On this anniversary, let’s observe a moment of silent reading while we visualize the events of the day some brave submariners made history.
Aboard the Submarine
You’re sitting on a bench, crammed in beside six other sweaty men. Your hands grip a crankshaft, and you turn it under the command of a lieutenant sitting at the bow, to your left. You face the boat’s starboard side three feet away, a blank, curved bulkhead of iron, now moist with condensation. Stale air fills your lungs with each breath. The odors of sweat, urine, oil, and pipe tobacco assault your nostrils.
“We’ve got ’er now,” the lieutenant says. “Dead ahead. For the South, men! Full speed!”
Though exhausted and out of breath, you rotate the crankshaft with all your strength. You’re determined to strike a blow for your side’s cause, and you’re confident of success.
You feel a powerful impact and hear a loud explosion.
By Conrad Wise Chapman – American Civil War Museum – Chapman Paintings Portfolio American Civil War Museum – Online Collections Database, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=146384170
CSS Hunley
By late 1863, the Confederacy searched for any advantage that might reverse the currents of the Civil War in its favor. The Union blockade of Charleston hindered vital supply lines, and seemed impenetrable. If the Grey could not defeat the Blue on the surface, what about underwater?
People had tried submarines in battle before, but never with success. Inventor Horace Hunley believed his boat stood a good chance to break the blockade. Forty feet long and four feet in diameter, CSS Hunley introduced the cigar shape common to all later military submarines. Armed with a keg of explosives mounted on a spar projecting from her bow, the craft aimed to ram its prey, blast a hole in its hull, and sink it.
Poor Performance Record
An innovative boat requires a well-trained crew, and they made frequent practice runs. Just as the men began to gain proficiency, tragedy struck. On August 29, 1863, a mishap occurred, killing five crewmembers, who sank with the craft.
Still, the Confederacy needed a victory, so they recovered the Hunley and obtained a fresh crew. This time, Horace Hunley himself, the craft’s inventor, manned the boat. They completed many test runs until, on October 15, the submarine flooded again, killing all eight men aboard.
After a boat kills two crews, most of us would abandon further tries. The desperation of the South, though, had reached a point beyond rational calculation of odds. They raised the boat once more, removed its dead, and somehow obtained a third crew.
Attack and Aftermath
On the night of February 17, 1864, that crew rammed the Hunley into the side of USS Housatonic. The spar-mounted keg exploded, crippling the Union ship and sinking her with the loss of five sailors. The boat’s crew had performed the first successful submarine attack in history.
People waited on shore for the Hunley, but the little submarine never returned. Some thought the craft got sucked into the hole it created, but that proved untrue. Searchers found the Hunley in 1995, and salvagers raised her in 2000. Today, she rests on display at a museum in Charleston.
Rebel Spirit
Yes, the Confederacy fought to preserve the vile institution of slavery and lost the war. Even so, we can still admire the bravery of those men in the Hunley. They volunteered to serve aboard an experimental craft that had already killed two crews. They endured horrendous conditions in a cramped iron tube, hoping to free their countrymen from a blockade when no other recourse seemed possible.
Having served on a submarine, I feel a kinship with the Hunley crews. I’ve written a ghost story called Rebel Spirit about one of the crewman. You can purchase it in ebook or paperback format.
Thank you for sharing, on this anniversary, a somber moment of remembrance for the CSS Hunley crew along with—
Most authors I interview lead lives far different from mine. In today’s interview, it’s almost like I’m interviewing myself. Like me, Demetri Capetanopoulos received technical training and served as an officer aboard submarines before turning to writing. One of his stories appears in 20,000 Leagues Remembered and another is in Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne.
Like many boys of a certain age, Demetri Capetanopoulos discovered Jules Verne and was captivated—not just by the tales of scientific adventure—but by the example of the power of imagination to shape what might be possible with the creative application of technology. Who can say with surety what influence it had, but he became qualified as a nuclear submarine engineer and deep submersible pilot.
With a career spent in technical realms, Demetri has found in his writing a delightful synthesis of his passion for science, history, and the creative arts, all while rediscovering a boyhood inspiration. Surely Verne would approve. He dedicates his literary labors of love to his son, Leo, and to all those for whom submarine dreams stir the child within.
Let’s dive into the interview:
Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?
