Pirate Anthology: Jack Wells

The Black Beacon Book of Pirates is sure to shiver your timbers when it's published on Friday the 21st of June. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. In the meantime, to get you in the mood for a spot of swashbuckling, we’re interviewing the contributing authors.

Hi Jack,

Why pirates?

I mean, why not? But, honestly, I grew up loving the old pirate tales, and watching films like The Goonies, where the child protagonists had to survive all sorts of pitfalls and traps in search of pirate treasure. I think young boys are especially drawn to swashbuckling adventures and that warped sense of brigand’s honor. There’s something appealing about the thought of leaving the rules and expectations far behind, living life on your own terms. And, aside from all that, as soon as I saw the cover of The Black Beacon Book of Pirates, I knew I wanted to be included.

Are there any pirate legends set where you live?

Sadly, no, as Utah is a landlocked state. There are plenty of tales regarding outlaws and rule-breakers, to be sure, but none of them involve the ocean.

If you were a pirate, what’s the first thing you’d do?

Try to find a deserted island to call my home base! I’ve always been an introvert, and the older I get, the further from the masses I want to be. Of course, it would it be pretty awesome to have a ship under my command… to be able to point the prow in whichever direction and be like "sail that way!". But, at the end of the day, a nice secluded place to call home, with no roads or bridges leading to it, would be heavenly. A place to bury the treasure, kick up my sea legs, and have a hearty swig of rum.

Have you ever found treasure?

Kinda. When I was young, my friend Greg and I were really into playing like we were in the military. We’d dress up in fatigues, grab our toy guns, put on face paint, and go wage war in the woods near his home. There were some older boys that used to hang out in those woods after school as well, and we steered well clear of them. One day, however, we found their stash of beer, dirty magazines, heavy metal cassettes, and a couple of switchblades. Greg and I were too young to have any interest in beer or boobs, but we sure were excited to find, and pilfer, those knives and tapes. Not that our parents let us keep either, of course, but it was a cool victory while it lasted.

What do you do when you’re not dreaming up tall tales?

I work full-time in government, doing my best to unravel all the red tape while keeping our military folks safe. I also have children, who are my world, so I spend a lot of time doing things with them. My house is an older home, built in the 60s, so there’s plenty of projects that keep me busy, and I have so many other hobbies besides writing. It’s actually kind of amazing that I get any writing done at all !

Where can we find you online?

I don’t have a website, though I probably should start working on that eventually. I’m on Facebook as Jack Wells, and Instagram as Jack_Wells_Author. I’m not on X or TikTok, and probably won’t ever be, as I barely have enough time or energy for socials as it is.

Pirate Anthology: Karen Keeley

The Black Beacon Book of Pirates is sure to shiver your timbers when it's published on Friday the 21st of June. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. In the meantime, to get you in the mood for a spot of swashbuckling, we’re interviewing the contributing authors.

Hi Karen,

Why pirates?

Yo-ho, me hearties and a bottle of rum! Along with adventure on the high seas and buried treasure, who doesn’t love pirate tales? When I saw the cover reveal for Pirate Tales, my first thought was, I really really want to be in this book, the cover is magical and captivating! Feeling very privileged to have made the grade, thank you!

Are there any pirate legends set where you live?

Not that I’m aware of. I am more than twelve-hundred kilometers from the ocean so if there were pirate legends to be had, I wouldn’t think they’d be anywhere near me.

If you were a pirate, what’s the first thing you’d do?

I’d get me one swanky looking outfit with all the bells ‘n whistles—the white shirt, silk ‘n satin vest and leather britches (purple, my favourite colour), the knee-high boots, and a glorious pirate hat in addition to the cutlass and the flintlock pistols. Maybe a calico cat to keep me company.

Have you ever found treasure?

Just in books when I read amazing and wonderful stories.

What do you do when you’re not dreaming up tall tales?

