80 Hours - Steven R. Southard (Poseidon's Scribe)

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On Your Mark—Racing in Fiction

Few events excite us as much as a race, a competition of speed. Sports fans love racing. Readers love to read about races, and writers rush to fill that need.

For this post, I use the term ‘race’ to mean a contest of speed, not a means of differentiating people based on physical characteristics.

In fiction, a race allows a writer to introduce thrills and tension, to reveal a character’s traits, and to heighten conflict. Races often pit the protagonist against either an antagonist or against the steady ticking of a clock, which becomes a sort of inanimate antagonist.

Often, fictional racers compete for high stakes—a prize of some sort, or defeat of an internal demon, or even the character’s life.

A quick search revealed many books featuring a race, a tiny sampling. I’ll list the ones I found by category.

Footrace (Flanagan’s Run by Tom McNab, The Running Man by Richard Bachman/Stephen King)
Boat (Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne)
Auto (Thunder Road by William Campbell Gault, Return to Daytona by W.E. Butterworth, The Twelve-Cylinder Screamer by James McM. Douglas, Hover Car Racer by Matthew Reilly)
Bicycle (Bad to the Bone by James Waddington, The Rider by Tim Krabbé)
Horse Racing (Iliad by Homer [chariot racing], Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, Thinking Racehorse by Jimmy Tudeski
Swimming (Swimming by Nicola Keegan, The Sea of Light by Jenifer Levin, Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas)

Techniques used in fictional race stories may include:

competitors sizing each other up before the start;
a large crowd, including characters of importance to the protagonist;
lead changes during the race;
emotional swings as the protagonist experiences sadness or dread at the thought of losing, and exhilaration and joy about the likelihood of winning;
a breakdown or falter by the protagonist, perhaps caused by the antagonist;
a redoubling of effort by the protagonist near the end, digging deep, going beyond previously assumed capabilities;
a close, disputed finish;
an overturning of the race results based on a rule violation or some other plot contrivance; and
the protagonist winning or losing the race, and learning something valuable.

Races form a central part of the plot in two of my stories.

In “The Wind-Sphere Ship,” two triremes race each other, one powered by rowers and the other by steam. An alternate history (or more accurately, a ‘secret history’) tale, it imagines the Roman inventor Heron converting his steam-powered ‘wind-sphere’ toy into a means of propelling a ship.

My story 80 Hours pits a protagonist against the clock. She accepts a TV game show challenge to travel around the world in eighty hours for a prize of $3 Million.

If you’re a writer stuck for an idea, consider a story about a race of some sort. Feel your adrenaline flowing. Step up to the line. On your mark. Get set. Go! See if you can outrace—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 15, 2023Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Writing Performance Review for 2022

As the end of the year approaches, this seems a good time to assess writing performance. As with last year, I’m using the Writer’s Performance Review template created by the Book Coach, Jennie Nash.

I scored a bit higher this year than last—a 75 out of a possible 100. Worst scores—goal orientation and strategic thinking. In last year’s assessment I scored low in these two as well, but my score improved in industry knowledge.

Goal orientation means more than writing down a to-do list, which I do. It means assigning numeric, measurable goals for time spent, word count, etc. Although I understand the importance of such metrics, I worry about the dangers of overemphasis. I’ve found I get more of what I measure and less of what I don’t. If that’s true for you, take care in what you choose to measure.

This performance review template defines strategic thinking to include identifying and connecting with ‘ideal readers’ and their influencers. I’ll do more research into this.

This year saw some personal writing successes. My short story “80 Hours” came out in paperback and ebook form. A book I co-edited, Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne, got published. I served as president of my local writing critique group, and got a short story accepted for publication in an upcoming anthology.

Performance assessments bring anxiety, embarrassment, and self-doubt. Now imagine making your assessments public, as I do in these annual posts. You get to see a writer striving to improve, agonizing over failures, and dusting himself off, determined to make next year better.

