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Pirates of Pensacola

Keith Thomson joins us this month to talk about blogging, writing, and becoming a published author for the first time.

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BOOK (n.): A printed or written literary work
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BOOK CULT (n.): An online community obsessed with books, blogs, and the people who make them.
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Monday, 20 June 2005
An Actual Pirate Compelled Me Write To Write My Novel
Topic: research
I grew up in a small coastal town in Connecticut that for me was whatever the opposite of fun is. However, as anyone who’s looked out at it knows, however, the ocean offers boundless possibilities. There was a somewhat famous pirate in the early 19th Century named William Thompson. He spelled Thomson the wrong way (with a P), but pirates weren’t known for their literacy. He disappeared in around 1825, but being eight, you can look out to sea and believe there’s a pretty good chance your pirate ancestor’s mast might appear on the horizon one morning, or that his proxy might show up and say, “Kid, we need you to go on an adventure to get gold.”

This is basically the premise of my book, “Pirates of Pensacola.” A landlubbing accountant’s life is anything but exciting until his estranged pirate father shows up after twenty-some years in jail and says, “Let’s hit the sea, lad, there’s treasure to be got.”

Incidentally, a common misnomer about pirates is they buried treasure. Think about it. You swing through cannon fire and onto an enemy deck full of dark smoke with rapiers whining all about. You somehow manage to persevere and get away with a bunch of gold. Why in the hell would you drop anchor at some island and stick it in a hole? William Thompson did bury treasure though. Click here for details of Capt. Thompson’s treasure

P.S. This, by the way, is Capt. Thompson:






Posted by Nelson Cooke at 12:01 AM EDT | Post Comment | View Comments (5) | Permalink
Updated: Monday, 13 June 2005 11:01 AM EDT

Tuesday, 21 June 2005 - 11:19 PM EDT

Name: test

test

Wednesday, 22 June 2005 - 12:33 AM EDT

Name: Tony

Keith, for years I've had this idea --looming in the dark recesses of my mind about a futureboy who goes back into time in order to redeem his family name. Great thing is, the story has everything that has ever wowed me about science fiction. Trouble is, the story has everything that has ever wowed me about science fiction, I'm worried about keeping it original. Seeing that there've been dozens of pirate stories written, how did you manage to keep things "yours" so to speak? Or did you not? Hmm maybe I really should check out the book.

Wednesday, 22 June 2005 - 9:31 AM EDT

Name: Keith
Home Page: http://piratesofpensacola.com

This pirate story is set in modern times, and the protagonist is a landlubbing accountant from Florida, so it didn't cross my mind to check for similar stories. As to your story, it sounds good, and genre pieces by and large are not reinventions of the literary wheel--the originality is in the execution. If the protagonist is a skateboarder who befriends a local mad scientist and they travel back to the future in a rigged-up car activated by a stroke of lightning at midnight, that might be getting a little too close to what's been done.

Wednesday, 22 June 2005 - 3:46 PM EDT

Name: Tony

I'd say it's more along the lines of "Back to the Future" meets "Star Trek" meets "Star Wars" meets "Blazing Saddles" and there again that meeting "Weird Science"... along with some Isaac Asimov android stuff.

Darn that sounds interesting, they should have a real writer do it.

Friday, 24 June 2005 - 12:09 AM EDT

Name: Redraspberry

Did you ever dress up as a pirate during Halloween when you were a kid?

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