Man in the Crescent Moon, a Pirates of the Narrow Seas Adventure, Available in paperback and ebook

Man in the Crescent Moon, a Pirates of the Narrow Seas Adventure, Available in paperback and ebook

26 July 2013 — Perryville, Maryland

Keibooks is pleased to announce that Man in the Crescent Moon, the latest installment in the Pirates of the Narrow Seas series by M. Kei, is now available in trade paperback and e-book. Man in the Crescent Moon opens a new story as we meet Captain Isam Tangle as a youth of nineteen, just starting the career that will ultimately make him the most notorious corsair of his age. 

The adventure begins when a Turkish corsair, the Grey Wolf, under command of the short but fierce Rajet Rais, takes refuge in Isam’s hometown. Pursued by a Spanish frigate with guns blazing, the town must defend itself from the unexpected onslaught. Much to the young corsair’s frustration, his uncle is not the aggressive kind of leader he wants to follow. He is drawn to the fiercely effective Rajet Rais and joins his crew. Rajet promises to teach him everything he needs to know to be a successful corsair—including the ways of men between the sheets.

Meanwhile, Isam’s relatives are causing him grief. One of his female cousins runs off with an unsuitable man while Isam falls in love with the man’s Spanish slave. He and two of his male cousins, the clever but untrustworthy Samir and the loyal but dimwitted Umar, must pursue the runaway bride. Unfortunately, their adversary proves to be dangerous and resourceful. He ambushes them at multiple points along the trail, then bears false witness against them so that they are arrested by the local chieftain.

Meanwhile, the furious Spaniards have laid siege to Isam’s hometown and are shelling it to destruction. Refugees stream out of the city to be preyed upon by bandits as order breaks down. The sword and musket become the rule of the day, and where a bold frontal attack fails, the Spaniards substitute guile, sabotage, and assassination. Menaced from all sides, not trusted by his own government, Isam must use his wits to triumph over his enemies and defend his home.

Man in the Crescent Moon is a complete story that can be read separately from Pirates of the Narrow Seas, or in conjunction with it. Those who already know the characters will be pleased to watch the mighty Kapitan Pasha came of age, while those who don’t will enjoy the story of a young man with burning ambition. The adventure has all the hallmarks expected from Pirates of the Narrow Seas: diverse and engaging characters, storms at sea, desperate ship fights, hand-to-hand combat, captures, rescues, and escapes, all told with authentic detail.

Praise for previous novels in the series:

“A true literary first: a gay seafaring novel that’s every bit as good with the ‘gay’ stuff as the ‘seafaring’ stuff [...] Pirates of the Narrow Seas has thrilling action sequences, complex, conflicted characters, and a healthy dose of contemporary realism.”—Steve Donoghue, Open Letter A Monthly Arts and Literature Review

“A swashbuckling tale full of colour, adventure and romance – a good read!”—Gerry Burnie, Gerry B’s Book Reviews

“an action-packed swashbuckler of the Captain Blood tradition”—Nan Hawthorne, That’s All She Read

“well rounded individual personalities which it is a joy to follow” and “Recommended Reading”—Astrodene’s Historic Naval Fiction

“Please, Mr. Kei, write us another.”—Candice E. Frook, Amazon.com

The Sallee Rovers, the first book in the series, won a Sweet Revolution Award in the category of “best full cast” and “Judge’s pick”, and also won a 4th/Honorable Mention from the Rainbow Awards in the category of “Best gay historical fiction.”

Available in trade paperback and ebooks from: 

Keibooks

P O Box 516

Perryville, Maryland, USA

http://AtlasPoetica.org

Or CreateSpace <https://www.createspace.com/4308969>, or your favorite online retailer. 

Pirates of the Narrow Seas Now in Print

Keibooks

P O Box 1118 * Elkton, Maryland, USA * 21922-1118

Email: Keibooks@gmail.com * WEB: www.Lulu.com/Keibooks

Date: 25 January 2010

PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release

Pirates of the Narrow Seas award-winning novel by M. Kei published by Keibooks

In Pirates of the Narrow Seas, Lt. Peter Thorton of the 18th century British navy must struggle to come out gay while surviving storms at sea, ship to ship battles, kidnapping and more in his quest for true love and honor. Pirates of the Narrow Seas is an expertly crafted swashbuckler brimming with authentic detail and fully realized portraits of life at sea, written by a tall ship sailor and internationally acclaimed tanka poet, M. Kei. 