I spend a lot of time carousing around in my imagination, listening to my imaginary friends. I say this with a smile. ~wink, wink~ Having made it to retirement, it’s wonderful to simply do whatever I want, whenever I want. I also make photobooks, gathering photos from special events like holiday travels, etc., time spent with family and friends, my own treasured memories captured in a picture book. I love the outdoors, getting back to nature. Whenever I am able to do so, I immerse myself in the ahhhhhhh moment. It’s just so flippin’ lovely to be out there, in a forest, in the mountains, somewhere near a river or a creek, soaking it all in. For me, it kind of reenergizes the ol’ batteries. If I’m really lucky and make it to the ocean, I love the sound of the seabirds overhead, the scent of the salty brine, the seaweed and barnacles.

Where can we find you online?

I have something of a quasi-website: www.karenmkeeley.blogspot.com

Pirate Anthology: DJ Tyrer

The Black Beacon Book of Pirates is sure to shiver your timbers when it's published on Friday the 21st of June. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. In the meantime, to get you in the mood for a spot of swashbuckling, we’re interviewing the contributing authors.

Hi DJ,

Why pirates?

Pirates have a great deal of potential for exciting adventure and varied characters. My story, Sting of the Schorpioen, features some characters I created for an as-yet unwritten horror novel involving pirates and a mysterious island. Even though I have yet to write that novel, the pirates had their hooks into me and I ended up writing some stories featuring them, of which this was one. Quite probably, if I fail to get them to their destination, they’ll insist on my writing some more.

Are there any pirate legends set where you live?

Although Southend-on-Sea was once the location of Milton, once an important port on the Thames, and nearby Leigh-on-Sea long had naval connections, any pirates presumably sailed off elsewhere to seek plunder and didn’t leave any local legends. However, the area does have plenty of tales about smugglers, including legends of smuggler tunnels running beneath the city, including some said to be haunted.

If you were a pirate, what’s the first thing you’d do?

Being a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan, I would have to burst into song. Doubtless I would be as inept as the Pirates of Penzance and do poorly at the whole capturing ships and treasure, but at least it would be a merry experience.

Have you ever found treasure?

Sadly, no. There is probably some down in those smuggler tunnels, but the stories of what happens to those who enter them are enough to put me off searching. Still, a hoard would be quite handy, so if anyone has any old maps where X marks the spot, please do send them my way…

What do you do when you’re not dreaming up tall tales?

My hobbies include history, roleplaying, wargaming, and languages and conlanging, all of which come in useful for worldbuilding. I’m also the editor/publisher of the Atlantean Publishing small press, when I can find the time.

Where can we find you online?

You can find my website at https://djtyrer.blogspot.co.uk/ and my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DJTyrerwriter/

Pirate Anthology: Karen Bayly

The Black Beacon Book of Pirates is sure to shiver your timbers when it's published on Friday the 21st of June. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. In the meantime, to get you in the mood for a spot of swashbuckling, we’re interviewing the contributing authors.

Hi Karen,

Why pirates?

They’re a varied bunch, aren’t they? We find everyone from poor sailors to ex-Naval officers and wealthy landowners, male, female, English, Welsh, French, Dutch, Chinese, etc. There were privateers such as Francis Drake, who, although not noted as a pirate by English folk, was seen as one by the Spanish whose American settlements he plundered. There were buccaneers like William Dampier, who later explored parts of the coasts of Australia and New Guinea for the British Admiralty.

While rebellious, pirates were also skilled and disciplined, at least on the high seas. You can’t sail a brigantine or the like without either skill or discipline and taking other ships requires some level of organisation and guts.

Plus, there are so many legends about pirates. Much is written about Jacquotte Delahaye, the red-headed pirate in my story, “Les Femmes Sauvages”, but there is no proof she ever existed. Some stories agree (such as on her nickname, “Back from the Dead Red”), but others don’t (such as whether she continued to wear men’s clothing after she realised she was too feminine-looking to get away with pretending to be a man). These shadowy ‘facts’ give an author a lot to play with. And we writers love playing.

Are there any pirate legends set where you live?