Demetri Capetanopoulos: I don’t recall a ‘start’ to my writing, it emerged from me at the earliest age. In elementary school it may have been an essay or report for extra credit. In middle school I sought to emulate the short stories that I was consuming—those by Arthur C. Clarke were favorites. By high school I wrote my chapter book—a WWII submarine story—inspired by the type of storytelling I found in Alistair Maclean’s novels, which I was passionate about at the time. As I became busy with a career that produced its own adventures, writing was a way to capture moments and preserve emotions for some later “great American novel.” I also discovered that the ability to write and speak in a way that could move people was intoxicating and the military offered many opportunities to speak in front of an audience. I’ve come to realize that one of the things I enjoy most in writing is tackling challenges—whether it’s the strict format of a screenplay, trying to emulate the style of a particular author, stirring an audience to emotion, or bringing a past reality authentically to life. It’s still the challenge that thrills today which is probably why I seldom write the same type of story or style twice and why constraints inspire me.
P.S.: You just met an interested reader in an elevator who asks, “What sort of stories do you write?” The doors will open soon, so what short answer do you give this reader?
D.C.: Hopefully sticky stories—meaning those that feature some element that sticks in your subconscious and influences your creative engine even when all other details about the story have slipped from memory.
P.S.: Your website, “Precise Imagination,” looks far different from most author’s sites. It seems intended to inspire people to design and build things. Tell us about the purpose and philosophy of the site.
D.C.: It’s not a site intended to explicitly promote my writing, rather it describes my philosophy that I try and bring to all my creative endeavors. I can’t claim to originate it, but it is my synthesis of the ancient Greek musings on excellence and achieving that elusive optimization of both beauty and function. Those elements are as relevant to writing as they are to any creative activity including the building of things.
P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?
D.C.: I was fortunate to have a solid grounding in the classics—Stevenson, Kipling, Poe, Wells, Twain, Verne, Bradbury and the like. But there came a fateful day when I read Endurance by Alfred Lansing which recounted the true, yet scarcely believable tale of Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, when I realized within the nooks and crannies of history, non-fiction tales could satisfy every thrill, wonder, and amusement provided by fiction. I have seldom picked up a work of fiction since and so, have come to appreciate the nuanced difference between authors who can competently relate a compelling history and those gifted few who possess “a way with words” that elevates the narrative to something poetic. Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann is a top-notch example of this non-fiction art in my mind.
P.S.: Your background as a submariner explains much of your fiction. But what led to the non-submarine works Hadley the Lunar Rover, and On Ice?
D.C.: A lifelong passion for space exploration motivated the story about a plucky lunar rover waiting for humans to return to the moon. The sentiment seemed timely and I wanted to challenge my limited drawing skills with a very different artistic style than I used in Ned the Nuclear Submarine (which was deliberately simplistic to make what could be an intimidating subject, more accessible to kids). After my experience living and working at McMurdo Station in Antarctica it seemed obvious to me that fascinating, yet wacky, place was perfect for a screenplay, which I called “On Ice.” Having never written one before, I was drawn to the challenging constraints imposed by both the screenplay format and my own desire for compelling plot drivers grounded in realism (i.e., no aliens/UFO’s, Atlantis under the ice, sea monsters, etc.). I can attest that screenwriting will teach a writer discipline, but for me, when I write any story it is always running in my head as a movie, and I just write down what I am seeing in my mind.
P.S.: The world of submarines and engineering (your background) seems one of logical equations, arcane technical details, and high-tech machinery, while the world of a fiction writer involves deep emotions, the infinite complexities of the human heart, and the often-irrational behavior of flawed characters. How did you manage the transition from one world to another?
D.C.: A truly insightful question. The truth is I have never made a transition—I have lived a life and made a career in highly disciplined, technical realms but always stood somewhat apart from my colleagues as person who saw things slightly differently, processed experiences with perhaps deeper personal reflection, and always injected a bit of dramatic flair and staging to the way I went about my duties. The emotional intelligence, communication skills, and empathy that often exemplify writers turn out to be pretty good leadership traits that can garner success even in a highly technical and structured organization. I suppose in my case it made up for whatever deficiencies I had academically compared to my rather brilliant colleagues.
