Trouble follows Captain Jesamiah Acorne
like a ship’s wake...
The early 1700s: from the sun of the
Caribbean to the eerie mists of England’s Exmoor in Devon, the Sea Witch
Voyages follow the adventures (misadventures?) of Captain Jesamiah Acorne.
Orphaned at almost fifteen Jesamiah escaped his home in Virginia and the
bullying of his half-brother to join with his father’s old friend, Captain
Malachias Taylor – a kindly man, but also a rogue of a pirate.
Jesamiah eventually captains his own ship,
but at Cape Town, South Africa, he is to meet the girl who becomes the love of
his life – Tiola Oldstagh, a midwife, healer... and a White Witch with the gift
of Craft.
Accepting amnesty from Governor Woodes
Rogers of Nassau, Jesamiah turns to a legal, married, life, except various
governors, ex-lovers, bad-tempered pirates, lingering ghosts and other
non-human entities seem to have different ideas.
Jesamiah Acorne: a swashbuckling
amalgamation of Hornblower, Jack Aubrey and Jack Sparrow mixed with Indiana
Jones, James Bond and Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe.
Voyage with Jesamiah aboard Sea Witch
and sail into the ocean realm of fast-paced, exciting nautical adventures...
Buy Links:
Titles on #KindleUnlimited: When the
Mermaid Sings and Gallows Wake
Individual Universal links:
First
accepted for traditional publication in 1993, 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/supernatural series, The Sea
Witch Voyages. She has also branched out into the quick read novella, 'Cosy
Mystery' genre with her Jan Christopher 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. The fifth in the series,
A Memory Of Murder, was published in May 2024.
Her
non-fiction books are Pirates: Truth and
Tales and Life of A Smuggler.
She is currently writing about the ghosts of North Devon for Amberley
Publications, and Jamaica Gold for her Sea Witch Voyages.
Recognised
by her stylish hats, Helen attends conferences and book-related events when she
can as a chance to meet her readers and social-media followers, although her
‘wonky eyesight’ as she describes her condition of Glaucoma, and severe
arthritis is becoming a little prohibitive for travel.
She
lives with her family in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in North Devon with
their dogs and cats, while on the farm there are showjumper horses, fat Exmoor
ponies, an elderly Welsh pony, geese, ducks and hens. And several resident ghosts.
Author
links:
Website:
https://helenhollick.net/
Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helen.hollick
X/Twitter: https://x.com/HelenHollick
Blog: https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com/ supporting authors
& their books
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/helenhollick/
Monthly newsletter: Thoughts from a
Devonshire Farmhouse
https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com/2024/01/thoughts-from-devonshire-farmhouse.html
What
Amazon readers say about Sea Witch:
“WOW! I was mesmerised from the very first
words in the very first chapter. I felt I was actually there with Jesamiah and
his fellow pirates; such was the reality of the story. I could almost smell the
sea, feel the wind blowing and hear the sounds of the creaking ship.”
“I was very impressed with the attention to
historical detail and the alluring descriptions of the sea and its sailing
ships. The author confesses that she has taken a few liberties with history to
make her story neat and tidy, but I think these are entirely justified for the
sake of such a compelling tale.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed this well-told tale.
Helen Hollick has created a terrific, likable rogue in Jesamiah Acorne; a young
man with a dark past and very bright future - if he survives to enjoy it.
Details about the age of sail, life on board and ashore, and the sense that sea
has a special, sinister life of its own added to the pleasure of reading. I
shall be following this series from now on. Great stuff!”
“Helen Hollick's forte is her ebullient
imagination. Everything is original, from her writing, which is vivid and yet
as economical as conversational French, where unnecessary words (‘the’, ‘and’)
are dropped for fluency. Notable is the lavish use of the color blue, so
expensive and cherished at the time, that the cheeky blue of Jesamiah's ribbons
is almost eclipsed by the sheer arrogance of painting his ship -- Sea Witch --
the same blue that was the prerogative of monarchs and prelates! And there are
wonderful jokes, snitched from real history, such as the raid of a merchant
ship by a crew of pirates who merely needed a haul of hats. This book is
strongly recommended for young adults who want a rousing story, and also for
those who are older who want a thought-provoking new approach to the
traditional pirate yarn.”
Authors’ endorsements:
“Helen Hollick has it all! She tells a
great story, gets her history right and writes consistently readable books!” ~ Bernard
Cornwell
“A wonderful swashbuckler of a novel. Fans
of Pirates of the Caribbean will love this to pieces of eight.” ~ Elizabeth
Chadwick
“In the sexiest pirate competition Cpt.
Jesamiah Acorne gives Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow a run for his money.” ~ Sharon
K. Penman