If my struggles do no more than to inspire you to improve your own writing, then my self-examinations serve a greater purpose than mere assessments of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 24, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 62

It’s been awhile, but we’re back on course with my blog-trip Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years after the novel’s publication. Phileas Fogg and his companions crossed the Pacific and reached San Francisco, after sailing from Yokohama.

So far, they’ve traveled 17,967 miles. That’s 73.2% of the distance, but they’ve consumed 77.5% of the wagered 80 days, so Fogg is behind schedule.

They sailed aboard the SS General Grant of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. That company existed, though it closed down in 1949. Their fleet never included a ship named SS General Grant. Verne could have picked a real ship, but didn’t. Of note, a three-masted ship by that name existed, though not as large as Verne’s fictional one. It wrecked off the Auckland Islands in 1866.

In the story, the ship arrived at 7:00am but the train to Ogden, Utah wouldn’t depart until 6:00pm, so they visited San Francisco. Fogg got his passport visaed, as he’d been doing all along at British consulates. Passepartout, fearful of attacks on trains by Native Americans, suggested the purchase of some firearms. Detective Fix, who’d taken the same ship across the Pacific, asked Fogg if he could accompany the group back to London. Fogg agreed, not knowing Fix intended to arrest him. They ate at the International Hotel.

The group got caught up in the clamor of election day riots on Montgomery Street. A candidate named Camerfield ran against an opponent named Mandiboy. The disturbance turned violent and Fogg had a run-in with a ruffian named Colonel Stamp Proctor. Later, Fogg learned the election concerned, not a president or even a mayor, but a justice of the peace—Verne’s little joke about American democracy.

American elections typically occurred, then and now, in November, not December. The country had elected Ulysses S. Grant on November 5, with votes just tabulated on the 29^th. San Franciscans had elected William Alvord as mayor the year before. Citizens of that city numbered about 150,000.

Today, Montgomery Street stretches from Pioneer Park and the Coit Tower in the north, past Telegraph Hill, then the TransAmerica Pyramid, to Market Street at the south end. The U.S. President is Joe Biden. San Francisco’s mayor is London Breed, and the city’s population exceeds 815,000.

The International Hotel, or I-Hotel, existed and enjoyed a rich history. Built in 1854 on Jackson Street, it moved to Kearny Street in 1873 (just after Verne’s story), was rebuilt in 1907 after the earthquake, and demolished in 1981.

In 2022, you don’t need to spend nineteen days aboard a ship to travel from Yokohama to San Francisco. You can fly from nearby Tokyo to San Fran in about thirteen hours.

As a reminder, you may now buy my book, 80 Hours, in paperback form here. It’s my tribute to, and modern take on, Jules Verne’s classic tale.

Back when he made the bet, Fogg stated, “The unforeseen does not exist.” This trip has included almost nothing but the unforeseen. Our party now boards the train and heads for Ogden, Utah. They should reach that city in a couple of days without any excitement or adventure. Let’s sneak aboard and join them, shall we? Just you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 3, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 43

Glad you’re back. We’re just past the halfway mark of our sesquicentennial trip Around the World in Eighty Days. Phileas Fogg has reached Yokohama, having traveled 12,819 miles. That’s 52.2% of the distance he must cover, and 53.8% of his time has elapsed.

Back on November 6 in Hong Kong, Detective Fix got Passepartout drunk and drugged in an opium den, then left him there. Waiters carried the servant to a bed. After waking and wandering in a stupor, he boarded the steamer Carnatic, then collapsed. Sailors carried him to his cabin. He awoke on the 7^th, glad he’d made it to the ship, but dismayed to find neither Phileas Fogg nor Princess Aouda aboard.

Passepartout arrived in Yokohama on the 13^thand joined an acrobatic troupe. The performers wore wings and headgear with fake noses of bamboo about six feet long or longer, in tribute to the god ‘Tingou.’ As its final act, the troupe imitated the ‘Car of Juggernaut,’ with acrobats balancing four levels high.