P.S.: When most people read Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, they skip over the chapters devoted to the design of the Nautilus. Not you. You wrote a detailed, technical manual about how Captain Nemo built it. Tell us about The Design and Construction of the Nautilus and why you wrote it.
D.C.: It was only after I became a nuclear submarine engineer and had occasion to read a modern translation (Naval Institute Press) of the novel that restored much of the previously edited technical discussions did I appreciate that Verne’s conception of the Nautilus was much more specific and realistic than the innumerable later incarnations have suggested. I had gotten professionally interested in early submarine development and wanted to write a book discussing the evolution of the relevant technology and design principles without running afoul of concerns about classified information that my background might prompt. The answer was to use a fictional submarine—Captain Nemo’s Nautilus—to explore the technology of the period that inspired Verne and see how close reasonable extrapolations could have gotten to a workable design. No one with a similar technical background had attempted this before. The closest effort was a piece written by a French nuclear submarine engineer, Jean Gagneux, but he focused on a technical critique of where Verne’s design would fall short. Though the analysis was interesting and completely legitimate, I wanted to take the opposite approach. If at times the book seems overly technical or saturated with detail, my only defense is that nuclear submariners are every bit as critically minded an audience as Verne aficionados and I was keen to avoid being dismissed or laughed at by either.
P.S.: Ned the Nuclear Submarine appears to be unlike any other book on the market—a children’s book, told in rhyme, about a submarine. What inspired it?
D.C.: I think every new parent imagines they will write a children’s book, but it took me until my son was nearly eight years old to complete it! I was determined to do my own illustrations and (against all publishing advice) to do the story in rhyme—because kids like rhyme. They also like to learn how things work and don’t mind when some words or ideas that are over their heads now can be appreciated later, which is why the text is designed to stretch their literacy and the illustrations to expand their minds. But most of all, kids like a good story with compelling characters. In my observation, there are a great many exquisitely crafted children’s books today whose focus is about delivering moral messages that resonate with adults and are pretty thin on character and story. In this case I knew exactly what my target to emulate was: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel—a classic from 1939 that is still in print today. It offers a very realistic mechanical character that evokes real emotion while facing and ultimately surmounting authentic problems and fears. Just like Ned. I made Ned a submarine because the first rule of writing (and drawing for that matter) is do what you know.
P.S.: For the anthology Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne, you wrote “Rust and Smoke.” In it, you take readers to a setting of stark beauty in two different time periods. Tell us where the story takes place and why you chose that region.
D.C.: In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the fate of the Nautilus is left unknown, but Jules Verne offers three possible things that could have survived the story and persist in our world today: Captain Nemo’s coral cemetery in the eastern Indian Ocean, the subterranean refueling depot inside one of the Canary Islands, and the unusual iron dinghy that Professor Aronnax, Conceil, and Ned Land use to escape the Nautilus. So, I wrote a very different style of story for each of those loose ends. “Rust and Smoke” takes place in the Lofoten Islands that comprise the northwestern coast of Norway, but the reader is only gradually given the clues to figure this out, in part, to draw out the connection to the famous Maelstrom, which is located in these waters and the serves as the climax for Verne’s novel. I wanted to write a story in modern times that could provide a realistic connection to the events of Verne’s novel, hence the two story lines, set in differing time periods, that work their way toward their mutual resolution of one of the novel’s loose ends (while introducing a beguiling fourth loose end).
P.S.: Your story “Homework Help from No One” appears in 20,000 Leagues Remembered. Tell us about the protagonist, his problem, and the setting.
D.C.: This was the second of my three “loose end” stories (yes, there is an as-yet unpublished third) and the style and tone is intentionally quite different. For this piece, I wanted to write a story of the sort that might once have appeared in Boy’s Life magazine—specifically something in the same vein as the Mad Scientists’ Club stories, which were a favorite of mine growing up. So naturally the protagonist is boy of about the same age, and with the same sort of concerns and impulsiveness that I imaged the target reader might be. Innocently enough, he gets himself in real trouble while simultaneously making an amazing discovery related to the presumably fictional tale of the Nautilus. In keeping with the genre, it requires all his wits and dose of real science to work out the solution, along with a dash of bravado to pull off the surprise ending.
P.S.: Your newest release is a graphic novel called Rage Runs Deep. Tell us about the book and who you think its target audience is.