No legends set where I live, but we had pirates in NSW. Two hours by car up the coast from Sydney is Stockton, whose original name was Pirate Point. In November 1800, a gang of 15 convicts seized the 25-ton sloop “Norfolk” in Broken Bay. They planned to sail the ship, laden with wheat, to Indonesia but ran aground in bad weather at what would become Pirate Point. They seized another smaller boat and set off again, this time with only nine crew. The Governor of NSW, Phillip King, sent an armed boat after the convict pirates. The authorities eventually captured them, declared them all guilty and handed down the death sentence. They hung the two ring leaders but gave the other seven offenders a last-minute reprieve. The penal settlement on Norfolk Island (ironically, the building place of the stolen ship “Norfolk”) became their home for seven years. The other six lived with Aboriginal people around Newcastle for the rest of their days.

If you were a pirate, what’s the first thing you’d do?

Steal a ship and find a crew who knows what they’re doing. I have some sailing experience, but not enough to handle an ocean-going vessel. And then I’d enact Bayly’s law (what I say goes or bear the brunt of my displeasure) to keep the motley crew in line.

Have you ever found treasure?

Does finding a $50 note on the pavement count? That happened in February this year. Also, the $100 in rolled-up $20 notes I found lying on a path through the bush twenty-five years ago must count.

What do you do when you’re not dreaming up tall tales?

I work in IT (for money, not love). I go for walks and birdwatch. I read and stream. I snuggle with my cats (or vice versa). I photograph with a DSLR camera and participate in groups on Flickr and Meetup. I plunk around on classical guitar and ukulele, sometimes murdering perfectly good songs by singing as well as playing. I used to dance a lot, but all my dance groups have disbanded, and I’ve yet to find new ones. When I get the chance, I love to go out on boats.

Where can we find you online?

My website (including blog): www.karenbayly.com
Other links: linktr.ee/karenbayly

Pirate Anthology: Cameron Trost

The Black Beacon Book of Pirates is sure to shiver your timbers when it's published on Friday the 21st of June. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. In the meantime, to get you in the mood for a spot of swashbuckling, we’re interviewing the contributing authors.

Hi Cameron,

Why pirates?

In the history of criminal enterprise, pirates really are at the helm. There are so many great noir escapades featuring gangsters and Wild West adventures with outlaws riding into town, but nothing shivers your timbers like a swashbuckling pirate romp. The dangers of the high seas, the flamboyant language and dress, the prospect of hidden treasure, and the endless possibilities when it comes to trying to guess where the winds will take us. There's so much range when it comes to pirate tales... talking about range - look out! The canons are firing! 

Are there any pirate legends set where you live?

Brittany is rich in pirate tales. The corsaires of Saint-Malo, including René Duguay-Trouin and Robert Surcouf are famous around the world. Here where I live, on the Guérande peninsula, there are stories of piracy as well, including Alain Bouchart's taking of three ships of the coast of Belle-Ile in 1471. However, the greatest figure from Brittany, in my opinion, is that of Jeanne de Clisson, The Lioness of Brittany. She waged war against the French during the Hundred Years' War, capturing vessels and their riches. Her fighting force was known by her enemies as the Black Fleet.

If you were a pirate, what's the first thing you'd do?

Honestly, I'd try to make my way to the nearest port, shack up with a buxom maiden, and enjoy the simple pleasures of life as best I could with my feet planted on firm ground.

Have you ever found treasure?

I stumble across spare change every now and then. No Louis d'Or to date.

What do you do when you're not dreaming up tall tales?

I'm a heritage tour guide in the salt marshes of Guérande, Brittany. You know what they say, don't you? Salt always has been the true "white gold".

Where can readers contact you to tell you their timbers have been suitably shivered?

You can find me all over social media: https://linktr.ee/camerontrost but I'm most active on Facebook. I keep a Goodreads profile and have a website at https://camerontrost.com

Lost Books, Forced Housekeeping, and Sunken Treasure: S. B. Watson

 Lost Books, Forced Housekeeping, and Sunken Treasure,

Or,

How I Wrote ‘The Ghost’

S. B. Watson

I’m often asked, ‘where did you get the idea for such-and-such story?’ The truth is, the birth of every story is different. Sometimes, I see the whole story, laid out in my headspace, and just write it out. More often, I have a basic concept, a little kernel, and draw it out and work it until there’s a tale to tell. ‘The Ghost,’ which appears in The Black Beacon Book of Pirate Tales this June, falls into the latter camp.

