Michelle's corner

One of the issue with books is research. Even fantasy books need some basic research undertaken.

I have two basic sides, good and bad. For the good, I'll be taking the UK Navy rankings to encompass both the leaders on land, and their sea operations...

http://www.ehow.com/list_6828960_ranks-uk-navy.html

For the pirates, I've had to do more research...

http://pirates.hegewisch.net/capcrew.html

http://www.murkworks.net/~mimi/buccaneer.html

http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/TheGoldenAgeofPiracy1700-1725/p/Pirate-Treasure.htm

This should bring me up to spec with the ranks of people on board ships of both sides, and also some of the nautical terminology being used. Plus I'll be inventing some of my own.

I also have some real life stories to bring to this. Being a techy that designed web pages, I once did a deal with a chef. He'd teach me how to cook and I'd teach him how to design web pages.

While we were slaving over a hot stove, he recounted some of his history and he had been a chef in the merchant navy. Among the various things they took on board were very flavour rich foods, in order to be able to use a little in dishes and thus save space.

On this one occasion, they had a new starter on board. My friend went down to find the cheese, only to find that none of the wheels were there. A chaotic search ensued and it eventually transpired that the new starter had seen the mould on the cheese, thought it was out of date and had thrown it all overboard.

The poor sod had to explain to the crew why their food that trip wasn't as flavoursome as it should have been!

I may be a fiction author, but even I couldn't have made that one up.