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Charlie Freelander

@charliefreelander.bsky.social
144 followers 394 following 68 posts

Writes historical fiction shaped by myth, and legend. A wanderer at heart, she is drawn to ruins, coastlines, and the traces history leaves behind. Splits her time between Spain and Finland and volunteers for marine conservation and heritage projects.

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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
My story based on a bizarre historical anecdote I encountered volunteering on a lighthouse island (Gustavsvärn, Hanko, Finland) is now published in the Brussels Review.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
My story Small Gods in the Mythic Circle magazine: www.amazon.com/Mythic-Circl... A recluse living on the windswept slopes of Cape Malea, the elderly Helen of Troy reflects on her reconciliation with Menelaus, and their return to their homeland – the Lakedaimon of myth.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
My short story is in the latest issue of the Pennsylvania Literary Journal: Quiet Flows the Volga Captured during Stenka Razin's raids on the Caspian coast, a Persian noblewoman accompanies the Cossack warlord's followers. www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2674HJ5
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
My short story The Sentinel and Bodhisattva is now free to read online: The Sentinel and Bodhisattva: archive.thearcanist.net/posts/2507se... A haunting tale of a Roman legionary’s ghost, never released from his watch.
A Roman sentinel in ancient Britannia
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
In May I hiked in Åland around the Bomarsund fortress ruins. I'm planning a short story set just before the hostilities that, during the Crimean war, led to the fort's destruction.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
An English translation of my Nova contest finalist, Goodbye, Russki Islet, will appear in the 2027 number of The Silent Companion, the literary ghost story society A Ghostly Company's magazine.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
I'll be giving a talk in RopeCon, Helsinki 2026: When Leviathan and catabasis meet - the terrifying allure of submarines
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Whaddya know, someone has read and reviewed my fantasy book!
goodreads.com
Makings of a Monster (Legacy of Wrath Book 1)
Baldur’s Gate meets Paradise Lost in this deeply emotio…
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
My shirt story Saints, Babes and Madmen is in this issue of the Icarus Writing Collective. Read for free online or order a paperback! It is a tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle, bless his earnest heart. (Check out the Cottingley fairy photo hoax before reading to get the most out of it).
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Reposted by Charlie Freelander
The Icarus Writing Collective @icaruswritingcollective.com · 27/04/2026
Part two! And there's even more where this came from. 🤍
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Reposted by Charlie Freelander
The Icarus Writing Collective @icaruswritingcollective.com · 22/04/2026
Announcing our upcoming 05: Blossom contributors! 🩷🌻
Introducing our Blossom contributors. In Short Fiction: Jennifer Ansara, A.K. Aspen, Jess Evans, Charlie Freelander, Lou Gallaher, Alex Glebe, K.M. Hale, Catherine Hurcombe, Pravy Jha, Isabelle Knops, Lin Laguna, Alexandra Lopez, Altas Schultz, Jason Telese, K.A Vasquez, Sam Williamson. In Flash Fiction: Tiffany Chu, S. Leigh Ann Cowan, Taria Karillion, Cassie Lipton, Kelly Murashige, Florian P., Brittany Redd, S.E Roberts, Riley Shin, Haley Wartalski. In Art: Beverley Ann Abrahams, Chelsi Fiore, Lynsey France, Nasta Martyn, Ritiksha Sharma, write me. These are our contributors in Issue 05: Blossom. The graphic is a text-based post with a muted purple background with a subtle floral motif.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Work in progress woes: Let's just say that there's a reason that generators on a regular ship are, in principle, called *auxiliary* generators. But since they are usually called just generators or gens, I didn't register that and assumed things worked similarly on submarines. They... didn't.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
My story Babes, Saints and Madmen will be published in the Icarus Writing Collective magazine ☺️ As Arthur Conan Doyle crosses into the afterlife, he finds himself in a luminous garden where childhood wonder lingers—and where the mystery of the Cottingley Fairies is quietly set right.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
I've volunteered in the past for marine conservation with the Captain Paul Watson Foundation. I hope to do so in the future too. For a fleeting moment I appear on the video, at a Madrid vegan festival.
youtu.be
CPWF Spain
YouTube video by Captain Paul Watson Foundation
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
YAYYY! My story The Foghorn Knows will be published in the Brussels Review! Set on a remote Finnish lighthouse island in the early 1900s, it is a story of loss and human kindness. It is inspired by an obscure historical anecdote I stumbled on when volunteering on q lighthouse island last summer.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Imagining a fictional abandoned tin mine in Dartmoor for my story
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
A haunting story about a ghost of a Roman legionary who was never released from his watch, my story the Sentinel and Bodhisattva is available in this number. About foggy borderlands of Britain and Scotland, about legac and history lingering and never going away - and my favorite theme, redemption.
