The Following Sea…

I know I’ve been silent for a while. Okay, for quite a while. But I’ve been working diligently, despite palm trees and sunny swimming pools and lobster specials…

But it’s done. Finished. Its ready to rock and roll. The Following Sea was uploaded today to Amazon and  Smashwords. (As of this morning Amazon fixed the link so it should be working okay)

In the meantime, yes, the third book in the Pirate Wolf series is finished. My first foray back into disciplined writing after an eight year hiatus. I did dabble a bit and excercise my brain-box with What the Heart Sees, the short story that appeared in Masters of Seduction, and that made me realize how truly hard this business is. Sounds easy. Pick up a pen and start writing, or, for non-troglodytes, crank up the puter or iPad and start typing. Yeah, right. I am reminded once again of Val on Knots Landing (told you I was old) who decided to write a book, sat down at her neat little desk in her ultra neat little living room, with her makeup on, her hair fixed, and wearing a neat velour jump suit. She took a clean sheet of paper, got a thoughtful look on her face…and typed:  Chapter One.  Within three episodes they were booking her for author signings and she had a bestseller on her hands.

We all wish it was that easy.

Unfortunately most writing involves solitary confinement in some form or another. Personally, I have to lock myself away in absolute silence, with no distractions and a whole whack of research books scattered around me. I sort of knew I was in trouble when I wasn’t finished The Following Sea by Christmas, as I had hoped. But surgery, a family crisis, and an ex husband who doesn’t know when to quit kept getting in the way, so I had to pack everything up…notes, books, research…and schlep it all down to Florida with me.  Distractions everywhere. Noise all around me. But thanks to some great support from some great friends down here, we all managed to get it done. By “we” I mean the two ladies…ex schoolteachers…who volunteered (sorta) to be readers for me, and to catch those silly mistakes the fingers make when they’re typing slower than I’m thinking and strange words show up where they shouldn’t. So big thanks to Gaile Rowlandson and Marlyn Podd…and really, to the rest of the ladies who eased the stress by having card games every few days. I might have been seeing Aces in my hand, but I was thinking about pirates and sunken treasure and lost galleons. Always thinking about plots and characters and how write them out of a corner….which is another curse of a writer. That, and staying up until 3am to write because that’s when it’s quiet and there are no distractions *s*

For those who may not be familiar with the Dante family, the story starts with Across A Moonlit Sea, when the Pirate Wolf, Simon Dante, wields a mighty cutlass and sails with Sir Francis Drake to burn the Spanish port of Cadiz. Along the way he meets his match in the Black Swan, aka Isabeau Spence, who navigates her way into his stony heart.  The second book is The Iron Rose and the story is about Juliet Dante, daughter of the Pirate Wolf, who captains her own ship and rescues a velvet-clad nobleman from certain doom when his ship comes under attack. Together they foil a nefarious plan by Spain to launch a second armada against England. The third book is The Following Sea, and is Gabriel Dante’s story. A bit of swashing, a bit a buckling, some sea-battles and land battles and a sunken treasure ship lost for twenty years bring Gabriel and Evangeline together, another unlikely couple who eventually find out they like each other very much. Hey, it’s a romance.

My thanks to all the readers who have been so patient waiting for this story. You have no idea how much more pressure that adds…but seriously, it’s a great kind of pressure and I wouldn’t trade my little job for any other. I mean really, where else can you go to work every day in a different country, a different century, wearing great costumes, and risking life and limb in deliciously perilous situations? All that and do whatever you want with the hunkiest man your imagination can put together. Would I trade that to be a lawyer?

Newp.

The Following Sea. at Smashwords, for all reading devices

The Following Sea at Amazon

Available now.

I hope you enjoy.