Firehouse Forum! A Panel of Top Maritime Historians and Me!

Maine Coast Bookshop in Damariscotta, Maine is one of those endangered species, Bookstorus excellantus, the wonderful small independent bookstore. They sponsor a series of talks called the Firehouse Forum. Recently I had the opportunity to participate in one of their forums that centered on the maritime history of Maine and the wider world. Also on the panel were author and University of Maine professor Warren Riess and Lincoln Paine, whose most recent book is The Sea and Civilization.

The Firehouse Forum is now available to watch on-line. It's pretty fun, if I do say so myself. Enjoy!

Loved this Moose

I was taking my daily constitutional at the Rec Center in Brunswick, ME when this caught my eye. There were a number of large paintings done by local school kids, and this was a small part of one of them, but it really struck me. I love the look on the moose's face, his whole demeanor. The artist really caught something. Makes me want to put my arm around the blue moose and tell him everything is going to be all right.

This made me laugh more than it should have...

I'm not sure why this cracked me up so much, but I was doubled over...

Procrastination...

Okay, I may have waited a bit too long to get the cover on the boat...

Book Signing Hell

I read this the other day on my Classic Dave Barry Tear Off Calendar. This will resonate with any authors who have suffered through the humiliation of a less than stellar book signing:

The way a book signing is supposed to work is: You sit at a table, people come up with books they've purchased, and you sign them. Except that sometimes nobody buys your book. This is Author Hell. You sit there, at your little table, and people stare at you as they walk past, or ask you where the astrology books are. Or sometimes they pick up your book, examine it, and and then put it down as if its a piece of goat dung. After a while, the bookstore employees, feeling sorry for you, start lying. "Don't feel bad!" the say. "We had Madonna in here last week, and nobody came to see her, either!"

To Dave Barry's most accurate portrayal of Author Hell I would add one other issue - you are trapped at your table and thus considered fair game for every wacko who wants to expound on his political positions. I have a new policy. I will cut them off after the first sentence and ask, "Are you going to buy a book?" (they never do). Then I explain I will only listen to political rants if the rantee can first produce a copy of one of my books along with a receipt or some other proof of purchase.

Wifely Outrage!

In a fit of unreasonable passion, my wife made me get rid of these perfectly good Carhart pants, which for years had been reserved almost exclusively for ship work. Every tar stain and splatter of toxic bottom paint told a story. Ah, good by old friends! I'll wear you again in Fiddler's Green!

Dubh-linn - Coming Soon!

The literary world is abuzz!


Dubh-linn, the long-awaited sequel to Fin Gall, should soon be available as a Kindle download or paperback. Dubh-linn (the original Gaelic spelling for the city of Dublin) continues the adventures of Thorgrim Nightwolf, his son Harald, Ornolf the Restless and the rest, along with some new characters I genuinely enjoyed writing. After all the trouble they encountered in Fin Gall, Thorgrim (who only really went a-Viking to please Ornolf, he having done enough of that sort of thing to satisfy himself for a lifetime) is eager to get himself and Harald home to Norway. But when Brigit, heir to the throne of Tara and the object of Harald's passion, comes to them pleading for help in her effort to take the reins of power, the Vikings once again find themselves enmeshed in the bloody struggles for power that the Irish wage against one another.


And, on a completely different note... Frequent visitors to this blog might have noticed (or would have, if there were frequent visitors to this blog) that it has not been updated in a while. Technical difficulties. I don't seem to be able to post pictures anymore, and I hate making blog posts without pictures. Not sure why, I just like posting pictures. So, I'm trying to figure out the problem in my spare time. Which does not exist. Stand by...

Author Interview!

Writer Mary Jean Adams has posted an interview with me on her blog, aptly named Mary Jean Adams. In the interview I discuss some of the issues of self-publishing, pros and cons. My thanks to Mary Jean, I appreciate the opportunity to write about some of these issues I have been thinking quite a bit about.


I just got an e-mail from a BBC reporter who wants to do an interview about Ann Bonny and Mary Read. That should be fun. A number of my books were done as audio books by a British company. Amazing how much better one's writing sounds when it is read with a British accent!