is each other, and the author skillfully leads you along the ups and downs of their relationship.

What I didn’t know when I began reading is, these women were real. There really was a Mary Anning and an Elizabeth Philpot. In fact, most of the characters and events in the book were real. I had thought it was just a historical setting with made-up characters, but that is not so.

The narrators, Charlotte Parry and Susan Lyons, did a fine job in this audiobook. The book alternates in point-of-view between Anning and Philpot, and the narrators take turns. I wondered, at times, if it would have been more effective to have the ‘Mary’ narrator speak Mary’s actual lines and the ‘Elizabeth’ narrator speak Elizabeth’s lines, but Recorded Books chose the point-of-view method instead.

On the negative side, there is not a lot of action in the book. Moreover the conflicts and problems of the characters are not well defined. Fiction is about conflict and the attempted resolution of problems. I understand it can be difficult to force such a fictional constraint on real historical people, but there is a reason real life tends to be more boring than fiction. Fictional characters have well-understood goals and passions, and really important problems to solve. It’s my understanding that someone has bought movie rights to this book, but if a movie is made, they’ll have to put more action scenes in it and make the conflicts more apparent and dramatic. Either that or opt for a straight historical documentary.

I was enticed into reading the book by the blurb on the Recorded Books cover, including this intriguing sentence. “Mary discovers she has the ability to ‘see’ and locate fossils buried deep in the cliffs near her village.” That certainly makes it sound like she has some supernatural x-ray ability to see through rock, right? Nothing of the sort. Mary’s good at locating fossils, but due to the shifting of land in the area and the action of waves on the beach, new fossils become exposed on the surface quite often and it is these Mary can spot. Although it was a good book, I feel a little cheated by the misleading blurb. I can’t really fault the author for that, though, since she probably didn’t write it.

A surprisingly good book, I’ll give it a rating of four seahorses. Whether you concur with my opinions or differ, I’d like to hear from you. Just click on ‘leave a comment’ and you’ll get a reply from–

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 25, 2012Poseidon's ScribePermalink