Writing Baron Britpop Blastfurnace

Epilogue: How I accidentally wrote an adventure trilogy

I created these covers using stock images from Shutterstock.

---

It all began when my children were quite young. As any parent of a few years knows, at a certain age, children like to ask an endless stream of questions. This is fine. It is how they learn. But sometimes, I think they do it just to hear themselves talk. When my three daughters were in the car, I often got asked a lot of questions, usually starting with, “Daddy. Daddy. Daddy.”

I don’t know why, but one day, in my best superhero voice, I replied, “I’m not Daddy, I’m Captain Peanut Butter!”

It became sort of a running gag.

Many years later, around 2008, I began posting silly little stories and thoughts on Facebook (Facebook was still fun back then). I began writing a series called “Sayings of renown by Captain Peanut Butter.” Reviving the Captain’s name. They were just short, funny sayings using pirate talk, but they were popular with my Facebook friends.

Probably a year or two later, I thought, maybe I could write a novel about Captain Peanut Butter. I briefly toyed with the idea of having him time-travel to meet Hollister Bootstone, a cowboy in the Wild West, who was another character I did on Facebook. But I figured that was stretching things a little too far. So I decided to stick with the pirate heyday of the 1700s.

I knew the novel would be an adventure story since it featured a pirate captain. As I thought about a plot, I realized it would be better if another character was the main character who encounters Captain Peanut Butter. So I created a new character to star in the novel. I decided to make him a Baron. But a young Baron who was looking for adventure.

Since he was a Baron, and I get great joy out of creating unusual names and alliteration, I decided his first and last names would start with the letter B. So, I started scrolling through the dictionary on the letter B. I came across Britpop and thought that would be a fun first name. Especially considering it would be entirely out of place in the 18th century (I never said I was smart about writing a novel.) Then I found Blastfurnace (blast furnace). Awesome! I knew I had his name. Baron Britpop Blastfurnace. And since his name was Blastfurnace, it was only right that I make him a blacksmith.

---

The Initial Concept

Being utterly ignorant of the craft of writing novels, I came up with the brilliant idea of writing a novel where each chapter was a complete story, yet part of a whole novel. So I wrote the first chapter about a young blacksmith who invents silent horseshoes and becomes a Baron. I posted it on Facebook, and it got a lot of likes. This encouraged me.

I wrote a follow-up chapter about Britpop deciding to go to France and getting attacked by a Tibetan Ankle-Grabbing Death Vine. I don’t remember where the idea for the vine came from. I obviously wasn’t going for mass-market appeal.

I posted the second chapter on Facebook, and people liked it, but I didn’t write any more of the story. I felt no urgency to complete it. I figured it was too weird for traditional publishers. It was just something I did for fun when I felt inspired. Plus, I lacked discipline as a writer. So the story remained two chapters for several years.

---

Rebirth Of Britpop

By 2018, I was disgusted with social media and was looking for an alternative platform to share my silly little sayings and stories. I found Medium. At first, it was great. I discovered a talented community of writers who welcomed my unconventional writing style. It was fun. And beyond all imagination, I started earning money writing. The money significantly died out two years later, and many of my favorite writers left, but during that first golden year, I decided to resurrect Britpop.

I kept the first two chapters as they were. While writing the second chapter, I had decided to give Andelbert the role of Britpop’s companion on the adventure. He seemed like an excellent companion as he would know a lot and help Britpop get out of trouble.

When I started writing the third chapter, I abandoned the idea of each chapter being a complete story. It wasn’t realistic. However, I wrote each chapter as a complete scene, if not a completely stand-alone story. I called each scene a chapter, which made for some very short chapters.

Since it was written in first-person, I figured, what does a blacksmith in the 18^th century know about writing a novel? This gave me the freedom—in my mind—to write it in any format I wanted. To be truthful, I was as ignorant as an 18^th-century blacksmith when it came to writing a novel.

---

Getting Organized

I decided I needed to get organized and write an outline if I had any hope of completing the novel. I did some research and decided to use Scrivener writing software to organize and write my novel.

As an organizing geek, I loved the idea of keeping everything (the story, research, inspiration photos, character profiles, etc.) in one file. It worked perfectly for me.

The Outline

In the beginning, my outline was bare-bones. I knew how the novel began and how I wanted it to end, but not much more. My initial outline was literally:

• Leaving For France

• Encountering Captain Peanut Butter

• Adventures In Spain

• Adventures In Venice

• Adventures in The Caribbean

• Adventures In France

• Returning Home

Then I started jotting down plot ideas like:

• Britpop joins Captain Peanut Butter’s Crew.

• Breaks out of jail in a hot-air balloon.

• Buys a Stradivarius violin from its maker.

• Buys a guitar in Spain.

• Meets a young woman on a ship they raid and falls in love.

• Meets the young woman again later in the story. She sends for the police to arrest Britpop, then changes her mind and helps him escape.

As I wrote, new ideas came from what I had written, so I kept adding to the outline. I spent a lot of time on the outline, except for the France portion. That stayed “Adventures in France” until I started writing it. I knew I wanted to have Britpop meet the King and Queen, and possibly the inventors of the hot-air balloon. But that was about it.

---

Learning A Lot • The Research

When I started writing the novel, I had limited knowledge of pirates and the 18th century. As I began researching the time period and pirates, I learned a great deal of history that I didn’t previously know.

The research was engaging, and I enjoyed it. I discovered many characters and storylines in the book through my research, like the Montgolfier Brothers, who invented hot-air ballooning.

