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 Paulene,
Why pirates?
A good question, me hearty. What is the lure of pirates? Be it the peg legs and eye patches? No. Be it the long boots and gold earrings? Maybe. Be it the freedom of a life on the sea, sailing wherever the wind takes you. Aye, aye, Captain, that be it!
I came across a legend recently (in my book, Black Tides, book 4 of The Time Travel Chronicles, set in the pirate era). Of Captain Morales, a Spanish pirate, who intercepted a ship belonging to a Mughal emperor. In its hold was the wealth of India, including a pink diamond, the size of a fist. As soon as he saw the shimmering pink stone, Morales fell under its spell. He wanted to possess it and not share it with his crew. So, one night, he called for the ship’s rum casks to be opened to celebrate and when all the men had passed out drunk, he rowed to a nearby beach and buried the stone, hastily making a map so he could return one day and reclaim it. At the first port, he gave the map to an illiterate man to keep until he passed by again. But his fear he’d never hold it again put him in a dark mood. He got into a fight with a man at a tavern was killed. The map and the illiterate man were never found. So the treasure is still out there, on a beach in the Caribbean, awaiting an adventurous child with a spade and a touch of pirate spirit to dig it up.
What’s the first thing you’d do if you were a pirate?
I’d put on one of those fantastic tricorn hats and say "Arrrrgh!"
Have you ever found a treasure?
I have found some beautiful shells on Sydney’s beaches, and a few deadly blue-ringed octopus. But no treasure…except my husband, who is a treasure to me! (Editors note: This calls for an "Awww!" rather than an "Arrrrgh!")
What do you do when you’re not dreaming up tales?
At the moment, I’m mid-way through releasing my six-book series The Time Travel Chronicles, about two Aussie teens who travel through history in a time machine. It took me over a decade to write, the characters visited five different historical settings (including one pirate setting) and telling the tale took over 500,000 words. I released three books in 2023 and the final three will come out in the second half of 2024! So I’m a very busy woman and spend my days editing, editing, editing. And making book promos on my favourite digital tool—Canva!
You can find Paulene Turner wreaking havoc in these waters:
https://pauleneturnerwrites.com/
https://twitter.com/PauleneTurner
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