I'm almost finished with the Marathon book, and hope to have a review up by the weekend, but in the meantime...
I love history. And I love historical fiction. AND I know that my Themistocles story is important to tell. I've felt that ever since I came across Berry Strauss' The Battle of Salamis five years ago. I've always wanted to read a book that really dove into the historical figure who made that battle happen. More to the point, I've always wanted to BE that person. Yet I keep getting stuck. Over and over and over again. Events happen quickly in Herodotus, and sometimes it's hard to get a handle on WHEN they happen. It makes my ficitonal autobiography all the harder to write. Yet I know that Themistocle is like Churchill: he would want to tell the tale himself, and he would want to tell the WHOLE story.
I've decided that in order to do just that, I'm going to have to go outside the box. Things are going to have to happen sooner. A LOT sooner. And sometimes out of historical sequence. The historian in me kicks and screams against this, but the author in me realizes that this is not only an easier way to write Themistocles' "autobiography", but it may also prove to be easier and more entertaining for the reader.
What say you, Gentle Readers? If Cleomenes' attack on Argos happened BEFORE Aristagoras arrived in Athens, would you be offended? If the events of the first Persian War took place in LESS than ten years, would you balk? Let me know in the comments section below!*
* Also 1,000 HP to the reader who gets the title reference. :)