Meanwhile, having transferred to the SS General Grant in Singapore, Fogg and Aouda arrived in Yokohama on the 14^th and found Passepartout had sailed on the Carnatic. By chance, they saw the performance of the acrobatic troupe. Passepartout recognized his master and ran to him, collapsing the Car of Juggernaut. Still wearing his wings and nose, he boarded the General Grant with his master and the princess.

The Carnatic existed, an actual ship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. In 1869, (before the time of Verne’s story) she ran aground on a coral reef in the Red Sea and broke apart with the loss of 31 lives. Rediscovered in 1984, the wreck now serves as a popular scuba diving site.

Where Verne got his information about acrobats with wings and long noses, I don’t know. By the term ‘Tingou,’ he likely meant Tengu, legendary creatures of Japanese folklore, often imagined with bird-like features. Why they’d form a ‘Car of Juggernaut’ arrangement, I can’t imagine, as that term owes its origin to India, not Japan.

By 1872, Yokohama had grown from a fishing village to Japan’s primary port, with 64,000 people. Only recently had the country ended its seclusion policy of Sakoku (chained country), and opened up to foreign trade. Emperor Meiji, the 122^nd Emperor of Japan, ruled the nation. During his reign, he presided over the ‘Meiji Restoration’ which industrialized and modernized Japan.

Between that time and ours, Yokohama got destroyed twice, once by the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 and later by World War II air raids from 1942 to 1945. Today, as the second most populous city in Japan, it’s home to 2.3M people. The Emperor (the 126^th) is Naruhito, and the Prime Minister is Fumio Kishida.

Fogg required 3 days to sail from Shanghai to Yokohama, but today you could fly that route in 11 hours, with a stop in Shenzhen and arriving in nearby Tokyo. Passepartout’s 7-day trip from Hong Kong reduces to a 4-hour direct flight to Tokyo today.

On a related topic, my book 80 Hours is now available in paperback. For those of you who waited, or for those of you who prefer print books over ebooks, now is your chance. You can only get this version through Amazon. You’ll love the story, and it makes a great gift for the other Vernians in your life.

We don’t know where Detective Fix got off to, but Fogg and Aouda reunited with Passepartout and boarded the SS General Grant, bound for San Francisco. If it arrives on December 3, as scheduled, that’s the day you’ll read the next blogpost entry by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

November 14, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 23

Welcome back to the blog-tour commemorating Phileas Fogg’s trip Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years later. The one-day train ride from Allahabad to Kolkata (then spelled Calcutta) went well.

Along the way, the train stopped at Benares, where Sir Francis Cromarty departed the group. At 7:00 am on the 25^th, the train pulled in the station in Calcutta, giving them 5 hours until the steamer would leave at noon. Fogg and Passepartout had covered 7325 miles, about 29.8% of the total distance, and they’d consumed 28.8% of the time.

Princess Aouda had recovered from her drugged state, surprised to be in the company of strangers, her rescuers. When told a relative of hers resided in Hong Kong, Fogg decided to convey her there.

A policeman arrived, ordering Fogg and Passepartout to accompany him. He escorted them to the office of a judge. Three Brahmin priests accused them, not of interfering with a suttee ceremony in Pillaji, as they thought, but of desecrating a temple in Bombay by wearing shoes inside (see my Day 18 entry).

The judge imposed a sentence of 300 pounds and 15 days imprisonment for Passepartout, and 150 pounds and 1 week in prison for Phileas Fogg. Watching from a hidden corner, Detective Fix rubbed his hands in delight since the warrant for Fogg’s arrest as a bank robber had not yet reached Calcutta, but would likely do so in that time.

Detective Fix might have wanted to accuse Phileas Fogg of theft, but you can get my new ebook, 80 Hours, for a steal at only $2.99. What are they thinking at Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, and Tolino anyway?

