On the run from his fate of misery, Cole finds a job on a ship. The job helps him to escape the plans of his father, but it puts him into a series of events that takes him far from the sheltered life he had been living.
His one true wish is to find...
Poop deck originates from the French word for stern (la poupe) and from the Latin puppies. Since there is no French or Latin in my fantasy novel, I simply changed that to “old Taur”, so I guess the old Taur language sounded like French or Latin...
I also decided to create my own types of ships in the story, but if anyone is curious, here’s a list of what ship is based on what IRL-model:
The ships are not exactly like their reality counterparts, but it’s fantasy, so there is after all some room for imagination.
Sailing and ships comes close to heart since I have a handful of sailors in my family, and some experience of my own.
My grandfather on my mother’s side started as a deckhand and ended his career after many years as captain on a number of ships in the Viking Line shipping company.
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(Picture from an interviev in Swedish television in the 90s)
My grandfather on my father’s side sailed the four-masted barque Passat on one of her voyages from Finland to Australia in the 1940s. It was one of his first jobs, starting as dishwasher, but ended up as the cook when people decided to quit along the journey. The Passat is still around - she lies in Travemünde in northern Germany and is a museum and a bed & breakfast. I have not traveled to Germany to visit her, but I have seen her “sister” Pommern plenty of times. Pommern is a museum in Mariehamn and I visit her from time to time. Pommern is the last and only four-masted barque kept in its original state in the world, and looks pretty much exactly the same as she did in 1903 when she left the shipbuilders in Scotland. She became a museum in 1953 and is a strong source of inspiration when I write about sailing.
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My experience of sailing doesn’t come close to my grandfathers’, but I’ve spent a week on the Albanus as a teen. Albanus is a B class replica of a two-masted schooner built in 1988. The original one was built in 1904 by a farmer named Johan August, one of Aland Island’s (Åland’s) foremost shipbuilders. The replica was built to preserve the art of traditional shipbuilding and to preserve the type of ship. She is a regular participant in The Tall Ships’ Races – and will participate in the 2024 event.
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Of course, I’ve traveled the seas plenty of times besides that, but rowboats, fishing boats and cruise ships aren’t really the same…
I had plenty of ideas when I started writing, but didn’t know how much would actually end up in the book. For example, I have given a name to all of Tan’s brothers, even if only Triston were mentioned.
From oldest to youngest; Triston, Warin, Arhan, Eronin, Aras, Delin, Evin and Tan
Cole’s mother’s name is Melanina.
The Taur people were inspired by the Tieflings from DnD – and of course, a bit of Minotaur from the Greek mythology.
So, this was my first entry to the English ONC and sins it didn’t end up as bad as I thought, I will definitely participate again.
Thank you for reading! ❤️
Short note: I've tried to tag the story as a Novella, but it keeps changing back to Novel (due to the fact that Novella is Novell in Swedish and I accidentally tagged it wrong the first time). I'll try to change it again in a while and see if it works, but if not, you know why it’s technically tagged wrong.. ;)
