Let us Talk of Many Things; of Books and Queens and Pirates, of Mystery and Kings...: The Coffee Pot Book Club BRONZE AWARD WINNER

or... the Tail (Tale ... see what I did there?)

of How and Why the Mermaid Sang!

I received this email on Monday 12th September from the Coffee Pot Book Club:

"I am pleased to announce that When The Mermaid Sings has been awarded a Bronze Medal for Supernatural Historical Fiction. Congratulations."

Well, of course I'm absolutely delighted!

What I get as a bronze winner:

*Digital award seal in PNG file for use on book cover/promotional artwork

* 1 week advertising on The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Sidebar worth £10

and a chance to crow a bit! :-)

I originally wrote When The Mermaid Sings at an invitation from Silverwood Books Ltd who wanted to publish e-book 'quick read' novellas as prequels or additions to any series written by their top writers. Mermaid was to be connected to the Sea Witch Voyages of Captain Jesamiah Acorne.

I pondered doing a short adventure to slot in with the current series, but had received several e-mails asking about how Jesamiah became a pirate, where did he get the idea for his blue ribbons, and wanting more about his early life about the pirate ship Mermaid.

So I decided to write the story of just that - how he became a pirate.

It was not all that difficult to think up the opening few chapters as I had written them back in 2005/2006 when I had the idea for Sea Witch. Those first few chapters of When the Mermaid Sings were the original opening chapters of Sea Witch. Chapters – and I might add, the entire adventure – which were (rudely) dismissed by my then agent, who was scathing about pirates not being of any interest to adults, that ‘Acorne’ was a stupid name, and the book and idea was rubbish. (The typed manuscript came back to me with red lines across the pages and sarcastic comments written in the margins.)

Which only goes to prove... what do agents know?

The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie had recently been released. Jack Sparrow was becoming an icon – for adults far more than children. And pirate-based adventures as novels (for adults) were a rarity back then.

I wrote Sea Witch because of POtC, that first movie. I wanted to read something similar. A dashing rogue of a hero pirate, a nautical adventure joined with the touch of fantasy supernatural and a blend of Indiana Jones, Horatio Hornblower, James Bond and Jack Aubrey – written for adults with adult content. I wanted the fantasy/supernatural to be believable (Indian Jones or Star Wars sort of believable). Young Adult novels had the fantasy and supernatural, but no adult leaning – enjoyable but without, let’s say, the ‘intimate romance’. I couldn’t find a single novel that fitted the bill.

So I wrote my own. And was devastated when the agent thoroughly trashed it.

We parted company when the agent said ‘don’t bother re-writing it, I couldn’t bear to read it again.’ And added in that same telephone conversation, for good measure: ‘Random House has dropped you.’ (Coincidence? I’ll let you decide.)

So that was almost the end of my career as a writer.

I spent two weeks sobbing, then decided ‘Oh bu**er her!’. I approached a couple of publishers who 'loved Sea Witch' but expressed that '...as it covers two genres it would be difficult to market.' (Honestly, publishing houses just didn't have much imagination back then! Square pegs had to be in square holes.)

I was downhearted as I KNEW this series had the potential to be good. Self Publishing was on the rise... so I went Indie with my books returned from Random House AND Sea Witch. I made a mess of it to begin with (an assisted publish company that had lovely staff but a less than honest M.D. who fleeced everyone.)

Then I went to Silverwood (a very reliable company) and am now self published with my own Taw River Press. (With some of my titles traditional mainstream in the US and Germany)

I am about to publish Jesamiah Acorne’s Sixth Voyage (Gallows Wake) the books were picked up by an Italian publisher and grabbed by a US Independent Publisher. They sell well and are immensely popular. (I think!)

I took Mermaid back from Silverwood a short while ago in order to publish it in paperback format as well as an e-book. I extended the original story with some additional scenes, and some of the supernatural elements are to form a background storyline to a US-based pirate boardgame which is in the planning stages (hopefully to be released next year)

What is Mermaid about?

A prequel short read story to the Sea Witch Voyages of Captain Jesamiah Acorne

When the only choice is to run, where do you run to?