amazon.com
The Literary Fantasy Magazine: Summer 2025
The Literary Fantasy Magazine: Summer 2025 - Kindle edition by Mills, James. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Literary Fantasy Magazine: Summer 2025.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Short story idea folder
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Playing a lighthouse keeper! A good opportunity to write in an inspiring environment.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Thinking about how waste, wear and tear of machinery and fueling/ballasting/topping the oil works at a ghostly submarine. At least the ghosts don't crap.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
Sights from Åland, an island group in the Baltic Sea that houses the remains of a Russian garrison and a medieval Franciscan monastery, a restored medieval castle, beautiful churches and much more. Baltic heritage FTW!
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Yay! My Finnish short story about a ghost submarine was shortlisted in a contest! I'm currently writing a novel based on it, a tribute to the maritime legacy of the Baltic and a melancholy elegy for men lost at sea and lingering in purgatory who get a second chance.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Visby has been a Viking trading post, Hanseatic town, privateer stronghold and Danish fort. It remains magical. Absorbing the atmosphere and researching for my coming book.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Thinking about how to make the dichotomy submarine-destroyer a cosmic allegory
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
In the Polish hotel: a military history museum and, on the menu, pig in five different ways
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
I wonder why I find such a comfort in immersing myself in long-lost times (such as tumultuous times of ancient Rome) when I just want to turn the present off . "This, too, shall pass", maybe.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
My protagonists are very different in many ways, but they always end up being defiant and stubborn in some way to an extreme degree, often paying a terrible price and/or acting destructive because of it. They are raw, intense and larger than life. They *refuse*.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Me six years ago at the Sea of Cortez, protecting the vaquita dolphins.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Aaand looks like I'm writing a short story featuring an elderly Pythagoras. Two weeks to get it done if I want to get it done for the contest I got the idea from. Unlikely to the standard I'd be satisfied with.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
OMG fuck yeah! My short story The Sentinel and Boddhisattva was accepted to be published in a magazine! The story is about the ghost of a Roman legionnaire, about how history lingers, about redemption and karmic debts.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
So we are having a conversation about which dinosaur took a largest dump with my husband.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Thinking about how a medieval Danish knight ends up being a privateer.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
I should (re)read some classics in military/naval setting to have good examples about juggling multiple POV in a large group. Usually they have a distant omniscient narrator that doesn't deep dive into anyone's POV though. I want to jump into people's heads in my ghostly submarine on a mission story
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
So of course now I have an urge to write a historical novel about Mark Antony.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
This aqueduct carried water to Almunecar - or Sexi Firmum Iulium as it was called in the Roman times.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Is "military ghost fiction" a genre? Because as of late, that is shaping up to be my niche!
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Can anyone recommend books about Soviet WW2 submarine crews? More focused on the operations, tactics, organisation, culture and demographics than sub technology (that info is easily available).
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Is it normal to be moved to tears by your own story? 😂 (Rhetorical question, I don't care if I'm normal or not). Finished the short story The Sentinel and the Boddhisattva, and Quintus Flavius is finally at well deserved rest.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Watched the director's cut. Damn what a great movie it is and damn was it awful to serve at a submarine.
youtu.be
Das Boot (1981) REMASTERED TRAILER [HD]
YouTube video by Unseen Trailers
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Today I'm thinking about submarines. This is for a short story I'm writing in Finnish.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Today I have been pondering what it feels like to be a blue whale or a humpback whale. I chose to portray a blue whale in my story, but humpbacks are definitely awesome too.
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Charlie Freelander @charliefreelander.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Baldur's Gate meets Paradise Lost in the Legacy of Wrath series. A child of tainted blood, Velimir grows up hardened by suffering. He grows into a ruthless man, plotting to plunge the world in chaos. After his bitter downfall, he vows to escape hell and unites forces with a former sworn enemy.
books2read.com
Legacy of Wrath: Baldur's Gate meets Paradise Lost
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