Back to Verne’s story. Unperturbed, Fogg stated his willingness to pay bail. Without batting an eye, he handed over 2000 pounds bail money and the judge released them both. Passepartout even got his shoes back.

At the time of the story, Calcutta’s population had reached 633,000. Low-lying areas of the city had suffered terrible losses in the cyclones of 1864, 1867, and 1870. In 2022, Kolkata boasts a population over 7 times that number—4.5 million.

Today, if you travel from Allahabad to Kolkata, you don’t need a full day, as Fogg did. An airline flight takes as little as five or six hours, though you may have to stop in Raipur or Gorakhpur on the way.

For this blogpost series, you can’t fly. Like Fogg, you must board the steamer Rangoon. Fogg estimated the travel time to Hong Kong as ten to twelve days, so look for the next entry on November 4 (good weather) or 6 (bad weather).

Kindly watch your step on the gangway, along with Fogg, Passepartout, Aouda, Fix, and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 25, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 22

Thank you for joining me on my global blog tour. We’re following the route taken by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years after its publication.

Since leaving Mumbai (called Bombay in those days) we’ve reached Allahabad. Much has happened since then, so let’s catch up with the action.

On the train, Fogg met Sir Francis Cromarty who, besides being countryman and a whist player, knew India well and became Fogg’s traveling companion. At 8:00 pm on October 21, the train stopped beyond Rothal near Kholby. (Don’t bother looking for place names on the map. I’ll explain later.) Track had not yet been laid down between there and Allahabad. Determined to forge ahead, Fogg bought an elephant and the services of a guide.

They rode the elephant past the village of Kallenger on the Cani River. Witnessing a procession of Brahmins, they found out a young princess named Aouda was to be put to death. Her husband, the rajah, died, and the practice of suttee (or sati) demanded her sacrifice, which would occur in the village of Pillaji.

Aghast, Fogg decided to try to save her, and it’s Passepartout who actually did. Along with Aouda, the group arrived in Allahabad. No longer 2 days ahead of schedule, he had then traveled 6835 miles, covering 27.8% of the distance in 27.5% of the time.

Verne had stayed true to geographical facts up to this point. However, as noted in Nicholas Whyte’s informative website, the villages of Rothal, Kholby, Kallenger, or Pillaji never existed. Nor is there a Cani River. It appears Verne made them up.

Why might he have done that? He must have had access to a route map of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, which included accurate village and river names. However, he intended to describe specific places in negative terms (failure to complete railroad lines, practicing suttee), so may have made up fictional names for that area to avoid lawsuits.

By the way, suttee/sati was banned in British India since the 1840s, and has been illegal in modern India since 1987. However, some widows even in the last twenty years have voluntarily committed suicide on their husband’s funeral pyres.

At the time of the novel, Allahabad’s population numbered about 144,000. Today, it’s over 10 times that, 1.54 million. Modern travelers don’t need 4 days to get from Mumbai to Allahabad. Without elephants or princesses, you can take a 2-hour flight between those cities.

I, for one, am glad Aouda joined us on our trip now. It’s about time this journey included a woman. Speaking of that, a female protagonist stars in my new ebook, 80 Hours. You may purchase it at Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, and Scribd.

Our traveling party is cutting it close. We’re due in Kolkata tomorrow to make the steamer. Will we make it? That answer is known only to—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 24, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 18

It’s time to continue our around-the-world blog tour. We’re following the route of Phileas Fogg, 150 years to the day after his famous fictional trip. The steamship Mongolia sailed from Suez and reached Mumbai (known in Verne’s time as Bombay) at 4:30 pm today, October 20.

Fogg had traversed 6004 miles, or 24.5% of the distance in only 22.5% of his allotted time. About 2 days ahead of schedule, he seemed in good shape to win his wager. In 3 ½ hours, he had to catch his train to Kolkata (then spelled Calcutta) leaving at 8:00 pm.

