Writing is more than writing

I hoped to finish the final chapter of Slaying of the Bull (book 1 of the Tocharian Gospels series) yesterday, but my day job was extra busy (got to love Mondays) and just took too much of my day. I did make progress and framed out the direction and feel of the chapter, but now I need to fill in some dialogue.

The story is so close to being finished that I can taste it. It still needs a final read through and edit, which actually takes less time than writing. Why do you ask? Because of research. This book took a lot of research, as I think I’ve mentioned. The last chapter takes place in Constantinople, and I wasn’t planning for this part of the story. The path of my characters just organically brought me to this ancient city. The journey from Budapest (at this time it was two cities of Buda and Pest) to the holy land would inevitably take my characters down the great Danube, across the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and then to the great gateway city to the middle east. It is the path the Crusaders from Hungary took during the Crusades (especially the 4th Crusade’s sacking of Constantinople), and much of that infrastructure for travel would still be in place, so this route makes sense. I knew very little about this city and even less about it in 1241, so I needed to do some research.

The description of only the port of Constantinople, amounting to two paragraphs of setting, required about 2 hours of research. Why so long? Take, for example, time. I had to calculate how long it would take two people to travel by foot from Budapest to Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), a distance of about 820 miles. I know the date when my characters left Budapest, but I needed to determine how long this travel would take so I would know when they arrive at the Bosporus Strait. At the standard walking speed of 3 miles an hour and a daily travel time of about 10 hours, that is a very optimistic 30 miles a day. Add a few roadblocks like avoiding obstacles and the weather, and it totals to about a month to a month and half on foot. As my main character was a sedentary orphan growing up in a monastery. His position in life meant that his riding skills would not be up for the journey.

So now, I have a relative date range, but then I needed to check the thick annuals of history to see what was going on in Constantinople in May/June in the year 1241. Who was in power? Were things prosperous or destitute? What historical events are happening? What would the mood be in the city? This part of the world was very much in flux during this time, and I needed to know if it would have been possible and, more importantly, practical for my characters to travel there. If there were some great war going on, my characters would likely have avoided that area of the word (there are plenty of other ports). However, if things were calm, then the city was an obvious pull because of its relative proximity to Budapest and its status as a gateway to the Middle East. My characters could cross the strait and still technically be in Christian territory (Latin Empire) and then sneak into the lands of the Turks across a long border.

As it turns out, and as I expected, the situation in Constantinople at that particular time is exciting. Namely in May/June, there was a great sea battle between the fleets of the Kingdom of Venice and the former occupants of the city, the Empire of Nicaea. This may add a little spice to the chapter, but I need to be careful not to spend too much time on this event. This relates to what I mentioned yesterday about it being difficult in historical fiction to not to keep following the path of history on its many tangents. Just as an aside, Constantinople in 1241 was a city-state ruled by Emperor Baldwin II, from France. He was put in power after the 4th Crusade, but was co-administering the city with the Republic of Venice. After the city’s sacking in the 4th Crusade, Baldwin’s fledgling empire was hurting financially as all its treasure was looted and brought to Europe (and the Vatican). Facing many rivals, he is famed for stripping and selling the gold off the city’s domes to feed his army. Anyway, I digress again.

Don’t forget to check out my currently published work, Island of Stone!

Cheers!