"Pirates of the Narrow Seas was a dashing good tale full of adventure and mayhem"~Sage Whistler, author of 'Broken'

Perryville, Maryland — 1 February 2010 — Pirates of the Narrow Seas  by M. Kei has been published as a trade paperback by Keibooks of Perryville, Maryland. Winner of a Sweet Revolution Award in the category of 'best full cast' and a special 'Judge's Pick,' it features the nautical adventures of Lt. Peter Thorton, a gay man struggling to serve with honor during the Age of Sail. Facing numerous perils, including his fellow officers, the enemy at sea, corsairs, storms, ship battles, duels, and kidnapping, Thorton is torn between being true to himself or true to his duty to country, god, and king. 

A fan of nautical fiction by Frederick Marryat, C. S. Forester, and Patrick O'Brien, Kei was frustrated by gay characters receiving short shrift in all their novels. "Every reader wants to find a character that he can identify with and dream of a world different and better than his own. Unfortunately, they simply didn't exist. So I decided to write one for my own amusement." 

Although the inventors of Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey and Richard Bolitho are more famous than Kei, he has one unique advantage: he actually crews aboard 'wooden sail.' He knows first hand the perils of having his hand accidentally pinned to the samson post with the vessel swinging out of control in a raging current and pressing wind. His personal experience of the privations, dangers, and beauty of life aboard a wooden sailing vessel creates a rich resonance as he depicts the lives and duties of 'iron men and wooden ships.' 

With a keen sense of what heroism really is, his characters overcome great challenges—not with a magic compass or animal sidekick—but with a derring-do based on real courage, skill, and intelligence. Pirates of the Narrow Seas is a spell-binding adventure in the best tradition of the sea yarn, with a main character who also happens to be gay.

Winner: Sweet Revolution Award for 'best full cast' and a special 'Judge's Pick.'

"Pirates of the Narrow Seas was a dashing good tale full of adventure and mayhem, slaves and saviors, and the rigors and perils of life at sea. Pirates of the Narrow Seas follows the life of Peter Thorton and his journey as a poor lieutenant with little social influence and dangerous secrets. I found Thorton to be a well-rounded, likable character; at times courageous and admirable and in turns despondent and pitiful. Watching him develop throughout the story; finding his true self and place in the world, made for an engaging story."~Sage Whistler, author of 'Broken'

"I've read this book several times and each time has kept me spellbound. I am not gay and I found the romance handled with such class and sensuality that I was completely enthralled and became emotionally vested in seeing the men in the book form and live through their relationships. This is all set against a compelling and highly-detailed background of history, nautical derring-do and quick-paced action. I am desperate for additional novels in this series to be released!"~Chele Kraus

Available online at <http://www.Lulu.com/Keibooks> or your favorite bookseller. Price: $18.00 USD. ISBN 978-0-557-26719-4. Trade paperback, 280 pages, 6.14" x 9.21", perfect binding, 60# cream interior paper, black and white interior ink, 100# exterior paper, full-color exterior ink. Cover art attributed to Thomas Buttersworth, modified by L. S. Alexander. International buyers may wish to utilize Amazon.com or other major bookseller. 

About the Author

M. Kei served his apprenticeship aboard a skipjack, a traditional wooden sailboat used to dredge for oysters on the Chesapeake Bay. Most recently, he has become a crewman for a square-rigged tall ship which is a reproduction of a 17th century vessel, complete with lateen mizzensail, whipstaff, watersail, and a pair of ship's cats. An accomplished poet, he is internationally known for specializing in the short lyric form known as 'tanka.' He is the editor-in-chief of Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka and the author of Slow Motion : The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack, a log he kept in verse form while making several extended trips aboard a skipjack. Over 1500 of his short poems have been published in ten countries and six languages. He has published eight full-length books of poetry and fiction.

For media inquiries or to arrange and interview with the author, contact M. Kei through Keibooks. Email: Keibooks@gmail.com. 

About Keibooks

Keibooks is the small press founded by M. Kei to publish distinctive works of literature while allowing him full creative control. Keibooks' first project was the highly acclaimed anthology of tanka love poems, Fire Pearls : Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart, which became an instant classic and established M. Kei as an editor as well as poet of considerable ability. It was followed by his first collection of short poetry, Heron Sea, Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay, sealing the poet's identity as a poet of the Chesapeake. Keibooks also publishes Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka, an international journal that focuses on poetry of place as rendered in tanka and related forms. 

HMS Victory Firing a Broadside

If you are a regular (or even an irregular) reader of my blog, you know of my interest in nautical history of the 18th and 19th centuries. While I'm more interested in smaller vessels, especially fore-and-aft rigged craft, the sheer impressiveness of a British battleship in action cannot be denied.