Of course, I knew about Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. I was also familiar with Lafayette from reading about the history of the American Revolution. But I had no idea that Emperor Joseph II was Marie Antoinette’s brother. Or even that there was a Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II.

I learned about the King of Spain, although I didn’t feature him other than mentioning his name once.

I also learned about the historical locations that I featured in the story. It was quite an education. And very enjoyable. My wife and I took a trip to Paris and the Palace of Versailles a couple of years earlier, and that made the France portion a little easier to imagine.

I didn’t try to be faithful to the historical characters’ personalities or traits, and I changed the timeline of some events by a few years. I didn’t think this was a crime as I was writing imaginative fiction (entertainment) that no one would ever confuse with actual history. I didn’t want to be constrained by calling it “historical fiction,” so I don’t. I simply drew on historical events and characters to make the story more engaging, at least for me.

---

Captain Peanut Butter

The name Captain Peanut Butter originated as a name I called myself when my daughters were young. When the name resurfaced on Facebook nearly two decades later in the Sayings of renown by Captain Peanut Butter, I wrote him in exaggerated Hollywood-style pirate talk:

"If ya ever be findin' yerself in a sword fight with a one-eyed pirate, keep moving to his patch side. They hate it. And it be makin' their neck mighty sore." - Captain Peanut Butter

When I decided to feature him in a novel, I didn’t want to write a novel’s worth of “pirate talk.” It would have been a chore to write, and probably to read as well, so I made Captain Peanut Butter speak educated English (although, technically, he would have been speaking French). I had some of the crew speak in a more “pirate” dialect for those who might have felt slighted.

I also wanted him to be more nuanced and different from the stereotypical pirate captain in old movies. An unusual and surprising pirate. I left it to the readers to decide if I succeeded.

So there are three versions of Captain Peanut Butter in my mind. Confusing? Perhaps, but that’s how my brain works.

As a side note, I always envisioned the Sayings of renown by Captain Peanut Butter as comics. Eventually, I learned enough digital illustration to see several of them come to life as comics. Of course, that Captain Peanut Butter speaks “pirate.” It’s funnier.

---

A Change In Tone

When I started writing the novel, I imagined it as a goofy mix of Forest Gump and Monty Python. But as it continued, it took on a different tone. It became less silly. This wasn’t a conscious decision on my part. I simply let the characters and events take the story where they would.

Several chapters in, I knew full well that the second chapter, with its Tibetan Ankle-Grabbing Death Vine, was probably too goofy and absurd. And might give readers the wrong impression of the story to follow. I imagine any decent editor would have said the same and told me to cut it or at least rewrite it. I agonized about it for a while, but eventually decided to leave it as it was originally written. Was it a wise decision? Probably not. But this story represented my writing journey as much as Britpop’s journey. So I left it. This was my first novel, warts and all.

As I expected, it wasn’t exactly a New York Times bestseller. It has sold 72 copies. So the second chapter probably didn’t matter anyway.

---

My Hybrid Method Of Writing

I don’t do drafts. I don’t like the idea of writing a novel, then going back and re-writing it multiple times. Instead, I use a hybrid read, write, and edit as I go method.

I start each writing session by reading what I have previously written and then editing it. Then I write new material. In the next writing session, I repeat the process. If something I write affects a previous part of the story, I make the edits right then.

Since I continuously added to and fleshed out my outline as I went along, by the time I wrote a chapter, I knew the bulk of what I was going to write.

I also frequently re-read old chapters and make any edits necessary. This often inspired me to write new material when I initially didn’t feel like writing anything.

Of course, there was still that magic that happens when you start writing, and dialogue suddenly appears that you didn’t expect. Which often led to new storylines. I still marvel at how it is even possible to write fiction. I have no explanation for it. It is a little bit of magic still allowed in the world.

When I finished the novel, I just needed to do some minor editing as I proofread it (which I am truly awful at).

---

Dream Fulfilled

Baron Britpop Blastfurnace was my first novel. It is not great literature; it is entertainment. But it is better than I expected, and I am pleased with it. And I truly enjoyed writing it.

It is also the fulfillment of a life goal. In 2018, I set a goal to finish by my 60th birthday on July 05, 2020. And I made it, publishing it in June of 2020.

---

But Wait, There’s More!

After completing the novel, I started to think I could write another. Since I enjoyed the characters in the first novel, I decided a sequel was in order. And, naturally, if you are going to write two books, you might as well do a trilogy. That became the goal.

In August of 2020, I discovered Substack. It seemed like a good new home for my writing, as I was no longer enjoying Medium. At the time, several writers were exploring whether serials could be successful on Substack. I decided to join the fray and write the second Britpop novel as a serial. I named the second novel (which turned out to be a novella) after Elise Boissonneau, Britpop’s love interest in Book 1. I also planned to call the third book Captain Peanut Butter.

Writing a novel as a serial is a different experience. I managed to keep to a weekly schedule for the most part, but it was difficult (I have too many interests). By the third book, I simply posted when I had a chapter written. I did get a lot of helpful comments and corrections while writing, which I appreciated. But I think most people prefer cereal to serials. Overall, I enjoyed the experience. Especially the few loyal readers who made it fun.

---

Where Is The Captain?

I have been lazy about proofreading, editing, and formatting the third book. So, Captain Peanut Butter is yet to be published on Amazon. I will get to it soon. Hopefully. In the meantime, it can be read on my Substack.

---

That’s about it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

And if you haven’t already read the trilogy, you can start here:

Silent Horseshoes

Thanks for reading and responding. You make it fun.

Mark