====================================== S T O P - P R E S S ARTEMIS is launched in hardback in the U.S. next month jointly with the paperback of KYDD ====================================== "THE BOSUN'S CHRONICLE" --- emailed to Shipmates the first week of each month --- VOL.2, ISSUE 5, May 2002 Avast there - and welcome aboard from the Bosun of the Thomas Kydd Shipmates' Network! 1) DECKLOG 2) HANDS TO MUSTER 3) NAUTICAL WEBSITE OF THE MONTH 4) ANATOMY OF A MAN-O'-WAR 5) ON THE STOCKS 6) SIGNALS FROM FOREIGN PARTS 7) DAYS OUT 8) REPORTS ==================== 1) DECKLOG --- events and activities --- April 4 was the official launch of ARTEMIS at a magnificent party at the McCarthy Gallery in the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth. Around 70 friends and guests from the publishing world came from as far afield as the United States and Denmark, as well as all over the UK. The Royal Navy was well represented, with five Captains and a Commodore present. One of the highlights of the evening was a special viewing of the original painting by Geoff Hunt RSMA that was commissioned for the cover art of ARTEMIS. This month, Julian and Kathy are special guests at prestigious London bookstore Hatchards "Authors of the Year" champagne reception. Plans are firming up for Julian's American author tour in July/August and full details will be in next month's newsletter and on the website. As well as talks/signings in bookstores, Julian has been invited to give two lectures at the Egan Institute in Nantucket (July 25) and South St Seaport in New York City (August 1). He is looking forward to meeting American readers, especially Shipmates! ===================== 2) HANDS TO MUSTER --- Behind the Thomas Kydd series is a great team; each month "The Bosun's Chronicle" goes behind the scenes to talk to one of the Shipmates who have been involved in some aspect of the books --- This month we feature Susanne Kirk, Vice President and Senior Editor at Scribner. Susanne brings to her new role as Julian's American editor a wealth of experience in publishing. She's been with Scribner since 1975 and prior to that was a newspaper reporter in Hong Kong. Among Susanne's best-selling authors are Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs and Janet Evanovich. Susanne has not handled books about the sea before and says she is personally thrilled to be working with Julian. She adds, "He has opened up a whole new world to me, and I know he had done the same for many thousands of fans of this magnificent series." +Bosun. In your view what is the reason for the appeal of Julian's writing? +Susanne. Julian has that unique genius of a born storyteller. His style is personal, direct, colourful. He captures our attention on page one and transports us into the life of an 18th century seaman. His prose has vitality and humour. In a long editing career, I've rarely seen an author who knows the world of his characters so well and who conveys it so powerfully. +Bosun. How would you compare ARTEMIS to KYDD? +Susanne. After KYDD, I thought "how could the series get better?" But Julian has accomplished the impossible. I hope of course that everyone will want to read KYDD which we are publishing here in the US this June. It introduces Thomas Kydd and his best friend, Nicholas Renzi, and gives dramatic detail about Kydd's early days when he was pressed. Readers can also start with ARTEMIS, which can stand alone, and which shows us 18th century naval life on an even larger scale. Tom Kydd discovers more of his aptitude for the sea and takes on new responsibilities, which allows us, the readers, to learn more about the different functions on the ships. As Kydd learns, we learn, but it's all such glorious fun that the learning is part of the entertainment. +Bosun. What did you most enjoy about ARTEMIS? +Susanne. ARTEMIS is such a rich book that it's impossible to pick out any one thing that I enjoyed most. I like not only the battle scenes, which are always superbly described, but also the scenes in which the men in the ship interact with each other in the course of routine shipboard life. It's also great fun to see Kydd and Renzi develop. There's something for every reader. +Bosun. Are you surprised at the female readers who are enjoying the books? +Susanne. The perception is that this is a series for male readers, but, as a woman myself, I am not at all surprised that women have become huge fans. The books can be read for action, for character, for emotion, for authenticity. And the wonderful storytelling appeals to everyone, male and female. I hope all the men who buy the books will pass them along to their wives. We'll soon have couples fighting over