April 17, 2024: The Tenth Anniversary of the Season Premiere of Black Sails!

Great show, great people. I had the privilege of being the show’s historical consultant, it was a lot of fun. Here’s a recent Forbes article about the show: “One of the Best TV Shows Ever Made…”

March 29, 2024: Update on Treasure Light Press’s Annotated Captain Blood: His Odyssey by Rafael Sabatini

A quick update on our first publishing project over at Treasure Light Press. We’re annotating Captain Blood: His Odyssey by Rafael Sabatini. I’ve been researching and writing the annotations, and they are roughly 90% complete. We’re looking at a hardcover edition with approximately 300 illustrations, and annotations and appendices with a word count greater than the novel itself. It’s been a fun project. More news to follow over the next year as the manuscript goes to editing and actual production begins. Details can be found on Treasure Light Press’s FB page, and also on the publisher’s blog.

February 5, 2024: On a Discussion Panel for a Press Conference on the Upcoming Release of Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones Video Game

The game is set to be released on February 15, 2024, with an open beta from February 8 – 11. Other similar articles can be found here and here.

December 15, 2023: Fortune’s Whelp is now available as an audiobook!

Narrated by Charles Robert Fox, the novel as audiobook is available on Amazon and Audible.

June 8, 2023: Interview by Rod Quinn of ABC Overnight Radio, Australian Broadcast Corporation, on the Subject of Piracy.

A great interview, and I cannot commend the interviewer enough for his questions and preparation, and listeners for their questions! Click the image or here for the link. The interview begins at the two hour mark.

December 31, 2022: Interview by the Piratical Podcast, Part II.

August, 2022: Pirates of the Caribbean: Their History, and Their Depiction in Myth, Fiction, and Film

January 9, 2021: Interview with The Piratical Podcast on the Subjects of Black Sails and More!

February 16, 2021: Trade Paper Edition of The Golden Age of Piracy is Now in Print!

 

December 14, 2020: Interviewed along with Mike Tuñez of Firelock Games by Liz Davidson for her “Beyond Solitaire” Podcast on the subject of Firelock’s Blood & Plunder tabletop wargame.

 

November 14, 2020: My lecture on Sea Roving Tactics, Emphasis on Boarding Actions, for The CYBERWARS Fall Roundtable is now Online!

Again, a fun interview with great moderators! November 14, 2020.

 

July 24, 2020: The CYBERWARS Virtual Convention Roundtable Interview on The Golden Age of Piracy is Now Online!

Fun interview, great moderators! July 24, 2020.

May 7, 2020: An Interview by Steaphen Fick of Davenriche European Martial Artes

Steaphen Fick–owner and head instructor at Davenriche European Martial Artes in San Jose, not to mention an expert on practical historical swordplay, the best authority I know on fencing in armor, a true gentleman, and a genuinely nice person–has interviewed me on the subjects of piracy, Black Sails, Firelock Games, swordplay, and more. I first met Steaphen some years ago at CombatCon in Las Vegas, we were on a panel together, I think it was composed of several of us who had worked or advised on Deadliest Warrior. If you’re interested at all in historical fencing, Steaphen is doing a lot of practical videos on the subject right now, just look up Davenriche on Facebook.

Davenriche Interview on YouTube

 

April 23, 2020: SRP is in an Audio Book Edition!

The Sea Rover’s Practice is now in an audio book edition, and on Audible too! (Trade paper and ebook editions are still in print too, hardcover is OOP though.)

 

April 22, 2020: GAoP Trade Paper Release Delayed…

The trade paper release of The Golden Age of Piracy, originally scheduled for June 2020, has been delayed until February 2021 due to the pandemic.

 

January 30, 2020: Treasure Light Press!

 

December 3, 2019: Seasonal Marketing!

 

November 25, 2019: The Golden Age of Piracy to be Released in Trade Paper!

Still available in hardcover and ebook, The Golden Age of Piracy will also be released in trade paper late next spring (June 2, I believe)! (As ever, the author is always the last to know…)

November 14, 2019: A South Park Call-out to Blood & Plunder!

 

September 19, 2019: Lecture at UAH in Honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day!

 

September 16, 2019: Lecture on The History & Practice of Modern Swordplay for LearningQUEST

At the Huntsville City Library, 1 PM.

July 23, 2019: Special Guest on 200th Podcast!

I’m the [Spoiler Alert!] special guest on the 200th anniversary Under the Crossbones Pirate Podcast hosted by the excellent interviewer [and comedian!] Phil Johnson. Enjoy.

 

December 2018: Obligatory Holiday Marketing

December 13, 2018: Disappointing News!

Disappointing news I’m afraid on the subject of Fortune’s Favorite, the sequel to Fortune’s Whelp. First, after a series of red flags (marketing large via ebook submission to blogs, plus Amazon review swapping by the publisher’s authors, along with suggestions that I pay for Amazon to promote the book), the publisher (Penmore Press, who also published Whelp) wanted me to modernize the language. This is slightly negotiable, even though the language isn’t actually period but neither does it sound like a couple of suburbanites gossiping at an office party, a common affliction in much historical fiction these days, to quote a journalist I know.

But the publisher also tried to tell me falsely, repeatedly, and adamantly that publishers only copy edit, not line edit (creative content, writing style, &c) and therefore, and even more egregiously, I’d now be expected to pay for a line editor. In fact, he asked several times if I’d already had the manuscript professionally edited–he wasn’t sure from reading it. This made it quite clear to me that he was seeking an editing fee in return for publication, either to offset his publication costs or to augment his profit at the expense of the author’s.

It is patently false that legitimate conventional publishers would ever require this, and it’s frankly beyond bemusing that a publisher would, as another multi-legitimately published author put it to me, tell someone with my experience as a published author such a blatant falsehood.

 Absolutely under no circumstances will I pay for an editor, nor should any writer, fiction or non-fiction, in any form of traditional publishing. Until now no publisher (four of them, including Penmore oddly, and six books) has ever asked me to do this. They’ve always provided them because this is what legitimate publishers do. Any writer published by legitimate presses knows this, not to mention its veracity is easily Googled.

I’ve no intention of supporting a cottage industry (editors hired by writers) that has grown significantly with the rise of self-publishing and small ebook/print-on-demand presses. Demands by publishers that authors pay for editing has always properly been considered a scam. “Publishers” who expect writers to pay for editing are trying to shift much of the financial burden onto the writer while keeping most of the profit to themselves, in which case why shouldn’t the writer just self-publish and keep all of the profit? Or better yet, be patient and find a legitimate publisher.

 So we’ll go from here, we’ll get it in print sooner or later for those of you interested. I’ll keep you advised.

December 5, 2018: Oak & Iron Kickstarter Ended

July, 2017: The Golden Age of Piracy is Available in Polish!