I am ridiculously proud to have an essay in the Farewell Issue of JOMA which just appeared yesterday. I've been a fan of Terri Windling and Midori Snyder for such a long time and loved writing for their YA issue last year. Having this new essay accepted was just icing on the cake.

As JOMA deals with all things mythic, it should come as no surprise that I wrote about polar exploration, specifically the lost Franklin Northwest Passage expedition. Some of you may recall me writing a couple of weeks ago about Dan Simmons' novel, The Terror, which was based on that expedition. I go into more detail on my issues with how the book deals with history in the piece. But here's a bit on the power of a doomed expedition:

Over the next several years one of the greatest search efforts in maritime history unfolded. By modern calculations, the British government spent over 40 million dollars trying to find Franklin and ten ships and at least a dozen searchers were lost in the process. The Americans also launched numerous expeditions, one of which produced its own legendary explorer, Elisha Kent Kane, and another that spawned a tale both bizarre and tragic. Over the years, as explorers continued to crisscross the Arctic in search of clues to the mystery, Franklin was easily elevated to legendary status. John Franklin became the quintessential lost explorer and, as the years went by, his story became less that of a career bureaucrat who was grossly unprepared for his journey and more the story of the British navy itself. He was not a memorable man in real life and yet somehow, in failing so spectacularly, Franklin became greater than all the successful explorers who traveled before (and after) him. As Roald Amundsen later wrote, "What appealed to me most were the sufferings that John Franklin and his men had to endure. A strange ambition burned within me, to endure the same privations. . . .I decided to be an explorer." In death Franklin became a hero to thousands, as long as everyone ignored how preventable his tragedy was, and how many other men had to die in pursuit of his expedition's sad and ignoble truth.

There are many other wonderful essays, stories and poems in the Farewell Issue, including something marvelous and strange from one of my favorite writers, Ekaterina Sedia. As one would expect of Midori & Terri, they are going out in style. Go appreciate their work one more time.