Books for kids, teens, & those who are young at heart

Category: Pirate Island (Page 6 of 8)

1698 to April 1699 – A Privateer Prize and the Return of the Archenemy #CaptainKiddHistory

Here is the next installment of #CaptainKiddHistory. These historical tidbits about Captain William Kidd are told by Billy, the main character of my upcoming middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND. Billy discovered and wrote down these tidbits while doing research to find Kidd’s lost treasure but before he actually looked for it on Pirate Island. Let’s give a big welcome to Billy!

1698 to April 1699 – A Privateer Prize and the Return of the Archenemy

by Billy Bonny

Credit: Howard Pyle, via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
Billy’s comment: This is pretty close to how I imagine Kidd looked while burying treasure, not doing himself but supervising.

Whole books could be written about Captain Kidd’s life (I know—I’ve read a bunch of them!). This was a particularly busy time for him, so I’m going to be brief and hit the highlights. In January 1698, Kidd finally catches a break when his crew spots a ship called the Quedagh Merchant off the tip of India. It was an Indian ship that was flying French colors and with French papers. England was at war with France at the time, so French ships were allowed to be taken by English privateers.

Turns out the captain was an Englishman, and Kidd tried to give the ship back to him. His restless crew wasn’t interested in that, so Kidd kept the ship and its good for him and his crew. Kidd’s ship the Adventure Galley had seen better days, so he set sail on the Quedagh Merchant and renamed it the Adventure Prize (another cool name for a ship!).

In April, Kidd arrived at Madagascar and ran into his old archenemy (the real pirate!) Robert Culliford. What actually happened between these two at this point is a bit of mystery with several different accounts being told of the events. The end result was that much of Kidd’s crew left him to join Culliford, and Kidd decided to go home. Meanwhile, rumors of Kidd having turned pirate had reach England, and he was in for a heap of trouble when he got back.

Kidd stopped in the Caribbean and learned he was a wanted pirate. He ditched the Adventure Prize, sold off some of his goods, and returned to New York. But not before making a stop on Gardiner’s Island and burying some real treasure!

The full list of #CaptainKiddHistory posts by Billy Bonny:

January 1654? – A Legend is Born

1688 to 1689 – Mutineer and Captain 

1690 to 1695 – The Archenemy and the Wife

December 1695 to September 1696 – Privateer, Not Pirate

September 1696 to October 16, 1697 – The Bucket Incident

1698 to April 1699 – A Privateer Prize and the Return of the Archenemy

June 1699 – Proof of Treasure

July 6, 1699 to May 23, 1701 – Trial and Execution

PIRATE ISLAND blurb:

A thrice cursed island, a legendary pirate treasure, and one not-so-brave boy. What could possibly go wrong?

For centuries, the whereabouts of Captain William Kidd’s lost pirate treasure has remained a mystery. When Billy’s best friend, Andy, proposes they look for it on nearby Pirate Island, Billy thinks it’s just another one of their crazy adventures. It’s usually Billy who ends up in trouble as a result, but he goes along for the ride…like always. The more he delves into the life and death of Kidd, the more he thinks the treasure is real and that it might be buried on the small island in Long Island Sound. Billy—nope, call him William—becomes obsessed with the captain of the same first name. He even believes he’s possessed by Kidd’s restless soul. Now he and the spirit of a long-dead pirate are leading the crazy adventure on Pirate Island. And what they find is far bigger than the treasure they imagined.

Now available for pre-order! Get it on  Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, IndieBound, and many other of your favorite book sellers.

September #InkRipples: Building a Fictional World

What exactly is world building (or worldbuilding if your prefer is as one word)? Basically, it’s the creation of a fictional world. More than that, though, it’s how that world is explained within the confines of a story. The imagining and creating is the easy part (in my opinion). It’s choosing which pieces to include in the story and how to include those pieces with out a big info-dump that is the tricky part.

The reader must be grounded in the world and be able to feel like they are immersed in it, but you don’t want to bore them with too many details and world-building elements that aren’t essential to the plot and character development. It’s highly subjective, too. One reader may love lavish descriptions and explanations of how one aspect of your fictional world works, while another may skim through all that to get to the action.