D.C.: Rage Runs Deeps expands on the snippet of Captain Nemo’s backstory that Verne provides in his subsequent novel, The Mysterious Island, and weaves that tragic narrative into real history much like the movie Forrest Gump. All the people, places, and events that intersect with Prince Dakkar are 100% real and accurate, eventually compelling his construction of the Nautilus and justifying in his own mind, the righteousness of his revenge as Captain Nemo. While it can be enjoyed by readers of all ages as a prequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, the story tackles sophisticated issues related to the blowback of imperialism and the extent to which acts of rebellion can be legally and morally justified—issues which continue to remain all-too-relevant today. The graphic novel was a natural format for a work that originated as a screenplay, but it also has the potential to expose a much broader audience to consider such substantive arguments.
P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
D.C.: I just finished a novel in which the protagonist is a descendant of a famed fictional sea captain, who must manage the new technology of a steam frigate, a skeptical crew, and a bureaucracy harboring its own agenda, when he is sent in a desperate bid to chase down an unknown submarine boat that seems bent on destroying British shipping. It is decidedly NOT a sci-fi story, but rather a hard-core historical maritime adventure much more in the vein of C.S. Forrester or Patrick O’Brian. I expect the editorial process to be long because fans of such historical nautical fiction are demanding—not to mention rightfully protective of the legends of that genre—and I do not intend to let them down. I’m also in early draft on a non-fiction book that tells the story of volunteers in Ohio who began rebuilding a WWII B-17 “Flying Fortress” bomber from five partial wrecks and discovered that much of the aircraft would have to be made by them from scratch if it were going to be able to fly again. It struck me as inspirational, but also fascinating, technically, and I have become a volunteer on the project myself.
Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice do you have for aspiring fiction writers?
Demetri Capetanopoulos: Do exhaustive research to ensure you get the details right—that’s what puts you in the moment, just as inaccuracy can shatter a reader’s mental immersion. But when actually writing, focus on the emotion you are trying to evoke in the reader with any particular passage. “Be in the scene”—meaning in the mood of the setting and the emotive state of the characters, and the right words will flow.
Poseidon’s Scribe: Thank you, Demetri. It’s been an honor to interview a fellow submariner.
Ever heard of CSS Hunley? A hand-cranked submarine from the U.S. Civil War, it accomplished the first successful submarine attack in history.
I’ve written a fictional story set aboard that sub. One of my few ghost stories, Rebel Spirit follows the experiences of a man nicknamed Scowler, a member of the sub’s first crew.
In 1864, Northern warships blockaded Charleston harbor, permitting no waterborne trade. In desperation, the South tried an unprecedented attack from underwater, by submarine. Earlier inventors had attempted submarine warfare without success. Many in Charleston hoped the Hunley, named for its inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, would prevail.
Think of Rebel Spirit as historical horror. Well, mild horror. For the most part, I’ve adhered to historical accounts while telling Scowler’s story. My tale makes no reference to the politics of the war and does not glorify the South’s cause. As a former submariner with an interest in history, I’m awed by the bravery of the men who served aboard such a dangerous, cramped, man-powered craft.
In real life, researchers have salvaged the Hunley and it resides in a museum in Charleston. I hope to visit that museum one day.
I invite you to read Rebel Spirit. For $3.99, you can buy it at Amazon. It’s a ghostly story of the sea brought to you by—
Poseidon’s Scribe
P.S. I’m planning to speak at Penguicon, a scifi conference in Southfield, Michigan, on Saturday, April 22. I’ll provide more details in the next blogpost by—
Just as Jules Verne’s Nautilus traveled all over the world, we’re throwing a world-wide party. It’s on Thursday August 6th, from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM EDT and it’s on Facebook.
We’re doing this to celebrate the launch of the new anthology 20,000 Leagues Remembered. Published on the 150th anniversary of Jules Verne’s masterwork, this book contains new stories by 16 modern authors, all paying tribute to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, that classic proto-steampunk novel of undersea adventure.
At the party, you can meet the editors and the authors of the stories and ask all the questions you want. Best of all, you can win prizes!
You’re invited! Everyone is. Now, of course, you’re wondering how to attend. Just follow these steps:
Create a Facebook account if you don’t already have one.
If you don’t receive a party invitation within a day or two, send me a message to prompt me.
Once you get the invitation, accept it.
Share info about the party with your friends.
