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...to want to...

151 replies

pollyglot · 22/10/2023 22:46

write a book, at almost 74? It will require travel to the other side of the world and lots of resources for the research. Probably no-one will publish it, and no-one will read it. Am I wasting the few years I have left and should I just play bridge and walk the dog? Cheers.

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Christmaswrap · 02/01/2024 03:45

Sounds really interesting you are an inspiration

pollyglot · 02/01/2024 03:53

Christmaswrap

Thank you for your kind words. If I keep on sobbing like this over the death of long-dead people, I'll never get it finished... x

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ScottBakula · 02/01/2024 06:46
Sick Flu Season GIF by Emma Darvick

I am glad you are still writing, it must be hard to learn about such tragic things even if they did happen a long time ago.

Your right , a lot of women were forgotten about and little is wrote about them as far as I am aware so your book will help to rectify that

I am glad you kept the steamy stuff in , writing about history needs all the perspectives, not just the bits the author likes imo .

Here's a box of tissues for you.

pollyglot · 02/01/2024 21:18

Thank you for the tissues, Scott. Just what I needed x

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Christmaswrap · 06/01/2024 22:50

Thinking of you! I’m a master of putting off dreams, so am super pleased for you. I’ve been told that if it’s making you emotional it’s because it’s super important to you. You go girl xxx

pollyglot · 07/01/2024 05:54

Christmaswrap

You are a star to be so supportive - thank you!
DH proofed it for me, and said he was angry reading about the POS who stole the pig during the siege that he wanted to thump him! So it's not just me...

All done and dusted today. Final tally only 65,048 words, but i don't want to pad it out. I could add more rampant sex, but i think there's quite enough to be getting on with.

Next undertaking is the sequel, following the life of the poor little traumatised boy who, having survived the siege of Boston and the loss of his mother and two siblings, as a grown man, murdered his daughter's beau.
True story.

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pollyglot · 07/01/2024 05:55

*so angry

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NewtonPulsifer · 07/01/2024 05:59

@pollyglot This is brilliant and sounds like a book I must read. With the success for 1884 and Yellowstone, this has to be a TV series too. I look forward to reading it, and when you win prizes, hearing you mention Mumsnet 😃

Yougetmoreofwhatyoufocuson · 07/01/2024 07:09

Whenever I can’t decide wether to do something or not, I think about wether I will regret not doing it. This has spurred me on to buying a delivery van, having it converted into a camper and setting off for three months to travel to all the places in Europe where I grew up.
I am pretty scared but I’m doing it anyway. Set off date is in three weeks, yikes!
Enjoy your travels and research!

pollyglot · 07/01/2024 07:28

NewtonPulsifer

Thank you for your encouragement!

Yougetmoreofwhatyoufocuson

You go girl! I did exactly what you are doing, but 50 years ago. It was the happiest and most memorable 3 months of my life.

Any of all you wonderfully supportive people travelling in my part of the world, there's at least one bottle of chilled NZ sunshine in my fridge with your names on it. Actually, lots more than one...

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Yougetmoreofwhatyoufocuson · 07/01/2024 07:52

Mad isn’t it? Doing stuff again 50 years later. But I don’t care. Everything I’ve done has been for others first, now I’ll be unreachable and I can hardly wait.

ScottBakula · 07/01/2024 18:57

I am so glad you have wrote your book .
Are you going to send it to a publisher or self publish ?

pollyglot · 07/01/2024 22:17

ScottBakula

Thank you again for being so supportive. I'm going to self-publish, and am already exploring the avenues.

Yougetmoreofwhatyoufocuson

You are so right. Have a wonderful time, and please, please report from your various ports of call. Unreachable is good, however.

I wonder why 9% of votes said that I was being unreasonable in following a dream? Perhaps those who lead "lives of quiet desperation". Love that phrase. Thanks, Thoreau (and Pink Floyd)

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RantyAnty · 07/01/2024 22:24

Congratulations on finishing your book! What a great way to start the new year! 🎉

pollyglot · 14/01/2024 00:53

Right, done. 67,580 words all up. Title to be: "Pro Patria Mori. A true story of British families, forgotten victims of the Revolutionary War. "

Other starters were: "From Yorkshire with Blood" (yes, truly...) and "From Oakwell to Boston" (boring...)

Getting under way with self-publishing as we speak...

Line up here for signed copies... (might be worth 20p next year)

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ScottBakula · 14/01/2024 01:31

Please let us know when it's published and where we can buy it

I am emotionally invested, and I am happy to be financially invested too 🙂📖

JMSA · 14/01/2024 01:33

How exciting!!

ScribeSev · 14/01/2024 04:35

Lots of people publish their own books

Quite often when they prove to be popular a publish will step in from there

pollyglot · 14/01/2024 04:58

You fullas have been a total inspiration, cheering me on to the finish line. Thank you! I'll make it a crate of Sauv Blanc when you are next in the Bay of Islands! Shall I post a few extracts? 😄

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pollyglot · 14/01/2024 05:58

(Ahem) Not waiting to be asked, like Mary Bennet at her piano....