He sent Passepartout out to purchase shoes and shirts, while he walked to the passport office for official proof of his arrival. Meanwhile, Detective Fix headed to the ‘Bombay’ police hoping the warrant arrived for Fogg’s arrest. It hadn’t.

His shopping completed, Passepartout got distracted and curious, and wandered into a Hindu pagoda at Malabar Hill without taking his shoes off. He escaped three Brahmin priests who chased after him and he almost missed the train.

In the time of the novel, 644,000 people called Bombay home and Sir Philip Edmond Wodehouse served as the Crown Governor of the ‘Bombay Presidency’ when England ruled the various pieces of the subcontinent. Today, the population surpasses 20.4 million, the President of India is Droupadi Murmu, the Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar, and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

As for Malabar Hill, where Passepartout committed his sacrilegious act, that site contained several temples and some mansions for the wealthy at the time. Even more exclusive today, Malabar Hill counts among the top ten most expensive areas in the world.

Some of you may wonder when I’ll get to the novel’s balloon trip. I won’t, because there wasn’t one. Pressed for time, Fogg would never have considered a balloon. They move too slowly, and often in unintended directions. Every movie adapted from the novel features a balloon, but you won’t find one in the book. Read Five Weeks in a Balloon or The Mysterious Island if you want balloons from Verne.

Traveling from Suez to Mumbai today doesn’t require the 11 days Fogg needed. The drive to Cairo takes less than 2 hours and you can fly from there to Mumbai in about 9 hours, with a stop in either Muscat or Dubai.

That reduction in time from 11 days to 11 hours reminds me—you can grab my ebook, 80 Hours, at Scribd, Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Rakuten Kobo. It’s a modern adaptation of Verne’s novel.

The train whistle just blew at the Mumbai railroad station. Better get aboard. The steamer will leave from Kolkata in five days and we can’t miss it. (There may be a plot development four days from now.) Who’s we, you ask? None other than Fogg, Passepartout, Detective Fix (who hopped aboard to follow Fogg), as well as you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 20, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 7

Welcome back to my globe-trotting blog tour. We’re tracing the fictional path of Phileas Fogg as he raced Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years later. On this date, at 11 am local time, Fogg and his servant reached the city of Suez aboard the steamship Mongolia.

The ship would stay there just four hours to refuel with coal and then cast off to steam toward Bombay. That furnished enough time for Fogg to obtain a visa from the British Consul. He didn’t need the visa to pass through Egypt, but wanted official evidence he’d reached Suez. He’d traveled 2522 miles since leaving London, about 10.3% of the planned distance, but only taken 8.8% of the allotted 80 days.

For Verne’s plot, the refueling stop allowed Detective Fix to see Fogg for the first time, to gain valuable information from Passepartout about Fogg’s intentions, and to firm up his suspicions about Fogg robbing the Bank of England.

Suez sits at the junction of Africa and Asia, near the southern end of the then-new Suez Canal, completed in 1869. Verne seemed proud of the accomplishment of his countryman, Ferdinand de Lesseps, who masterminded the construction of the canal. Lesseps also gets a mention in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

In 1872, Egypt existed as an Ottoman province, known as the Khedivate of Egypt. Isma’il Pasha ruled as the Khedive.

Much has changed in 150 years. They widened the canal to double its capacity. It’s endured wars, the planting and removal of mines, and blockage by a ship running aground.

Long past being a Khedivate, Egypt became a republic with a president, currently Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and a prime minister, currently Moustafa Madbouly.

Today’s traveler needs far less than 4 days to transit from Brindisi to Suez. You can ride by car to Bari, take a flight to Cairo via Istanbul, then hop a bus to Suez, all in 11 ½ hours.

