“It is a blessing for a man to have a hand in determining his own fate.”
Blackbeard (Edward Teach)
I just returned from a research trip for book 3, The Sangreal, to Blackbeard Island off the coast of Georgia and wanted to share some of the highlights.
I expect to start launching book 3 in the next few weeks. Most of the action in the book takes place on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in southwestern Colorado, Spain, and Romania. But the opening scene takes my protagonist, Alex Scire, from Bimini, where book 2 ends, to Blackbeard Island.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I try to visit as many sites in my books as possible. My trip to Blackbeard just reinforced why I make the trips as I’m rewriting the first four chapters of book 3 to reflect reality better. Some of the changes I’m making are:
- I now have Alex coming ashore on Blackbeard Island in very different circumstances. My original version had him running aground off the island’s shore, but I didn’t see any evidence of a sea barrier. So instead, I found the most interesting seashore I’ve ever seen. You can get a flavor for it in the picture below (notice all the dead trees lining the shore).
- I had to change his foraging efforts on the island. I didn’t see any evidence of him being able to find drinkable water and subsist off of berries.) The water was too brackish (think undrinkable), but I saw lots of horseshoe crabs, clams, and birds around the island.
- There’s a ranger station and dock on the island, so I had to use that as his rescue point.
- I also had to include loggerhead turtles that nest on the island (it’s a National Wildlife Refuge).
Other interesting observations:
- Despite Savannah being only an hour away, I had to make the nights in my story darker. I live in a remote area, but the sky is darker near Blackbeard Island than where I live.
- It was a perfect time to go. The weather was in the 80’s, sunny, and very pleasant. It was also one week before Hurricane Ian came ashore in Charleston.
- The only way to get to the island is via boat. What a great experience. It reminded me of going up the New River in Belize to Lamanai.
- Our boat guide took us to what remained of the south end of the island. Hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Irma (2017) wiped out a mile or two of the island. All you can see now of that section is a short sand spit, a bunch of open water, and a tiny island off in the distance. It highlights what the sea can do.
- My favorite part of the trip (aside from the boat ride) was the skeleton forest of dead trees on the south beach. It was very eerie.
- Sadly, there was also a lot of debris. We were only on the beach for a short time, and my younger son (who is the one who got me to think about writing books) collected all the trash you see in the picture. (Note, we didn’t try to bring back the gigantic foam and metal buoy wedged in one of the trees, though).
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