A prequel short read story to the Sea Witch Voyages of Captain Jesamiah Acorne
When the only choice is to run, where do you run to?
When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen?
Or do you drown in the embrace of a mermaid?
Throughout childhood, Jesamiah Mereno has suffered the bullying of his elder half-brother. Then, not quite fifteen years old, and on the day they bury their father, Jesamiah hits back. In consequence, he flees his Virginia home, changes his name to Jesamiah Acorne, and joins the crew of his father’s seafaring friend, Captain Malachias Taylor, aboard the privateer, Mermaid.
He makes enemies, sees the ghost of his father, wonders who is the Cornish girl he hears in his mind – and tries to avoid the beguiling lure of a sensuous mermaid...
An early coming-of-age tale of the young Jesamiah Acorne, set in the years before he becomes a pirate and Captain of the Sea Witch.
Praise:
“Ms Hollick has skillfully picked up the threads that she alludes to in the main books and knitted them together to create a Jesamiah that we really didn't know.” Richard Tearle senior reviewer, Discovering Diamonds
“Captain Jesamiah Acorne is as charming a scoundrel as a fictional pirate should be. A resourceful competitor to Captain Jack Sparrow!” Antoine Vanner author
“Helen Hollick has given us the answer to that intriguing question that Jesamiah fans have been aching for – how did he start his sea-going career as a pirate?” Alison Morton, author
“I really enjoyed the insight offered into Jesamiah's backstory, and found the depiction of our teenage hero very moving.” Anna Belfrage, author
“I loved this little addendum to the Jesamiah series. I always had a soft spot for the Lorelei stories and enjoyed that the author cleverly brought her over from the Rhine valley to fit into the story.” Amazon Reviewer
Trigger Warnings:
Sexual content, adult language.
A DISPATCH FROM THE AUTHOR
A brief bit about the Sea Witch Voyages:
I wrote the first Voyage (Sea Witch)
back in 2005 after thoroughly enjoying the first Pirates of the Caribbean
movie. Like most avid readers, however, I wanted more than just the movie, I
wanted to read something that was as entertaining and as
exciting. A nautical adventure with a charming rogue of a pirate captain,
written for adults (with adult content) but with a dash of supernatural fantasy
as well – elements of which had made that first movie such fun to watch. I
found many nautical-based novels, but they were all ‘serious stuff’ – Patrick
O’Brian, Alexander Kent, C. S. Forrester ... all good reads but without the
fantasy fun, and barely a female character in sight. I simply could not find
the book I wanted to read. So, I wrote my own.
The first Voyage led to more books in the series, and also generated several emails from fans who wanted to know how Jesamiah had become a pirate in the first place.
When the Mermaid Sings answers that question.
* * *
EXCERPT
Cornwall, England, December 1708
The boy with the black hair had been invading Tiola’s dreams again. She sat in the barn, hidden in the hay; she often came here because the smell and the dust made her father sneeze, so he avoided the place, just as she avoided him. Her two man-grown brothers had no care for an irritating almost-eight-year-old girl, so neither did they come searching. Her mother knew where and why she sought the solitude, but Mother knew that her only daughter took after her own mother, and respected her especial gift of Fey, and left her to the privacy of her visionary thoughts.
Tiola, named for that same grandmother, was an inquisitive child who behaved older than her years and was full of questions: what are clouds made of? Why is the sky blue? How wide is the sea? Who is the boy I see in my dreams? She had asked that last question only once. The resulting whipping from her father, the Reverend Garrick, had taught her the prudence of silence.
She sighed. Her mother was calling for her to come and help with the afternoon chores. All Tiola wanted to know was the identity of the boy with black, curly hair. Boy? No, young man now. He had been a boy when first she had watched him, but last night, in her dream, she had clearly seen that he was growing up, maturing into manhood. She had watched him, in her mind, many times; felt his enjoyment as he sailed his boat. Had cringed when the shadow of his brother blotted the sun, wept with him when the bullying left its mark of fear.
She had saved him, the boy, all those months ago, when he had almost given in to the grief of despair, had shouted at him with mind-words: ~ Get up! Fight back! ~
But she needed to know who he was. Maybe she would find out soon, or when she was a woman grown, when this embryonic gift of Craft was fully awakened within her?
How I met Jesamiah Acorne (the tru-ish) story
https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com/p/how-i-met-jesamiah-acorne.html
HELEN HOLLICK
First published in 1994, Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK) with the sequel, Harold the King (US: I Am The Chosen King) being novels that explore the events that led to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Her Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy is a fifth-century version of the Arthurian legend, and she writes a nautical adventure/fantasy series, The Sea Witch Voyages. She is now branching out into the quick read novella, 'Cosy Mystery' genre with her new venture, the Jan Christopher Murder Mysteries, set in the 1970s, with the first in the series, A Mirror Murder incorporating her, often hilarious, memories of working as a library assistant.
Her non-fiction books are Pirates: Truth and Tales and Life of A Smuggler. She lives in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in North Devon, runs Discovering Diamonds, a review blog for historical fiction, and occasionally gets time to write...
Thank you so much for hosting the blog tour for When The Mermaid Sings.
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Mary Anne
The Coffee Pot Book Club
thank you so much for hosting a port of call for Jesamiah and his ship, Mermaid ... oh, and for me of course!
ReplyDeleteHappy to have you.
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