In writing historical fiction, researching the history can be challenging. When researching my novel, Hell Around the Horn, I discovered that the three primary sources for the history behind the novel, two memoirs and the Official Ship’s Log, disagreed with each other in significant details and events. There is no agreement between the three accounts as to even how many died on the voyage, for example.  I had to ask myself where the history ended and the fiction began and how that mattered in writing my own fictional account of the deadly voyage of a British windjammer around Cape Horn in the disastrous winter of 1905.

Next Tuesday, I will be speaking at the New York’s Shiplore and Modelmaker’s Club on “Hell Around the Horn – the History (and Fiction) Behind the Novel,”  at 7:30  p.m. at 79 Walker Street, 5th floor in Manhattan. Please stop by if you are in the neighborhood.