The quayside at the Pool of London from where their transport, HMS Arabella was to depart was filled with a crush of humanity. The blue coats of the Royal Artillery and the bright red of the 65th Regiment of Foot created a cheerful picture, not reflected in the faces of the men themselves. Nor in most of the women, whose tear-streaked cheeks indicated that they had not been selected by the ballot to accompany their men on the voyage. The names of the fortunate ten per cent of wives who were permitted to sail were announced this very morning, thereby preventing any last-minute desertion. The wretched women whose husbands were to depart alone embraced their men, weeping in despair. To their skirts clung children, wailing in fear at the general air of misery. Just as Ellen had done, so many years before, they had travelled with hope to the port of departure. And just as Ellen, again, they had to return to their homes or to the villages of their relatives who might support them through the anxious separation, and very possible bereavement. They knew well the toll that overseas posting took on the soldiers. And for many of the women, without family or friends, the separation meant penury, starvation or death.
The fortunate women, carrying babies, bags and boxes, small cages with cackling chickens, even cages containing a cat, climbed the gangplank with joyful steps. Whatever hardship their men would face, they would face also. Some of them appeared to be at an alarmingly late stage of pregnancy, and Susanna wondered however they would survive a difficult birth on board, should such an event occur. Others were evidently the poorest of the poor, mothers with small children clad in thin, ragged clothing, with almost no baggage. What would be their fate during the winter in Newfoundland? How would they survive the conditions with so little protection from the cold? Just now, though, the winter was something abstract, not a reality. They had no concept of the extreme conditions. They believed simply that they were the lucky ones who were accompanying their men. For them, what could ever go wrong when they had their protector?

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pollyglot · 14/01/2024 06:28

da-dee-da....paragraphs...paragraphs...

The loading of the consigned goods now being completed, HMS Arabella was ready to sail on the next tide. The men voyaging without their wives and children leaned as far as possible over the ship’s side, clinging to their wives’ hands for as long as they were able. The women wept profusely, and even the stoic men were seen to be wiping their eyes. Many would never meet again. The fortunate ones watched from the deck as the ship slipped out on the sunset tide, bound for the west and who knew what, all in the name of duty.

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rainbowstardrops · 14/01/2024 06:47

Just wanted to say a big well done for following your dreams! Congratulations!

pollyglot · 14/01/2024 07:40

Rainbow! Thank you so much!

Just corrected the errors in the previous....

And there's more... (the attack on Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775)

.Just as they reached the tents under the oak trees of Boston Common, there was a deafening roar from the Copp’s Hill battery. The big guns had opened fire upon the fortifications on the Charlestown peninsula. That terrifying sound was followed by a further volley from each of the ships in the Charles and Mystic Rivers. Little Benjamin burst into tears, his little body quivering in fear. Robert had told Tom that when the big guns began to roar, he must not cry or show fear. He was the man of the house in his father’s absence and his job was to be brave and strong, as an Englishman should be. Tom did exactly as his father had told him. His lower lip quivered just a little, then he put his shoulders back, stuck out his chest as he had seen the soldiers do, and stood firm, refusing to react when the next thunder from Copp’s Hill caused much screaming and agitation among the people on the Common. Susanna looked on in pride at her little son, only six years old and already as stalwart as his father.

.............paragraph...paragraph...

When the inevitable attack of the British forces began, uphill against the defended position atop Breed's Hill, with the Copp’s Hill battery and ships’ guns still causing chaos and destruction in the redoubt, the sight was truly terrifying. Susanna kept the children quiet on the Common, playing little games and singing nursery songs, while Ellen and Mary took up a position to be able to view the scene. On their return, white and trembling, they described to Susanna what they had seen. They omitted the worst of the sickening sights, the lines of bravely marching redcoats mown down while caught in long grass and tripped by hidden holes in the ground, the man’s head detached by a cannonball and rolling down the hill. The sound of gunfire, the smell, like rotten eggs, of gunpowder, the coppery smell of blood, shit, smoke, and the screams of wounded men slipping on their own spilled guts created a vision from Dante’s Inferno. And then the wholesale slaughter of the provincials within the redoubt and the appalling screams as bayonet tore flesh and the bodies of men fell faster than autumn leaves. Kinship counted for naught then, as the red mist descended and civilised men panted for blood. The shout of “Conquer or die!” was heard from the throats of hundreds.

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Papillon23 · 14/01/2024 07:49

I'm really glad you wrote it OP. If you have Facebook I'd recommend the group "20booksto50k" for practical tips on self publishing.

NewtonPulsifer · 14/01/2024 13:38

This sounds really interesting. I’ll buy it and have a first copy when it is turned into a movie and worth ££££££&s

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