  My first idea was to do a modern piece on Somalian pirates in the Indian Ocean, telling the story from the viewpoint of a poor fisherman who turns to piracy. I still like the idea, however, there was a problem—it had a dingy tang of realism. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love gritty crime fiction. I’ve written a bunch of it. But in my mind, I wanted my story to have more in common with ‘Treasure Island’ or ‘The Gold Bug’ than Captain Phillips.

  So, I went back to the drawing board with nothing more than a theme. 

  And that’s when I remembered an old book, hiding somewhere in my personal library…

  Years ago, an old family friend downsized his private book collection. He had books on religion, history, science, the occult… Knowing that I collected books myself, he gave me around four crates of books. Among the volumes was a ragged little paperback of unusual size, entitled ‘The Burning of a Pirate Ship, La Trompeuse.’

  I remembered the book, from years ago… It was an unusual thing. It told the history of a treacherous Caribbean governor, and the pirate he sheltered, but did it entirely through official documents, court records, naval reports, and reproduced private letters between the different territorial governors.

  There was just one difficulty… I had no idea where the book was. It wasn’t on the shelf where it should have been, and I couldn’t find hide nor hair of it anywhere in my admittedly cluttered library. What resulted was two days of crawling all over my house, digging in boxes and uprooting piles of books and papers, looking for the darned thing. I even considered purchasing a new copy, out of desperation.

  Finally, after two days of forced house cleaning, I found it, not three feet from my bed, backwards, at the base of a pile of books, on a decorative bookshelf’s bottom shelf.

  Memory had served right. The tome was a goldmine of ideas. It told of the seedy Caribbean governor of St. Thomas, Adolph Esmit, and his politically devious wife, Charity. And it told of the rogue trader-turned-pirate, Jean Hamlin, and his voyages down the African Gold Coast and to Brazil.

  But the most impressive revelation came at the end. Adolph, his intrigue-laden wife, and Hamlin, all simply slipped away after their nefarious deeds. What became of them is a mystery. Some of Hamlin’s men can be traced through various pirates’ crews, but the man himself simply vanished.

  And the principal players weren’t the only things that vanished—To this day, Hamlin’s treasure is said to lie somewhere beneath the waters of St. Thomas. Some 24,000 pounds of silver, locked in a silty ship’s storeroom, at the bottom of the sea.

  All gone, lost, vanished, but not quite forgotten…
  And therein lies the tale I tell in ‘The Ghost.’ If you’d like to hear my version of what happened to the criminal kingpins of 1680s St. Thomas, and their treasures, be sure to pick up The Black Beacon Book of Pirate Tales this June!

Camille Pissarro, Creek in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, 1856

Find S. B. Watson online at:

https://sbwatsonmysteries.wixsite.com/my-site

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Pirate Anthology: Rose Biggin

The Black Beacon Book of Pirates is sure to shiver your timbers when it's published on Friday the 21st of June. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. In the meantime, to get you in the mood for a spot of swashbuckling, we’re interviewing the contributing authors.

Hi Rose,

Why pirates?

I sometimes like to think stories were invented so they could be told about pirates. At so many stages of innovation in the history of narrative, there’s a pirate ship somewhere - anchored just outside the text or sailing through it. We could say every story about pirates is also a story about stories.

Are there any pirate legends set where you live?

What, London? I expect so, aye. Probably. I should look into it.

If you were a pirate, what's the first thing you'd do?

Head directly to the galley and make a start on the potatoes. It’ll take longer then anyone expects, and whatever adventures await will feel better if we know we’ve at least gotten them going. Plus it’s a good place to get your allies. Did you know Treasure Island’s original title was The Sea Cook?

Have you ever found treasure?

Materialism will be your downfall, friend.

What do you do when you're not dreaming up tall tales?

When I’m not writing fiction or gigging, I’m most likely on another art project. I am currently co-writing a libretto for a new alt. Opera for cinema screen, premiering in July.

Where can readers contact you to tell you their timbers have been suitably shivered?

Contact me or you can find more through my website; do get in touch, I’m always looking for more collaborations and projects and conversations! I’m also still on a certain sinking ship, as @rosebiggin

Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8076902.Rose_Biggin