When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen?

Or do you drown in the embrace of a mermaid?

Throughout childhood, Jesamiah Mereno has suffered the bullying of his elder half-brother. Then, not quite fifteen years old, and on the day they bury their father, Jesamiah hits back. In consequence, he flees his Virginia home, changes his name to Jesamiah Acorne, and joins the crew of his father’s seafaring friend, Captain Malachias Taylor, aboard the privateer, Mermaid.

He makes enemies, sees the ghost of his father, wonders who is the Cornish girl he hears in his mind – and tries to avoid the beguiling lure of a sensuous mermaid...

An early coming-of-age tale of the young Jesamiah Acorne, set in the years before he becomes a pirate and Captain of the Sea Witch.

“Ms Hollick has skilfully picked up the threads that she alludes to in the main books and knitted them together to create a Jesamiah that we really didn't know.” Richard Tearle senior reviewer, Discovering Diamonds

“Captain Jesamiah Acorne is as charming a scoundrel as a fictional pirate should be. A resourceful competitor to Captain Jack Sparrow!” Antoine Vanner author

“Helen Hollick has given us the answer to that intriguing question that Jesamiah fans have been aching for – how did he start his sea-going career as a pirate?” Alison Morton, author

“I really enjoyed the insight offered into Jesamiah's backstory, and found the depiction of our teenage hero very moving.” Anna Belfrage, author

“I loved this little addendum to the Jesamiah series. I always had a soft spot for the Lorelei stories and enjoyed that the author cleverly brought her over from the Rhine valley to fit into the story.” Amazon Reviewer

How the story begins:

~ WEIGH ANCHOR ~

From the time when Time was young, legends sprang from the people who told the tales of the past. Legends of hope and heroes, of hatred and enmity. Legends of devils and gods, of strength and courage, cruelty and cowardice. Of life and love, bitter jealousy and grieving loss.

One such legend was of Lorelei, a daughter of Tethys, the Spirit of the Sea. When Lorelei fell in love with the King of the Earth, she turned away from her mother and became mortal so that she could be his lover. But jealous, Tethys rose up in a storm and swallowed the land and the palace where the king lived, taking his life and the lives of many others. The people who survived, but who had lost everything, blamed Lorelei and cast her out. With her belly swelling from the child she carried, she wandered the shore, hoping her love would somehow return to her.

But he did not.

Again the sea came, and again, until the people grew afraid.

“The sea is angry,” cried their priest. “We must offer the Sea Goddess a gift to appease her wrath.” So, when Lorelei gave birth to a son, the priest took him while his mother slept, laid him in a basket and cast it adrift upon the sea. Lorelei was distraught for her second loss. Bereft of all reason and hope, she hurled herself from the cliffs and became a mermaid once again.

On certain nights, when the moon rises and the stars are at their brightest, Lorelei can be heard singing a lament for her lost lover and son. But not until the white rainbow arcs down to caress the black sea will they return to her embrace, and their loving smiles end her lonely grief…

Chapter ONE

Virginia, Summer 1708

Smoke drifted into the star-scattered sky, and across the river the acrid stench of burning wood, tar, rope and canvas trailed behind as if reluctant to leave the soot-blackened jetty. Jesamiah, three-quarters of the way between fourteen and fifteen years of age, too young to be a man, too old to be a child, stood silent, stunned and helpless, as tears trailed down his face, leaving white streaks in the smoke-grimed smudges. He had tried to save her, his beloved boat, Acorn, but the fire had taken hold too quickly. All he had of her – of anything now – were bitter memories to torment his mind and twist in tangled knots around his heart.

“Well, tha’ be tha’ then,” Alistair Smallwood, the elected mayor of the nearest town, Urbanna, remarked as he turned away from the window and sipped at his glass of wine. “A vessel goin’ up be allus a spectacle, eh, Mr Mereno?”

Ignoring the inferior burr of the man’s Cornish accent, Phillipe Mereno acknowledged the remark with a polite nod. He was Master here now; the house, the plantation, the tobacco, the slaves. The money. All his, and if his younger half-brother thought he was going to get any of it – and that included that boat – he could think again.