who gets the first read! +Bosun. How does Scribner see the future of this genre in America? +Susanne. We at Scribner are tremendously excited about the future of nautical fiction. When I say that I refer most to this particular series. We see a tremendous potential. Of course we have observed the historical success of the Patrick O'Brian books in this country. That is the series to which Julian's novels are most often compared. As our publicity department has prepared for Julian's tour this summer we've been overwhelmed by the response from different venues. Everyone seems so eager to meet him and hear him speak. NEXT MONTH: The Bosun chats to Roz Lippell, Scribner's Associate Publisher to get her overview of the process of launching Julian's novels in America. ==================== 3) NAUTICAL WEBSITE OF THE MONTH --- Every month Julian talks about a website with sea links --- THE INTERNATIONAL GUILD OF KNOT TYERS When is a knot not a knot? In the general sense, the term can include all configurations made in a cord or line. In the strict nautical sense, however, and the way Kydd understood the term, a knot is made when a rope is tied to itself. A "bend" results from the joining of the ends of two ropes and a "hitch" is formed when the end of a rope is tied to something else. The International Guild of Knot Tyers is a fascinating site for anyone interested in learning about knots. The "Beginners Page" explains, in diagramatic form, the principles of some of the more familiar knots that Tom Kydd would have learned such as Cat's Paw, Turk's Head and Bowline. Membership is GBP16 pa for adults, GBP5 pa for under-sixteens. Guild members receive a quarterly magazine called "Knotting Matters" and various international and regional exhibitions are arranged each year. ==================== 4) ANATOMY OF A MAN-O'-WAR --- The sailing ships of Kydd's day were the most complex machines on the planet at that time --- FIGUREHEADS One of the abiding images of an eighteenth century man-o'-war is of her majestically curtseying to Neptune as she enters his domain, her figurehead proudly leading out. The origins of the familiar carved and painted ornamentation on her bow were in the very early days of seafaring and are probably twofold: homage to the gods of the sea in order to ensure fair passage, and the treatment of a ship as a living thing who needed eyes to find her way across the water. In the Royal Navy the lion was almost the standard figurehead for the first three decades of the eighteenth century. By the middle of the century, the human figure had displaced the lion as the most popular emblem, at least for smaller vessels. Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty 1771-1782 introduced many classical names for ships into the British Navy. ARTEMIS, the first frigate in which Kydd serves, was named after the goddess of the hunt and proudly bore a splendid rendition of her. In 1796 the Royal Navy was ordered to stop fitting figureheads to new ships and replace them with an abstract scroll or billethead. The order was not strictly observed, however, as seafarers felt a ship without a figurehead was unlucky! In fact, figureheads were still being fitted right up into the twentieth century. On December 8, 1900, the last Royal Navy ship with a figurehead, HMS Espiegle, was launched at Sheerness. Many figureheads have survived and been preserved. There are excellent collections at the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Although the ships of today have little or no decoration, let alone a figurehead, the art of figurehead carving is kept alive by a select band of British and American craftsmen involved in the conservation of the great tall ships of the past. ==================== 5) ON THE STOCKS --- News of upcoming books, foreign translations, audio versions, other products --- In response to a number of requests, here's the publishing calendar for the Thomas Kydd series for 2002: February Japanese edition of KYDD, Hayakawa April British edition of ARTEMIS, together with the abridged audiobook, Hodder May Portuguese edition of KYDD, Ulisseia June American editions of the hardback of ARTEMIS and the paperback of KYDD, Scribner July British edition of the unabridged audiobook of KYDD, Magna August American edition unabridged audiobook of ARTEMIS, Books on Tape September German edition of ARTEMIS, Ullstein Maritim November British paperback edition of ARTEMIS, Hodder +Full publication details on the website. ==================== 6) SIGNALS FROM FOREIGN PARTS --- We welcome news and views from Shipmates around the world --- This month's Shipmates are Terry Crawford, John Meadows and Terry Hoyle. Terry Crawford's favourite