Dragut had high intelligence, compassion and a cruel streak.There exists on the web, an image of Admiral Rais Dragut painted shortly before he died in 1565 by shrapnel during the Great Siege of Malta. The painting isn’t in the Public Domain, I can’t find permissions otherwise I would have used it for the cover of Dragut’s Divergence. The Times of Malta used it years ago but without proper accreditation, it seemed to me. It didn’t really matter so much because I loved the photo I took of an ancient door in Valletta. Doors are portals to mysteries as all storytellers know.
I found an artist, Beth-Designs, Ayoo, a young illustrator living in the UK but from Africa and I was lucky enough for her to agree to draw Admiral Rais Dragut for me. The evil one, a cruel pirate, but one who knew cultural history, who spoke nine languages fluently and who could be passionate. He was passionate about invading Malta and Gozo. They held the body of his brother and wouldn’t release it. Everyone’s heard of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. Fewer have heard of his attempted taking of the island in 1551 and in his failure he raided the sister island of Gozo. Took almost everyone off to sell as slaves in Libya and Constantinople. The revenge of the spirits of those Gozitans is in my Vengeance Island Kindle ebook for the price of a drink and for free on the Maltese Library Libby App.
Dragut’s Divergence is a surreal time take. Dragut is affected by a fierce storm and ends up on a beach in Malta, but in modern times! I had much fun describing his reactions to such as buses, electricity, fashions; as I did with the authorities trying to assess him.
Here is Ayoo’s exquisite illustration. Find her on Twitter (X) at @_Bethdesigns
If you’re not in the Malta Libraries system you can buy both Vengeance Island and Dragut’s Divergence on Amazon Kindle. Universal Amazon links are:
Vengeance Island: https://mybook.to/VIsland
Dragut’s Divergence : https://mybook.to/DragDiv
Other Nelder News
Opi’s World reached the longlist of the British Science Fiction Association Awards but didn’t go further up. Oh well.
Nelder’s books in chronological order: universal Amazon links
Escaping Reality – humorous thriller • https://mybook.to/EscapeR
Hot Air – thriller set in Mallorca • https://mybook.to/HotAir
ALIEN EXIT a science fiction first-contact novel ebook https://mybook.to/alienexit
ARIA: Left Luggage – infectious amnesia scifi • https://mybook.to/ARIA-LeftL
ARIA: Returning Left Luggage • https://mybook.to/ReturnLug
ARIA: Abandon Luggage • https://mybook.to/AbandonL
The Chaos of Mokii ebook at https://mybook.to/Kaos
Revised Xaghra’s Revenge set in present-day and 16th Century Malta and Gozo now retitled as Vengeance Island http://mybook.to/VIsland
Incremental – 25 surreal short stories • http://mybook.to/Incremental which contains a hole story – Pothole
