Lusitania's Final Voyage Book

[João Carlos Pereira Martins]

Well, I don't want to boast myself but I'm in the middle of my novel about Titanic and I pretend to finish it this summer. I've started thinking about my next book and I would like to write about Lusitania but I need your help! Should I write another novel with fictional characters or should I make something like a "drescribing book", using a real person? I wouldn't like to make something so extensive as my Titanic novel, but a short story would be nice. I would be delighted to hear your opinions and every suggestion will count.Please!

Regards, João

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Lusitania: The Novel (Butler)has already been done, and managed to do a better job with the onboard section of the (very long) narrative than many of the non-fiction books have. It sold well~ so if you do decide to go with the novel format I suggest you pick up a used copy of it via bookfinder.com so that you don't inintentionally 'lift' any of the plot devices Butler used.

Familiarise yourself with some of the easier obtained long narratives left by passengers and crew, but try to avoid anything written after 1917 if possible~ each year one moves away from the disaster the value of such testimony decreases.

And try to avoid, as much as possible, writing about 'the usual suspects.' Vanderbilt, Frohman, Hubbard et al have been done to death, and there are roughly 1900 just as interesting stories waiting to be explored.

 

[João Carlos Pereira Martins]

I forgot to tell you that my Titanic novel will not be published, in my country there are no interests in ocean liners and readers would see my book most as a teenager's joke that as literature. My Titanic book will stay with me just to be read by friends or relatives. I write for my own pleasure, not for money or fame.

I found a first class passenger in the Lusitania Resource, Lady Allan. She lost both daughters in the sinking but I would like to write about second class characters, most people talk so little about them.

Best regards, João