And world building isn’t just for fantasy or sci-fi writers. Even if a story takes place in a high school and most of your readers are in high school or have been to one, you still need to establish the world of your high school. There’s a lot already written on ways to execute world building, so instead of me blathering on with tips, I’ll leave some links at the end of the post for you to peruse at your leisure.

Some of my favorite world building exercises have been making a map for the ELIXIR BOUND (see the picture at the beginning of the post and the entry “Exploring the world of Elixir Bound”). For PIRATE ISLAND, part of my world building included creating a chart with realistic tides and moon cycles. So much of my world building goes on behind the scenes, but having all that information in my head makes for a rich world on the page, even if the reader only sees a small portion of what the world entails. Plus, those elements that don’t make it directly into the story are great for things like blog posts and bonuses for readers.

Okay, before we get to the links, I’d love to hear some of your world-building techniques in the comments!

“Tips on World Building for Writers — How to Make Your Imaginary World Real” by Chuck Sambuchino

“The Ultimate Guide to World-Building: How To Write Fantasy, Sci-Fi, And Real-Life Worlds” by Claire Bradshaw

“25 Things You Should Know About Worldbuilding” by Chuck Wendig

(Apparently people named Chuck have a lot to say about world building!)

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. CarrollMary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (September is all about world building), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

Enter to Win a Signed Paperback of PIRATE ISLAND in a Goodreads Giveaway

A signed paperback of my middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND is up for grabs on Goodreads. But if you don’t want to take a chance on winning one, you can always pre-order a copy. The paperback is on sale at Amazon for $7.07 and at Barnes & Noble for just $7.09! I’m always happy to send a signed bookplate to anyone who purchases the paperback. Use my CONTACT page to let me know you want one.

Big props to anyone who shares the giveaway to help spread the word about it!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Pirate Island by Katie L. Carroll

Pirate Island

by Katie L. Carroll

Giveaway ends September 20, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

September 1696 to October 16, 1697 – The Bucket Incident #CaptainKiddHistory

Here is the next installment of #CaptainKiddHistory. These historical tidbits about Captain William Kidd are told by Billy, the main character of my upcoming middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND. Billy discovered and wrote down these tidbits while doing research to find Kidd’s lost treasure but before he actually looked for it on Pirate Island. Let’s give a big welcome to Billy!

September 1696 to October 16, 1697 – The Bucket Incident

by Billy Bonny

Credit: Assassin’s Creed: Memories. Creative commons license.
Billy’s comment: Yup, this image of Kidd is from a video game and it’s pretty cool!

So Kidd sets off on the Adventure Galley for Africa with a criminal crew to try and seize enemies of England and actual pirate ships. An outbreak of cholera (a really nasty disease you can get from drinking bad water) further sabotages the mission. Kidd’s rich lord backers won’t be satisfied with failure and the remaining crew is getting restless when things turn deadly.

On October 16, 1697, a Dutch ship approached the Adventure Galley. The crew urged Kidd to give the go-ahead to attack. In particular a gunner named William Moore (good first name!) challenged Kidd to let them attack. In a heated argument, Kidd ended throwing a bucket at Moore and hitting him in the head. Moore’s skull was fractured and he died the next day.

I’m not justifying killing a man, but I’m betting Kidd was afraid of outright mutiny, so trying to keep his crew from attacking a ship they had no right to attack was not out of line. Maybe he shouldn’t have thrown a bucket, but I don’t think Kidd intended to kill anyone. In addition to charges of piracy, Kidd would later be charged and convicted of murder, even though he would never know of the murder charge until his actual trail started.

And as if the proof against Kidd being a pirate isn’t already mounting up enough, think about the fact that he kept his crew from looting the Dutch ship…not something a pirate—who would attack any ship—would do but something a privateer would certainly do.

The full list of #CaptainKiddHistory posts by Billy Bonny:

January 1654? – A Legend is Born

1688 to 1689 – Mutineer and Captain 

1690 to 1695 – The Archenemy and the Wife

December 1695 to September 1696 – Privateer, Not Pirate

September 1696 to October 16, 1697 – The Bucket Incident

1698 to April 1699 – A Privateer Prize and the Return of the Archenemy

June 1699 – Proof of Treasure

July 6, 1699 to May 23, 1701 – Trial and Execution

PIRATE ISLAND blurb:

A thrice cursed island, a legendary pirate treasure, and one not-so-brave boy. What could possibly go wrong?