Log into Facebook at the right date and time and join the fun.
(If anyone knows a simpler way to invite the whole world to a Facebook event, let me know in the comments to this blogpost.)
You’ve waited 150 years for this sesquicentennial celebration. It would be a shame to miss it. After all, the bicentennial won’t be until June 2070, and that’s a long time from now.
See you at the party! You’ve been cordially invited by—
Today’s the day! It’s launch day for the new anthology 20,000 Leagues Remembered. This book was 150 years in the making.
Let me explain. The first publication of Jules Verne’s classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was in serial form. It appeared in two-week intervals in a magazine, the Magasin d’éducation et de recreation, edited by Pierre-Jules Hetzel. Starting on March 20, 1869, the magazine printed a chapter or two in each issue, concluding on June 20, 1870.
The first time the public could read the novel from beginning to end was on that Wednesday in June, the first day of summer, precisely 150 years ago today.
To commemorate the sesquicentennial, Pole to Pole Publishing presents 20,000 Leagues Remembered, an anthology of works by modern authors, each inspired by Verne’s literary masterpiece. Along with the Senior Editor, Kelly A. Harmon, I co-edited the book. It’s the first book I’ve ever edited.
What will you get when you buy this book? You’ll enjoy sixteen short stories, each paying homage to the Father of Science Fiction and his novelized underwater voyage. They span the spectrum from adventures set at a time contemporary with Verne’s tale, to more thoughtful historical pieces exploring various aspects of the novel, to stories set in our present day, to others that defy easy categorization.
Our table of contents includes: “The Ghost of Captain Nemo” by J. Woolston Carr, “Water Whispers” by Gregory L. Norris, “At Strange Depths” by Jason J. McCuiston, “The Maelstrom” by Maya Chhabra, “The Game of Hare and Hounds” by Stephen R. Wilk, “Recruiter” by Andrew Gudgel, “Nemo’s World” by James J.C. Kelly, “The Silent Agenda” by Mike Adamson, “Fools Rush In” by Allison Tebo, “An Evening at the World’s Edge” by Alfred D. Byrd, “A Concurrent Process” by Corrie Garrett, “Homework Help From No One” by Demetri Capetanopoulos, “Leviathan” by Michael D. Winkle, “Last Year’s Water” by Nikoline Kaiser, “Farragut’s Gambit” by M.W. Kelly, and “Raise the Nautilus” by Eric Choi.
It’s not necessary to have read Verne’s book first. You can still enjoy these stories on their own. You might gain a deeper appreciation of them if you dive into the original first, though. For dedicated Verne scholars, be aware that some of our authors scattered ‘easter eggs’ in their stories for you—little references (some quite obscure) that will make you smile.
Where, you’re wondering, can you get your own copy of this book? I thought you’d never ask. It’s available as an ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.
We’ll launch a paperback version as soon as we can, likely in a month or two. If you read my blogposts or follow me on social media, you won’t miss that announcement.
As Ned Land said, “Professor Aronnax…You talk about some future day… I’m talking about now.” Now, as in today. Launch day. After 150 years, the Nautilus sails again, thanks to Kelly A. Harmon and—
Here’s a thought experiment for you. It’s 1868, and your close friend, Jules Verne, is deathly ill. Since you’re an author too, he’s asked you to write a novel in his stead. All he’s got is a concept—a ship that travels underwater—and a title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. You cannot refuse your friend. What will your novel be like?
Remember, nobody has ever written a novel involving a submarine. Yours will be the first. You jot down some plot ideas:
A single nation is the first to build and use a working military submarine. Perhaps it’s your beloved France; or the mighty seapower, Great Britain; or the science-loving and adventurous United States.
Some wealthy and inventive person builds a submarine and uses it purely for exploration and the advancement of Science.
A wealthy and evil man builds a submarine and uses it for vengeance against those who have wronged him.
A man is convinced Atlantis exists, and builds a submarine to search for it.
A sailor lost someone close (a brother?) to a specific and recognizable giant squid, and builds a submarine to pursue and destroy the creature. (If Melville’s Moby-Dick was successful, this could be too.)
Perhaps combine the scientist and the vengeance-obsessed pirate, and tell the story from his (or her?) point of view.
A sailor falls in love with a woman he believes is a mermaid, but she dives underwater. He builds a submarine and travels 20,000 leagues in search of her.