character in history is Horatio Nelson and he is hoping that at least one of Julian's novels will include some reference to the great naval hero. [The answer is yes.] Terry trained as a shipwright in Portsmouth and after a number of varied roles there, including Ship Refit Project Officer, he retired from Ministry of Defence service in 1996. He now works in a civilian capacity at the Test Centre, as Chief Invigilator. John Meadows is an American and an ex Air Force officer (the black sheep of the family; all the others were Navy men). He has lived in a half dozen countries, England among them. A voracious reader, John says he's always been attracted to nautical fiction. He first came upon KYDD at the UCLA Book Fair in Los Angeles and comments that he very much enjoyed the perspective of the book - and reading about a hero who "bleeds". Terry Hoyle, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, went to sea as a Radio Officer in the merchant navy aged 18. He came ashore six years later and has travelled the world in connection with his work in satcoms. He's been on two "Operation Raleigh" expeditions to Central America and on the second was able to spend some time sailing in "Zebu" brig, a square rigger. Terry has seen many wonderful sights at sea, but he says nothing compares to a school of dolphins that followed his ship in the Mediterranean one moonlit night. Julian would love to hear from you. Contact ==================== 7) DAYS OUT --- Each month we visit somewhere around the world of special nautical interest --- A number of Shipmates have emailed Julian about interesting places they have visited with links to the sea, and from time to time we will feature one of these. This month Anthony Beresford of Brisbane, Australia talks about Hong Kong's new Coastal Defence Museum. "On a recent business trip I managed to escape the office for a couple of hours to visit the Museum. What a fabulous site! The museum has only been open a year yet the displays are world class. The museum is on the site of one of the original coastal defence forts and dates back to the Ming and Qing times. More recently it housed the British garrisons with some of the original emplacements displaying the actual guns sited there. There is a large collection of muzzle loading marine ordnance dating back to the early 1800s, mostly recovered from the harbour. It includes a 15 inch rifle from a US Civil War monitor and perhaps what is the world's first guided weapon, an 1890s wire guided torpedo housed at the Fort during the Russian Scare. Well worth about four hours taking it all in!" The museum is converted from the 19th century Lei Yue Mun Fort. Open Mon-Wed, Fri-Sun 10am - 5pm. Do you have a favourite maritime-related site? The Bosun would love to hear from you and share your experiences with other Shipmates. There's a copy of the abridged UK audiobook of ARTEMIS for every item used in the newsletter. =================== 8) REPORTS Julian is receiving some wonderful feedback about ARTEMIS from Shipmates. Among the many comments: "I enjoyed ARTEMIS immensely...and am left wanting to start the next adventure." - GD "Received ARTEMIS in Friday's mail, finished it early this evening [Monday]. Excellent, really excellent read." - BW "Have just finished ARTEMIS in three settings. I enjoyed the narrative and the blossoming of Kydd's maturity both as a seaman and as a man of the world...The only disappointment in the Kydd saga is that your readership has to wait another year for future adventures." - KD "I really enjoyed KYDD - and ARTEMIS has lived up to my expectations!" - MD "The reader is intoxicated with the language, sea-salt and gunsmoke...[this] second novel is even better than the first." - CC And the organisers of Essex Book Festival, where Julian recently gave a talk, had this to say - "Look out for Julian's wonderful books, they combine accurate sea action with historical fact and heart-warming human interest." ================== ++FEATURE COMPETITION++ This month we are asking the final question in the special competition to win a complete signed set of the English language editions of KYDD. To enter, send your answers to all four questions to . First correct entry drawn on May 30 wins! Following a number of Shipmates' requests, here are all four questions: 1. What is the name of the special rope used to haul up the anchor? 2. In "Duke William" where is the Bosun's cabin? 3. What was the name of Buddles' wife? 4. What was the main ingredient in the exotic food wrapped in a charred banana leaf that was presented to Captain Powlett? Yours aye, THE BOSUN ++ Back issues of the newsletter by request ++ (To unsubscribe this newsletter email )