Quote: “Pirate life is brutal and bloody and we see the full scope of what life must have been like aboard these ships. Clark’s research is monumental, the setting so realistic its impossible to separate fact from fiction. The background to the story, meticulously researched, is mind boggling as we descend into the bowels of the ship, haul water or or gunpowder, throw bodies and badly wounded over board, or bombard Charles Town. Clark was entranced with the story of Major Stede bonnet, and in researching him, a failure as a pirate, wrote this book. It is sure to capture a wide and appreciative audience, adding reality to the fantasy of the Pirates of the Caribbean series of films.”

Have to love the acknowledgement of my ten years of research!

It’s probably taking longer to clean the encrusted, barnacled artefacts than it is to find them! In the Maritime Museum, I’ve seen what cannonballs look like when first recovered – like big lumps of nothing. Only the x-ray shows what lies inside. This news report has an amazing gallery of photos of the latest finds, and my favorite is the hilt of Blackbeard’s sword (right).

As the report also says, the evidence shows that he used nails and bits of metal in his cannons, as well as cannonballs, but this is not really news. Lots of pirates did the same, especially when they were low on ammunition and anything would do (including cutlery). It is a reminder, though, that the romanticized stories and movies about pirates do make them look heroic rather than fearsome!

How well do you know them? The quiz is here.

Did you celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day? There were some good pirate jokes on Twitter, at least!

And a few people changed their FB language settings to Pirate (yes, it’s possible!).

But if you are tempted to change your Facebook language setting to Pirate, be warned – you may end up not understanding 70% of what is posted!

Here’s one of my favourite pirate jokes – What happens when a pirate picks his scabs?

He gets scarrrrrrrrs!

A model of Queen Anne’s Revenge – Blackbeard’s ship

Pirates at St Mary's PS

St Mary’s Primary School at Altona put on a great morning. Beforehand, several of the students had read the novel and they basically did the launch. We had an introduction (to all the lads and lasses present), readings from the book, more readings of great pirate poems, and then I gave a short talk about the research for the book and read a little from it.

Arrr, more pirates!

There were a ton of questions! Some students were interested in pirate history and quizzed me about aspects of Blackbeard, Bonnet and what really happened. Some asked about the writing and ideas. It was a fun morning and we finished up with some jolly good Arrrrrrs!

Pirate X

Out in the bookstores on 1 August! Arrrr, that gold cover is lovely….

I had had a conference critique on the first 40 pages that ripped them to shreds and made me feel like the novel was a waste of time – I put it in the bottom drawer, intending to never work on it again. (Hint – don’t let this happen to you, if you believe in a story.)

I couldn’t leave it alone, although it did stay in the drawer for nearly two years.

I decided that if I was going to rewrite, I had to make radical changes, otherwise the spectre of the critique would hang over me like the kiss of death.

The first change I made was from third person to first person, telling the story from Will’s point of view. This created a problem – in 1717, how was I going to create an authentic narrator’s voice without sounding archaic or too formal?

Then I thought about how I could put a modern-day character into an historical story – the answer was for the character to go back in time. Thus Will begins as a street kid in London (having run away from home) who hits his head and wakes up in 1717.

The fun part was Will talking like a 2011 kid to 16th century pirates who don’t understand him, and he has trouble understanding some of them. We forget how alienating it can be to not speak the language of another country!

One of the “rules” of timeslip is that the historical part of the story be accurate, which is not a problem for me as I have based Pirate X entirely on what I have found to be the most credible, backed-up information (there are a lot of myths about pirates). Hence the research page on this site. There are various ways a character can go back in time, and the most common is a portal or a door. Will’s “portal” is the plaque near Marble Arch that commemorates where convicts and some pirates were hanged.

The timeslip element also meant I had to think long and hard about why Will went back in time – what ulterior motive or meaning would it have in the story? You’ll have to read the book to find out!

Now they’ve found what they believe is the ship’s anchor!

An anchor from what is believed to be the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, is recovered from the ocean where it has been since 1718. (Robert Willett/Associated Press)

They’re bound to be right, as so many other things such as cannonballs, the ship’s bell and plates and mugs have been found and verified.

Also, who else’s ship would be in this location? Blackbeard deliberately sank QAR in the Beaufort inlet, probably to get rid of most of his crew so he didn’t have to share the gold. The crew were able to get to shore and some later joined Stede Bonnet instead.

This event is in Pirate X – while QAR is sinking, Will is trapped inside the cage in the hold where Blackbeard imprisoned him. It was an exciting scene to write!

For news reports on the anchor, try this link.

One thing I have learned is that nothing is wasted. Everything I have spent 11 years gathering as research (particularly photos and images) can be shared with you on this site. I have also used much of it in school visits, showing kids all the things I’ve discovered. Who knows – the huge chunks of story I had to cut out may one day be a sequel.

Reefing the sails

Most of all, the research and the constant focus on pirate stories has led to many other books. My fifth Littlest Pirate chapter book will be out in 2012 – The Littlest Pirate and the Stinky Ship. They are so much fun to write! Three of them are now picture books as well.

Mainly what this has led to is a love of writing historical fiction. I’ve now also written four books in the Our Australian Girl series (Penguin Books Australia) which are set in Melbourne in 1900-1901. I have two more historical novels that I’d love to write, although one of them needs a lot of research when I get time. I’ve learned there are many kinds of historical fiction. With Pirate X and the OAG series, I have been at pains to keep the historical background as accurate as possible. With my two new projects, I’m not being as picky as I want more leeway to tell a different kind of story.

When I started this revision, the publisher said it had to come down to 60,000 words. It started at 80,000 and as of today, I have whittled it down to around 69,000 – but that’s without the new ending added in (that I haven’t written yet). The new ending could add another 2000+ words. I knew when I started this revision that I had a big saggy middle to deal with, so it wasn’t going to be a problem to cut a lot of that.

But much of what I cut needed to be put in somewhere else, and when you cut huge chunks, you end up writing new stuff to make connections and flow. I am celebrating at the moment because I have finished the big hatchet job. I think I have probably cut around 23,000 words (at least) but have added around 12,000 new ones. Oh dear. So that’s why I’m sitting on 69,000 at the moment.

I do know I’m a bit wordy. I repeat things accidentally, I don’t use details well enough (so they add to character and action), but I’m also worried that far too often I have slipped into telling. It’s a danger with first person narrative, especially when you are trying to move things along.

Now I will maybe write a rough ending, and then leave the manuscript for a couple of weeks or so. Then it will be time to print it out and try to read it with a fresh eye. An eye that has a hatchet ready!