I’ve been pushing my new book, 80 Hours. However, that’s not the only Verne-related piece I’ve written or been associated with. My story “The Steam Elephant” in The Gallery of Curiosities #3 forms an African sequel to Verne’s The Steam House. Think of “A Tale More True” as a clockwork version of Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon. “Rallying Cry” celebrates two Verne novels—The Steam House and Clipper of the Clouds. “The Cometeers” follows From the Earth to the Moon as a sort of sequel. I co-edited the anthology 20,000 Leagues Remembered, with its obvious Verne connection. I also co-edited an upcoming anthology by the North American Jules Verne Society called Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. Look for news about that here.

If all goes well on our steamship ride, we should reach Bombay (now Mumbai) on October 20, the next entry in this blog trip. Detective Fix may embark aboard the Mongolia as well, along with Fogg, Passepartout, you, and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 9, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 3

We’re continuing our blog-trip Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years after its publication. Today, we’re in Brindisi after riding with Phileas Fogg and Passepartout by train from Turin.

We’ve covered 1420 miles to this point, already 5.8% of the total planned distance. Yet only 3.8% of our 80 days have elapsed. All looks well.

As with the earlier cities on the tour, Verne neglected to describe Brindisi. Perhaps he could count on his French readers being familiar with it.

Brindisi sits at the high heel of the Italian boot, near the joining of the Adriatic Sea with the Mediterranean. In 1872, 13,800 people lived there. Only two years before, the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) added Brindisi to its route, coinciding with the opening of the Brindisi Marittima railway station.

After leaving the train station, Fogg and his servant would have taken a carriage to the port to board the steamship Mongolia. That ship would take them through the Suez Canal to Bombay (now Mumbai). No fictional creation of Verne, the Mongolia existed. Built in 1865, it displaced almost 3000 tons and, according to Verne, its engines produced 500 horsepower.

The Mongolia got scrapped in 1888, but P&O later built two more ships by that name.

If you visit Brindisi now, you’ll find it’s home to 87,000 people. That Brindisi Marittima railway station closed in 2006, replaced by a car park.

Getting from Turin to Brindisi today doesn’t require a train ride of 32 hours and 40 minutes, like Fogg had to endure. Just hop a 3 ½ hour flight, which includes a 1-hour layover in Rome.

If you’re wondering what it would be like to fly around the world today, stopping at the major cities of Phileas Fogg’s route, I recommend the book 80 Hours. It’s sold at Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble.

The voyage to Suez will take four days, so look for the next post in this series on October 9. They’re about to remove the gangway on the Mongolia. Fogg and Passepartout are already aboard, waiting for you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 5, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 2

Buon giorno, faithful readers and fellow blog travelers. We’ve reached Turin on our voyage Around the World in Eighty Days with Phileas Fogg and his servant, Passepartout. We’re commemorating their famous fictional trip of 150 years ago.

The book states Fogg and his party reached Turin “by Mont Cenis” on Friday, October 4, 1872, at 6:35 am. The Mont Cenis part seems unlikely. A railway had been operating there since 1868, but it closed in 1871 after the opening of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel. That tunnel proved a much better connection between France and Italy through the Alps. I’m guessing Verne wrote the novel a year or so ahead of when it appeared in print.

In any case, Fogg must have felt gratified, in his stoic way, to have traveled 736 miles since leaving London. That put him 3% of his way around the world in just 2.5% of the time. Good to be ahead of schedule so early in the trip.

Turin, in 1872, held a population of 208,000 and had served as the capital of Italy up until 11 years earlier. King Victor Emmanuel II then sat on the throne of the newly united Kingdom of Italy.

In 2022, Turin’s population numbers 900,000. Sergio Mattarella serves as President of the country, and Mario Draghi is the Prime Minister.

Today’s traveler wouldn’t need 22 hours, as Fogg did, to reach Turin from Paris. You can fly between the two airports in about an hour and a half.

Speaking of flying, you might consider buying a copy of my book 80 Hours, a fictional tribute to Verne’s story. You can get the ebook from Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, and Apple Books.

Tomorrow, we’re due in Brindisi. So far, all is going well for our party—Fogg, Passepartout, you, and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 4, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink