sarlania | Line upon the Wind

I'm sick. Downside= no studying. Plus= I get to finish this fic. Hooray!

TITLE: A Dream of Life and Death
RATING: PG, disturbing imagery
CHARACTERS: Hornblower and others.
DISCLAIMERS: Not mine, not for profit, everything belongs to CS Forester
SPOILERS: Many elements from the books, but they’re not really spoilery
NOTES: Written because I had these images in my mind, and seeing I’m not that good at drawing, and because they were so vivid, I just had to set them down in writing, to use meagre words to describe the images. And yes, it is another angsty fic but with a macabre twist. A little inspiration from

black_hound and from Terry Prachett.

( Un Reve de Vie et de Mort )

Before I head off to bed...

black_hound's discovery of more Hornblower has gotten me quite excited, and fingers crossed that SOMEHOW it will be found and shared. Hopefully either thehappyreturn or my line of inquiry will work; I can't stand the thought of a Hornblower production that EXISTS and not seeing it..... =(

Secondly, I've just had another one of my random thoughts in regards to keeping the AOS community, in particular HORNBLOWER, active and alive. In the little fanfic I've written, I've always thought how great it would be to incorporate some of the stuff that I'm currently learning and studying in it, but the difficulties of having modern scientific knowledge in 18th/19th century context... well let's just stay it wouldn't be easy. And then I thought of many AU fics where such things have been successfully done. So, IDEA! lokei's alphabet soup was a great success, so why not continue with something like it, but with the challenge of people writing in the context of their profession (or like me, what they're studying XD) that could be either AU or just set during the period. It could be this huge AOS fandom challenge thing, so that we'll get more people participating and a wide range of areas covered.

So, thoughts?

So after beginning the Aubrey/Maturin Series sometime in December, today I have finally finished Blue at the Mizzen. Hurrahh!

Can't deny the awesome sense of accomplishment I feel. It's been quite a ride, and although the quality of the books dropped off slightly towards the end, it was great reading Aubrey's joy as he gets his flag.

Why has it taken me so long, you might ask? There was a great difficult obtaining the last 4 or 5 books from my local library- I ended up buying most of them from the UK or through second book stores. And I've reread quite a couple of books: HMS Surprise, Far Side of the World, Reverse of the Medal, The Letter of Marque mostly cause I enjoyed them so much.

One thing I've had a think about though is, both CS Forester and POB were working on another book when they died, finishing only a few chapters which have been published. I'm not planning to read them any time soon though, since I want to be able to say that there's still a part of Hornblower and Aubrey's adventures I've yet to discover. XD

Meme I picked up from

jest

Comment to this entry and I'll pick up to three of your fandoms. You must then update your journal and answer the following questions:

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
3. Favorite episodes/books/movies, etc?
4. Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
5. Do you think more people should get into this fandom?

( Doctor Who, Temeraire, Lord of the Rings )

Was that Princess Diana was a direct descendant of Lord Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty 1794-1801.

I knew the names were the same, just didn't make the connection, obviously.

And I learnt about blood and finished reading The Command of the Ocean. A day well spent. Now off to learn some French.

I was reading NAM Rodger's The Command of the Ocean on the bus today, and there was one passage that really stuck in my mind. Rodger talks about how drink was the vice of officers and sailors alike, and describes an incident when....

"The son of the first lieutenant of the Grampus in 1787 was playing after dinner on the mizzen topsail yard 'having had his glass of wine', when he fell to his death at his father's feet."

The poor boy. The poor father. =(

What is really sad is that these incidents were quite commonplace, and accidents aboard ships were very much a matter of course even during peacetime.

On another thing, I've decided I really like dreamwidth. The lack of adds, the addition features that provide more a greater ease of navigation, the different friends filters and the logo itself. The only drawback is the lack of communities.

EDIT: And it seems I haven't gotten the hang of this crossposting thing yet. GAH.

Copying most of what I posted on LJ yesterday....

My little idea. I posed it on my LJ last wekk, and I've started to work on it. Hopefully will get it done within a fortnight. I've written up a list of things I thought might be important to cover:

Social History
The press gangs, mutiny (1797 Spithead + Nore), the Irish problem
Common people’s attitudes towards the Royal Navy

Politics
~ French Revolution- why did it happen + a general background to sequence of events leading to the declaration of war
~ What was the purpose of the Peace of Amiens?
~ What was role of politics in Naval and Military matters?
~ What was the meaning behind the different coalitions?
~ A background to the War of 1812 and the reasons for it
~ Congress of Vienna- its importance in shaping European history.

Military Operations
~ The Penninsular War and Invasion of Russia- why was that significant? What role did the RN play?
~ Waterloo and the 100 days

Naval Operations
~ Description (or at least timeline) of major or significant Naval battles inc. 1st of June, St Vincent, Nile, Camperdown, Copenhagen, Algeciras, Trafalgar, Basque Roads, Bantry Bay, Grand Port…. And explanation of why they were significant
~ How important was the Battle of Trafalgar? Did it really contribute to Napoleon’s eventual defeat? Why were there no more major battles after 1805?
~ Since many AOS "naval" novels involve independent commands, a paragraph or a few sentences on their nature and importance and contribution to the war

Notable Persons, possibly only passing reference
~ Napoleon Bonaparte (Buonaparte? What's the correct spelling?) An overview of his major victories (ie Egpyt, Austerliz, Toulon..etc) and his goals + aims + how he seized power
~ Horatio Nelson- who he is and why is he so famous
~ Duke of Wellington, his role in Napoleon’s final defeat
~ Other famous people (naval figures here) Jervis, Howe, the Hoods, Keith, Gambier, Collingwood, Pellew…. => only passing references

And okay, they're mostly NAVAL aspects, but with

damned_colonial 's help, hopefully by the time we've finished it will be a pretty good summery of the era. Any suggestions on areas I should cover, you are all welcome to make. Anything you think I shouldn't cover, yell out. =)

One other thing, I've started a Doctor Who/Hornblower crossover. I've got the chapters planned and I've written 1.5 chapters already, but I'm having doubts about how realistic or plausible the scenario is. I'm also worried that my general setting of "a ship in the atlantic ocean" is too similar to the actual story Lieutenant Hornblower/Mutiny/Retribution. Ahhh worries.

I Just realized that I could crosspost to LJ. *facepalms*

So before I'd rather idiotically posted in LJ and came here thinking about duplicating the post when I saw the crossposting option. Damn.

Off to the yardarm I go.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

A dazzling white landscape

Hornblower Fic: A Dream of Life and Death

Random Fannish Thoughts...

Finished, finally!

A Meme: Three Fandoms

What I learnt today....

The poor midshipman!

Slowing working my way around DW...

Okay...Random but....

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June 2009

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