My First Published Work

 

A couple of weeks ago, I published my first book. Well, kind of. To be more accurate, I published my novelette on Amazon for a general release. 

Gentlemen of Fortune is the first book in a series of adventure stories I'm writing featuring the adventures (and misadventures) of the wandering scoundrels Kestrel and Scar. Kestrel is a romantic thrill-seeking English libertine whose impulsive nature tends to land him in sticky situations. Scar, on the other hand, is a cynical Antiguan ex-slave who seeks his fortunes as a pirate while trying to keep Kestrel out of trouble. They travel the Caribbean (and sometimes further afield) in search of wine, women, and song while crossing paths with numerous unsavoury elements from all walks of life. You could say I wanted to do some Pirates of the Caribbean-type stories but without the fantasy elements which bog down the later films.

In this story, we follow the pair as they're hired as bodyguards by Rosanna Barclay, a former lady-in-waiting who has arrived in Port Royal in search of her missing father, Captain Nathaniel Barclay. They soon learn that he was a pirate who disappeared after attacking a French payroll carrier, and double-crossed his sponsor, Lord Pettigrew. The race is soon on to find Captain Barclay before Pettigrew does.

I started writing Gentlemen of Fortune in 2015, and it went through numerous re-writes over the following years while I exercised other story ideas using the characters. I eventually decided to self-publish it this year for one of my final-year university assignments. It was being considered by one publisher at the time, but they were willing to accommodate the assignment. I printed a couple of paperbacks to submit for assessment and sell at the Book Room at Swanwick. Since the Swanwick copies sold well, I decided to withdraw my submission from the publisher and self-publish via KDP.

With all that said, what happens now? Well, I've got a couple of other Kestrel and Scar stories in the works set before and after Gentlemen of Fortune. I'm currently working on an immediate follow-up, The Pirate King, in which Kestrel and Scar learn that Pettigrew isn't the only one with a score to settle with Captain Barclay.

In the meantime, Gentlemen of Fortune is now available on Amazon in e-book and paperback formats. I'm also planning a launch event on my Facebook page (unless it goes down again). There'll be a pirate trivia quiz with a signed paperback for the winner, along with music and cool art I found on Pinterest.

Bring me that horizon, and happy writing.