Happy Book Birthday to PIRATE ISLAND!!!

It’s been a very long time since I was able to celebrate a book birthday. ELIXIR BOUND first released over five years ago (see how I celebrated that release here). So I’m very, very, very excited to say that I have a new book out today. Welcome to the world PIRATE ISLAND!!!

This is the book I wrote in the hangover period after writing my first book. I needed to write something that felt very different, so I went with a middle grade story from a boy’s point of view. It was an exercise in voice. It was a nod to the legends and stories I had heard about the little island off the coast of my own hometown that may or may not have pirate treasure buried on it (see the Charles Island wiki page for more on the real island…though I’ll be sharing more about it here as well). It was something of an homage to the complicated life of Captain William Kidd (see the blog series on #CaptainKiddHistory for more about him). When I decided to self-publish the book, it became a whole lesson on that process.

I had a lot of fun researching both the island and Kidd’s life while I wrote PIRATE ISLAND. I had a really hard time figuring out the best way to start the book, and a sort of hard time discovering the right voice for it. Even though it’s “finished” (as in it’s out there being read by people and such), I’m not sure I got either of those things right, but I know I at least got them almost right.

So here’s the nitty-gritty on my book baby PIRATE ISLAND. (Much love to anyone who shares the image above to help spread the word about it!)

Buy it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, or where ever you like to buy books (if your local bookstore doesn’t have it in stock, they can order it for you). You can also put in a request to your local library to order it so you can borrow it from them. I’m also running a Goodreads giveaway for a signed copy of it. And in case you haven’t read the blurb yet, here it is:

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.

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