adventure
Teaser – Roland: of pirates and patriots
Roland: of pirates and patriots – chapter one
September, 1800, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean
The sun was dying again, extinguished by the horizon of water in the distance. The wispy clouds above looked like the eyebrows of an old man. They turned slowly from white to orange to dark gray. Then they were gone, absorbed into the night that was just starting to swallow the remaining day. The ocean was a polished table, flat and still; it was a cause for concern, of course, among the captain and crew of the merchant vessel, but Roland didn’t understand that. His twelve-year-old eyes only saw the beauty of sunset, the purity of nature entering another cycle of wonder. He had come to love the ever-engaging, ever-changing canvas of the water and the movement of the schooner, rocking softly in shallow waves. Conditions had been dead calm for the last twelve days.
Worn and tired and sodden by years of having boards and seas under his feet, sails over his head, and an endless line of worn and tired and sodden men to command, Captain Charles Bigelow watched the boy standing by the rail. Roland’s elbows rested on the wood, his woolen… Continue reading
Roland: of pirates and patriots
Roland: of pirates and patriots is in the “alternative history” genre, but maybe more of a “secret history”. It is the “how it happened” that makes this novel engaging.
The United States almost ceased to exist in 1814. Based around true events and actual people, Roland is set in the very early 1800’s, a critical time for America as England was threatening to return the young country to the Crown.
An American ship’s captain is paid by traitors to deliver a large shipment of gold to people in London who intend to weaken America. The captain, a patriot, leads a plot to hijack and conceal the shipment so it can ultimately be used to benefit America. But all conspirators, including twelve-year-old Roland’s father, are killed in a skirmish between opposing forces. Before he dies in a shipwreck, the captain entrusts the boy with the secret. Roland survives and vows to someday use the gold to help preserve America’s independence. However, the First Mate, who discovers that Roland is the key to riches, also survives and swears to find the gold for himself.
Roland brings pirates and patriots together in a complex and engaging weave of mystery and… Continue reading
Excerpt 1 from Renaissance, a thriller
Renaissance – novel
I’ll be posting excerpts from my novel, Renaissance. Here’s the quick synopsis first.
First: Renaissance is not about the Renaissance; it’s about a man—and a world—that undergoes a renaissance, a rebirth. This book is of a mixed genre but mostly an adventure, a thriller flavored with financial and political seasoning; it is tightly plotted and engagingly intricate, but interwoven with philosophical undertones.
What if you truly had the chance to go back in time to rewrite history and save the world from imminent destruction? What if your mission was to gain enough financial and political power to actually make a difference? But what if the power that gave you the opportunity had a competitor?
EXCERPT ONE
The immense oil tanker was traveling at 16 knots when its bulbous cutter crashed into the sliver of shallow water barely forty feet wide that separated the seawall from the deeper waters of the Bosphorus Straits. It shattered the sandstone barrier like it was hard candy and slammed into the docks directly in the center of downtown Garipce, driving the cutter into the shops on the other side of the street. The superstructure of… Continue reading