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 Michael,
Why pirates?
Pirates formed a counter-culture to the aristocracy of Europe and early corporations like the British East India Company. The letter-of-marque allowed sponsors to profit from piracy when it was convenient, and disavow their actions as needed. The War of Spanish Succession stranded thousands of privateers on the beach and it’s no surprise when they took to piracy. There are personalities who lived by constitutional articles of agreement, like Black Bartholomew Roberts or Ben Hornigold, as well as murderous psychopaths like Ned Low or Henry Every. Toss in Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, Edward Teach, or Henry Morgan blowing up his own ship while deep in drink, and you’ve got yourself a story.
Are there any pirate legends set where you live?
On the Great Lakes it’s mostly timber pirates and rum runners, wool caps and mackinaws, so any attempt at swashbuckling or bodice ripping is best committed indoors. Roaring Dan Seavey is the only man formally charged with piracy on the Great Lakes, by which I mean he’s the only one who got caught. Liked to set up false lights to lure ships into shallow waters, and if that didn’t work he had a cannon on board. Debauched the crew of the Nellie Johnson, threw them overboard, and sailed to Chicago. Stole loads of venison and booze, thus the primordial Yooper. King Strang of Beaver Island led a religious cult, stole from the locals, set fire to sawmills, and got himself elected to the Michigan legislature before someone shot him in the back. It’s telling that no one thought to warn him. Our most successful pirate was John Jacob Astor, who made his wealth with a monopoly on Great Lakes fur and drug running into China. Made a large enough fortune to be promoted from opium pirate to entrepreneur in the history books.
If you were a pirate, what’s the first thing you’d do?
Run up the black flag and draw up a list of targets.
Have you ever found treasure?
Anyone who would answer that question is not a professional.
What do you do when you’re not dreaming up tall tales?
Don’t know what they told you but it’s a damned lie.
Where can we find you online?
Get the scoop on Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Greek democracies at teacherspayteachers.com; Trojan War Confidential from Brooklyn Publishers; short pieces in anthologies like Uncommon Minds, with a couple of novels on the way.
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