Category Archives: Seastories
Joan Druett’s A Love of Adventure – Free Today & Tomorrow on Kindle
Joan Druett’s A Love of Adventure is free today and tomorrow as an Amazon Kindle edition. From our review, last August: Many of the classics of nautical literature are stories of young men who set off to sea, often compelled, in … Continue reading
Beckoning Ice & Hell Around the Horn – Free Today and Tomorrow on Kindle
Joan Druett’s Beckoning Ice, the fifth in her series of Wiki Coffin nautical mysteries, is free today and tomorrow on Kindle. Joan’s detective, Wiki Coffin, is a half-Maori, half-Yankee “linguister,” who is also the representative of American law and order with the … Continue reading
Free Books from Old Salt Press – Hell Around the Horn, The Beckoning Ice and A Love of Adventure
To celebrate the upcoming publication of Joan Druett’s Promise of Gold trilogy, Old Salt Press will be running a free book promotion for Rick Spilman’s Hell Around the Horn, and Joan Druett’s The Beckoning Ice and A Love of Adventure over the … Continue reading
Joan Druett Publishing with Old Salt Press
Joan Druett, the award winning maritime historian and novelist, will be publishing her Promise of Gold trilogy with Old Salt Press. The three novels; Judas Island, Calafia’s Kingdom, and Dearest Enemy; will be be published as e-books on Amazon in the next few days. Joan’s A … Continue reading
For Fans of Nautical Fiction – Astrodene’s Nautical Fiction Log Book & Quarterdeck
There are two wonderful newsletters for keeping up with what is going on in the world of nautical fiction - Astrodene’s Nautical Fiction Log Book, sponsored by David Haye’s Historic Naval Fiction website and Quarterdeck sponsored by McBooks Press. The March edition of … Continue reading
Writing Nautical Fiction: Seymour Hamilton Interviews Alaric Bond
Seymour Hamilton recently sat down for a trans-Atlantic interview with Alaric Bond. They discussed Bond’s Fighting Sail series of novels, in particular, and about writing nautical fiction, in general. It was a fascinating conversation. Seymour Hamilton is the author of the nautical fantasy … Continue reading
Last Chance to Get A Free Kindle Edition of Hell Around the Horn
The Kindle Edition of Hell Around the Horn will be free today through Monday, February 9 – 11th. Click here to download a copy. This is the second and last Kindle free promotion for the book. For those who have asked for … Continue reading
Review of ‘Hell Around the Horn’ in the Navy Fiction Blog
A wonderful review of ‘Hell Around the Horn‘ in the Navy Fiction blog. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel by Rick Spilman – actually his debut novel! Spilman knows ships and the sea. He has worked as a naval architect and … Continue reading
One Million Pageview Giveaway – Hell Around the Horn Free Today on Kindle, Enter to Win the Paperback
To continue our celebration of the Old Salt Blog passing one million pageviews, today, December 20, and tommorrow, December 21, we are giving away free copies of the Kindle edition of my new nautical thriller, Hell Around the Horn. Click here to go … Continue reading
Joan Druett’s The Beckoning Ice, A Wiki Coffin Mystery – A Review
Joan Druett’s The Beckoning Ice, the fifth in her series of Wiki Coffin nautical mysteries, begins in 1839, on the sealer Betsey of Stonington, homeward bound from “a short but very profitable season far south of Cape Horn.” The schooner is … Continue reading
The Tainted Prize (Under Admiralty Orders – The Oliver Quintrell Series) by M.C. Muir : a Review
The Tainted Prize is Margaret Muir’s second book of the Oliver Quintrell series. After sending Captain Quintrell to the bottom of the world in pursuit of Floating Gold, the admiralty is confident in the good captain’s discretion. It is 1803. The Peace … Continue reading
Port Strike Ends & How Containerization Shaped the Modern World
The eight day port strike on the West Coast is over, thank goodness. On November 27th, a group of 450 clerks in the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach, who had worked without a contract for over two years, walked out. … Continue reading
Moby Dick Marathon NYC November 16–18
The New York Marathon was cancelled after Superstorm Sandy swept through New York two weeks ago. The New York Moby Dick Marathon is on, however. What is a Moby Dick Marathon, you might ask? It is “ the first-ever marathon-style reading … Continue reading
Melville’s Moby Dick – Contemporary Reviews and Sales Figures
Yesterday we posted about the Google Doodle honoring Herman Melville‘s Moby Dick on the anniversary of its publication. The reviews of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick when it was published in 1851 were decidedly mixed. There were indeed positive reviews to balance the … Continue reading
Moby Dick – The Masterpiece that Ruined Herman Melville’s Career Honored By Google Doodle
Today the Google Doodle honors Herman Melville‘s masterpiece, Moby Dick, on this the 161st anniversary of its publication. Ironically, the book that has garnered Melville immortality also effectively ruined his career. Known as a writer of semi-autobiographical stories, neither the critics … Continue reading
Hell Around the Horn – the History (and Fiction) Behind the Novel
In writing historical fiction, researching the history can be challenging. When researching my novel, Hell Around the Horn, I discovered that the three primary sources for the history behind the novel, two memoirs and the Official Ship’s Log, disagreed with each other in significant details and … Continue reading
Historical Novel Society Conference 2012 and Hell Around the Horn Available in Print
The Internet is an odd place. There are writers who I feel that I know well and consider to be friends, and yet that I have never met in person. This evening, I will be leaving to attend the Historical Novel Society Conference … Continue reading
Alaric Bond Reviews Hell Around the Horn
It is highly gratifying to have my work reviewed favorably by an author that I admire. Alaric Bond, author of the Fighting Sail Series, is indeed such an author. (See our review of his latest, The Patriot’s Fate, here.) Bond recently reviewed … Continue reading
Sailor Twain or the Mermaid in the Hudson by Mark Siegel
I have been a fan of Sailor Twain for some time. Sailor Twain, or The Mermaid in the Hudson is a webcomic by Mark Siegel. He has been posting pages online every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the tale unfolding in … Continue reading
The Patriot’s Fate by Alaric Bond – A Review
Alaric Bond’s The Patriot’s Fate, the fifth in his Fighting Sail series, is an exciting nautical adventure that is also a rich and fascinating voyage through the history, politics and complex divided loyalties of Britain at the end of the … Continue reading