A treasure-hunter builds a submarine and recovers gold and other valuables from sunken ships.
A nation announces a huge prize for whichever privately-built submarine wins a 20,000-league race.
A clever criminal builds a submarine and robs banks along various coasts, escaping underwater. A detective hero must track him down.
After an hour, you’ve written down these ideas and another 20 more. Now you must select the best one. Will your eventual novel be as good as the one Jules would have written, had he not become ill?
We’ll never know, of course. It’s just a thought experiment. In real life, Verne wrote his marvelous novel himself, without your help. For its first publication, it was serialized in the Magasin d’éducation et de recreation, edited by Pierre-Jules Hetzel. The issue containing the final chapter came out on June 20, 1870.
That means June 20 of this year, just 13 days from now, is the 150th anniversary, the sesquicentennial, of that undersea classic. To commemorate this date, I’ve partnered with Kelly A. Harmon, Senior Editor at Pole to Pole Publishing, to edit an anthology of short stories inspired by Verne’s masterwork.
Titled 20,000 Leagues Remembered, it will launch on June 20. We’ve chosen 16 wonderful stories for the volume, each taking a different approach, but all born from a love of Jules Verne’s fantastic adventure novel. Each one captures some aspect of the adventure, the wonder, and the drama of Twenty Thousand Leagues.
Perhaps Verne’s book is no longer new to you, but these 16 stories will be. Beginning on June 20, you’ll be able to buy the ebook version of our anthology at Pole to Pole Publishing’s website or at other online booksellers. Pole to Pole will put out a paperback print version as soon as possible after that.
Back to that thought experiment. I’m sure you thought of some possible story ideas yourself, in addition to the ones I listed. Feel free to add a comment to this blogpost, sharing one or more of your ideas with—
You still have time to submit a short story to the upcoming anthology, 20,000 Leagues Remembered. This book will be a sesquicentennial tribute to Jules Verne’s novel.
Cover Image for 20,000 Leagues Remembered
I’m co-editing this anthology along with Kelly A. Harmon of Pole to Pole Publishing. We’re received and accepted a number of fine stories already.
However, we still have room for two or three more. For us to accept your submission, your story:
• must pay tribute in some way to Jules Verne’s novel;
• may be set in any time or place;
• may use characters from Verne’s novel or you can make up your own;
• need not be written in Verne’s style;
• need not be ‘dark’ (as stories in other Pole to Pole Publishing anthologies have been);
• must capture, in your own way, the sense of wonder and adventure for which Jules Verne is famous;
• demonstrate a significant and obvious connection with Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; and
• must not disparage either the novel or its author.
Come on. You’re sitting at home anyway. You might as well type up a story and send it here.
Your story might well be the next one accepted by—
As you know, I’m co-editing an upcoming anthology called 20,000 Leagues Remembered, a collection intended to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the publication of Jules Verne’s classic submarine novel. My co-editor, Kelly A. Harmon, and I are are still accepting submissions. Click here for details. This image is what we intend to use for the cover.
We’ve received a
good number of submissions, and have accepted several. There’s still room for more,
though. I’ll be providing a list of prompts that might help you write a story
for this anthology. Feel free to use one, or your own variation of it.
Before I do
that, I’ll state the rules for the anthology. Your story:
must
pay tribute in some way to Jules Verne’s novel;
may
be set in any time or place;
may
use characters from Verne’s novel or you can make up your own;
need
not be written in Verne’s style;
need
not be ‘dark’ (as stories in other Pole to Pole Publishing anthologies have
been);
must
capture, in your own way, the sense of wonder and adventure for which Jules
Verne is famous;
demonstrate
a significant and obvious connection with Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
Sea; and
must
not disparage either the novel or its author.
Some of the
prompts below may describe stories we’ve already accepted. That’s okay; write
your story your way. Here are those promised prompts:
What
if Captain Nemo had a time machine?
What
was Captain Nemo’s (Prince Dakkar’s) origin story?
What
adventures did Nemo have aboard the Nautilus before the events of Verne’s
novel?
Did
the Nautilus survive the volcanic eruption on Lincoln Island? What if it were
salvaged today?
Did
any of the Nautilus crewmen have an unusual talent, or a story worth telling?
