lördag 30 november 2013

Research at the Naval Museum

"Sweden’s Naval Museum lies on the island of Stumholmen in Karlskrona. The museum can trace its inception to 1752 and relates the history of the Swedish Navy.
Amid the historical setting of the island of Stumholmen in Karlskrona the beautiful and famous Naval Museum stretches out on a pier into the water. Both young and old can here delve into the highly eventful history of the Swedish Navy on the site which has belonged to the Swedish Armed Forces for several centuries."
(- From Karlskrona Naval Museum)

I thought it probably would be a very good idea to visit this museum to do some research since my novel partly depicts the life at sea in the early 1800s. One can find much on the internet, but far from everything and I can happily say that I found a lot of good information about everything from figureheads to scurvy and everything in between. I'm very happy with what I've learned.


(Oil Painting from the Naval Museum)


(Model of a frigate)
 


(Intersection of a ship of the line)

One of the most important things I needed to find out was how a ship of the line was constructed. I found a perfect model of a ship cut in half so I could peek inside it and learn all the different sections. What the captains' quarters looked like, where the crew slept, where they kept their provisions etc. It was all there so now I've got the skeleton of the ship in my story. I can add the details of the ship however I want and that is, if you ask me, the most exciting part.

The ship in my novel is called Merveilles, which means "wonders" in french. This ship is a majestic ship of the line and the most rich and glamourous on the seas. The crew will not live under the poor circumstances as most people did in this reality since their captain, Dominique Bonhomme, really care for his men. Of course the crew of about 500 men can't eat roasted pheasant and drink red wine every day at sea, but there wont be any meals with corn and beans as the only ingredients.
..At least not every day.






I want to thank you for all your supporting e-mails.

Acela
 

lördag 16 november 2013

Character descriptions Part I - Levithan Drake

 
"Golden Winds" is a fictional novel, however I have found some of my own attributes in a couple of the characters. I think I can say that the main character, Levithan Drake, seems to be a total reflection of myself. I realized our similarites months after I started writing this story, so getting to know this man has been very interesting. I've finally understood that the individuals I'm writing about really do exist, in an emotional way, deep within me. By saying this it feels wrong to say I made them up, since I can feel their presence right here, inside.. Just like real people, just like you and me.
I've promised my faithful readers that I will give a small description of most of the characters, so I will start doing just that. I will borrow pictures from the internet to show a concept of their roughly looks and appearances.
 
 
Levithan Drake (Daniel Radcliffe)


Levithan Drake is a 23-year old doctor's apprentice, living in Richefort Creek together with his tuberculosis infected father, Arthur. He's very talented in medicine and is on the edge of surpassing his mentor, dr.John Quercus. Levithan constantly discovers new cures, to the small town residents delight, however one cure he keep fail to produce, is the cure for tuberculosis.
These setbacks really drain on him and his self-hatred keeps growing bigger after each failure.

Levithan is very introvert. At the age of 16 he lost his mother to fever. His father worked for the court and was constantly away from Levithan and his mother before he got infected with this horrible disease. Therefore, Levithan lived basically on his own for five years after his mother passed away since his father was rarely at home. When Levithan was 21 years old, his father came home to stay forever.


The Drake family is very wealthy, they never had to worry about their finances. Levithan is also very popular among the ladies and has spent nights with quite a few, but he's disappointed in not having found anything deeper and more meaningful than those moments. His wealth is one of the reasons to why the local women are attracted to him - to secure their future. Levithan sees through this and thus grown tired of "the love nonsense".

He is very shy, he's very quiet. He prefers just staying at home to study medicine and experiment with different plants and herbs to extract more secrets of how to cure different diseases. Even though he's extremely talented, Levithan is constantly a victim of self-doubt and therefore really needs to hone in on his self-confidence which he, hopefully, will find.



Acela

onsdag 13 november 2013

No white pages..

Yesterday I completed one more chapter and I really feel like I'm getting closer, word by word, sentence by sentence. To see the pages full of black letters really spurs me. It's really starting to feel like I will succeed with this.
I can't even express how much my heart aches for an authentic authorship. My very soul thirsts for it and the very thought of making a debut with a book that depicts this delicate matter, truly awakens my fighting spirit.

I've already got a whole lot of hate mails from narrow minded people, trying to make me stop writing about this. To be honest I've lost count of those mails. "Being gay is an abomination", they say, but their attempts to make me stop writing just keep backfiring. The more hate mails I get, the more eager I get to actually finnish this book and doing my best to get it published.

Love is a beautiful thing and I will not let anyone preach me otherwise.
If I can reach out to anyone, even if only to one person, my work will be accomplished.
Then I have succeeded.



Acela

tisdag 12 november 2013

To open the door

So I decided to start a blog. I have never had one before, at least not a serious one since I've always found it quite apalling to tell the world about who I am and what I do. But in the end I finally let myself be persuaded by my loved ones. After all, I guess it's a necessary thing to do when one aim to become a published author, is it not? To let the world know that I'm here, no matter how frightening it is.

I guess I should get to the point then..
My name is Acela.
My biggest goal in life is to share my stories with the world. At the age of seven, I had written and illustrated over 300 storybooks of which I sent one of them, "Memoirs of a sad sea monster", to the beloved, swedish author Astrid Lindgren. She replied with a very long letter and a photo of herself, telling me that I should never stop writing my stories because the world needs them. Now, it may be because I was only seven years old and dear Lindgren didn't want to break a young girls heart, but her words has nurtured me for all those years. Sadly life got in the way and I haven't been able to pursue my dream.
Until now.

So in this blog, I will share some sneak peeks of the characters, plots and storylines of mine. My current project is called "Golden Winds" and is a fictional story about an introvert, young doctor's apprentice in the beginning of the 19th century who get caught up in an adventure which he could never imagine experiencing. On the way he encounter the most peculiar people and places, and eventually he finds something he never thought he would find.

I hope I will be able to please you. Not only with my words, but with my worlds as well.


Acela