For centuries, the whereabouts of Captain William Kidd’s lost pirate treasure has remained a mystery. When Billy’s best friend, Andy, proposes they look for it on nearby Pirate Island, Billy thinks it’s just another one of their crazy adventures. It’s usually Billy who ends up in trouble as a result, but he goes along for the ride…like always. The more he delves into the life and death of Kidd, the more he thinks the treasure is real and that it might be buried on the small island in Long Island Sound. Billy—nope, call him William—becomes obsessed with the captain of the same first name. He even believes he’s possessed by Kidd’s restless soul. Now he and the spirit of a long-dead pirate are leading the crazy adventure on Pirate Island. And what they find is far bigger than the treasure they imagined.

Now available for pre-order! Get it on  Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, IndieBound, and many other of your favorite book sellers.

December 1695 to September 1696 – Privateer, Not Pirate #CaptainKiddHistory

Here is the next installment of #CaptainKiddHistory. These historical tidbits about Captain William Kidd are told by Billy, the main character of my upcoming middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND. Billy discovered and wrote down these tidbits while doing research to find Kidd’s lost treasure but before he actually looked for it on Pirate Island. Let’s give a big welcome to Billy!

December 1695 to September 1696 – Privateer, Not Pirate

by Billy Bonny

Credit: Willem van de Velde the Younger, via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
Billy’s comment: This ship is actually the Charles Galley, but it was a very similar ship to Kidd’s Adventure Galley.

It was in December 1695 that Lord Bellomont, a colonial governor, hired Kidd as a privateer to try and solve the growing problem of piracy. As I mentioned in the entry “1688 to 1689 – Mutineer and Captain,” a privateer is a sort of legal pirate who is hired by a government to attack ships they are at war with and actual pirate ships. This was all financially backed by important English lords. The letter of marque, which is the official document marking Kidd as a privateer, was signed by the King of England himself! (This document was mysteriously missing during Kidd’s later trial and only turned up many years later…only more reason to believe he was wrongly convicted of being a pirate.)

Kidd’s brand-new ship was the Adventure Galley (a pretty awesome name for a ship if you ask me). A string of bad luck would start for Kidd on his way back to New York City after picking up his ship. He failed to salute a Navy vessel, a shot was fired by the Navy, and Kidd’s crew offered up a rude gesture in return. The Navy captain took most of Kidd’s crew immediately into service, leaving Kidd’s crew seriously understaffed. Back in New York, Kidd had to pick a bunch of criminals and unsavory characters to begin his journey to Africa as a privateer.

The full list of #CaptainKiddHistory posts by Billy Bonny:

January 1654? – A Legend is Born

1688 to 1689 – Mutineer and Captain 

1690 to 1695 – The Archenemy and the Wife

December 1695 to September 1696 – Privateer, Not Pirate

September 1696 to October 16, 1697 – The Bucket Incident

1698 to April 1699 – A Privateer Prize and the Return of the Archenemy

June 1699 – Proof of Treasure

July 6, 1699 to May 23, 1701 – Trial and Execution

PIRATE ISLAND blurb:

A thrice cursed island, a legendary pirate treasure, and one not-so-brave boy. What could possibly go wrong?

For centuries, the whereabouts of Captain William Kidd’s lost pirate treasure has remained a mystery. When Billy’s best friend, Andy, proposes they look for it on nearby Pirate Island, Billy thinks it’s just another one of their crazy adventures. It’s usually Billy who ends up in trouble as a result, but he goes along for the ride…like always. The more he delves into the life and death of Kidd, the more he thinks the treasure is real and that it might be buried on the small island in Long Island Sound. Billy—nope, call him William—becomes obsessed with the captain of the same first name. He even believes he’s possessed by Kidd’s restless soul. Now he and the spirit of a long-dead pirate are leading the crazy adventure on Pirate Island. And what they find is far bigger than the treasure they imagined.

Now available for pre-order! Get it on  Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, IndieBound, and many other of your favorite book sellers.

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