What
if a Nemo-like character were captain of an airship, a spaceship, a
mole-machine?
What
if a theme park (not starting with ‘D’) featured Twenty Thousand Leagues-inspired
tour submarines, but one of the subs broke free of the designated ride?
What
if Jules Verne rode a submarine before writing the novel?
What
if a high-tech submarine manned by mysterious pirates began endangering sea
travel today, how would the world’s navies react?
What’s
the story of Captain Nemo’s wife? His children?
What
if, in reaction to Nemo’s attacks, one or more of the world’s navies built a
squadron of submarines designed to hunt down and destroy the Nautilus?
Did
Captain Nemo have a pet? Tell its story.
Admit it. Some of those did get your creative fluids pumping around, didn’t they? Now all you have to do is write your story and submit it here. The hard part’s already been done for you by—
The publication
of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea led to a boom in
books about undersea adventures. But the boom didn’t occur immediately and
Verne wasn’t the sole cause.
Before explaining all that, I’ll mention an upcoming anthology of short stories titled 20,000 Leagues Remembered, scheduled for release on the 150th anniversary of Verne’s submarine novel. Until April 30, fellow editor Kelly A. Harmon and I are accepting short stories inspired by that novel. For more details and to submit your story, click here or on the cover image.
Verne wasn’t the first to venture into undersea fiction, though the predecessor works are fantasy, not science fiction. The list is brief. If I stretch the definition of undersea fiction, it includes the Biblical story of Jonah, Edgar Allan Poe’s 1831 poem “The City in the Sea,” and Theophile Gautier’s 1848 novel Les Deux Etoiles (The Two Stars). At least the latter included a submarine.
As shown by the
graph, many books involving submarines appeared in the years following Verne’s
undersea novel. The vast majority of these were intended for what we now call
the Young Adult market, and included works by Harry Collingwood, Roy Rockwood,
Luis Senarens, Victor G. Durham, Stanley R. Matthews, and Victor Appleton.
In a similar
manner, Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) preceded an
explosion of novels with subterranean settings. To a lesser extent, these also
included many YA works.
But notice a
curious thing about the two curves. The rise in subterranean fiction occurs
earlier and starts its upward trend earlier than does the curve for undersea
fiction.
I have three
theories to explain this.
The
most obvious reason is that Journey to the Center was published six
years before Twenty Thousand Leagues. That six-year gap doesn’t explain
it all, however.
I believe
other authors, after reading Twenty Thousand Leagues, were daunted by the
prospect of imitating that novel. To write credibly about submarines required
knowledge most writers lacked. However, subterranean fiction required no geological
expertise and no vehicle. Moreover, the writer’s underground setting could
include any fantasy elements imaginable.
I think
the later peak in submarine novels had less to do with Verne than it did with the
introduction of real submarines into the world’s navies. With actual submarines
becoming familiar to readers, authors could pattern their fictional vehicles
after real ones.
Neither of these mountain-shaped curves is due solely to Verne’s works. They both coincide with a boom in publishing adventure fiction of all kinds, not just undersea and subterranean. A drop in publishing costs, a rise in disposable income, a recognition that young people craved to read—all these factors attracted writers and publishers to new opportunities.
Still, I don’t
want to understate Verne’s impact on undersea fiction either. Prior to Twenty
Thousand Leagues, such works were fantasies. Afterward, they were either science
fiction or real-life adventure stories.
After the publication of Twenty Thousand Leagues, it became the standard to which later submarine novels got compared. Even today, 150 years later, if you ask people to name a submarine novel, most likely they will either answer with The Hunt for Red October, or Verne’s book.
I just can’t help this fascination with stories of the sea. After all, I’m—
My co-editor, Kelly A. Harmon, and I have chosen the cover image for our upcoming anthology, 20,000 Leagues Remembered. The book will pay tribute to Jules Verne’s classic novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on the June 2020 sesquicentennial of its publication.
Here is that
image, with the Nautilus being menaced by a tentacled monster.
Cover image for 20,000 Leagues Remembered
Pole to Pole Publishing is still open for short story submissions to the anthology. Click here for details, and to submit your best work. Although the closing date is April 30, please note we are accepting stories as we go, so the anthology may well fill up before that date. Submit early!
We’ve received some wonderful stories so far. Still, there’s no one more anxious to read your story than—