The link above will take you to a web page with a video of HMS Victory firing her first broadside since Trafalgar. Even loaded with salute charges, its an impressive display of power. Note that it takes 56 seconds to fire a rolling broadside. Imagine that you are on the receiving end of that barrage, in a ship made of wood . . . Hollywood does not do justice to the reality of naval combat.

Which leads me to a pet peeve with Pirates of the Caribbean: Remember the climatic battle between the Flying Dutchman, the Black Pearl, and the British battleship? The ship in the movie was a triple-decker like Victory. The models are not to scale; the Flying Dutchman and the Black Pearl would actually have been only about two thirds of the size they appear in that scene. The guns they carry, judging by the size, are about nine-pounders (capable of throwing a nine pound shot), which was common and normal for vessels of their size. The battleship would have been armed with eighteen-pounders, and a great many more of them. The hulls of the two smaller vessels would have been anywhere from about 2 - 6 inches in thick; the hull of the battleship would have been 10-14 inches thick. In short, the British battleship should have blown the two smaller vessels to hell.

Armament for the HMS Victory: 30 42-pounders, 28 24-pounders, 30 12-pounders, 12 6-pounders (mounted on the fore and stern castles). Total armament: 100 guns. Total weight of metal in a single broadside: 1146 pounds. She was the biggest ship of her day, and the movie battleship isn't quite that big, but still . . . Even if she were only a 88 gun ship, she was still throwing in excess of 900 pounds in her broadside.

Compare that to a privateer of similar size and armament to the Flying Dutchman or Black Pearl: 10 - 12 guns in broadside, with 9 pound shot. Total weight of metal per broadside: 96 pounds. Times 2 vessels: 192 pounds.

Maybe they got lucky and had 12 pound shot in something as big as a large frigate: Total weight of metal in broadside: 240 pounds. Times 2 vessels: 480 pounds. Explain to me how a pair of small vessels throwing half the weight of metal beat a battleship?

I forgot: it was magic!

When I watch that scene, I see lots of courts martial for the various British officers for total incompetence and cowardice. And don't tell me they were taking orders from the East India Company guy -- since when do civilians command battleships?

Go watch the HMS Victory thunder out her broadside and tell me who you think would REALLY win that match up!

~K~

Pirates of the Narrow Seas

As a few of my friends know, I have been writing a novel, entitled Pirates of the Narrow Seas, a historical nautical adventure set in the eighteenth century and featuring a gay protagonist. I'm a fan of nautical fiction, but being gay myself, I got rather tired of all the heterosexual heroes. Churchill is said to have named "rum, sodomy, and the las"' as the traditions of the British naval service, and the Articles of War, which governed naval conduct at sea, prescribed the death penalty for "unnatural and detestable sin of buggery and sodomy with man or beast" . You don't outlaw things you think are irrelevant.

Besides, gay men have always existed, and they had to make a living somehow. At the time gentlemen had to purchase their ranks in the army, but a man with no money could, with a little effort and modest funding, obtain a position as a midshipman in the navy and thereby hope to work himself up through the ranks based on a combination of merit. His rise was more certain and more rapid if he had political influence, but competence and valor could provide a man with a successful career without it.

It also struck me that a gay protagonist had a built in set of challenges that would make his life more difficult and more interesting, and give a fresh approach to a rather hoary genre. Reading the series featuring Jack Aubrey, Horatio Hornblower, Richard Bolitho, and other 20th century nautical series, I was struck how alike they seemed -- due, no doubt, to the authors' -- and audience's -- endless fascination with men like Cochrane and Nelson. I found the works I enjoyed most to be the older works, such as Mr. Midshipman Easy by Marryat -- which is a both a parody and reinforcement of the navy of the early 19th century, and the even earlier Adventures of Roderick Ransom, a picaresque dating to the middle of the 18th century, in which our feckless hero parodies various employments, ranging from gentleman to scholar to doctor to naval officer.

Startlingly, it was in Roderick Ransom that I came across the only gay character I've encountered in the genre. While serving as a surgeon's mate at sea, Ransom serves under tyrant of a captain, who is then replaced by a puffball of a captain. The pouffe show that the stereotype of the effeminate, histrionic gay male was established very early in the West. On the other hand, he is a captain, and although he's suspected of having an affair with his doctor, the doctor at least is portrayed in neutral light and neither of them are censured or punished. Other works from the middle of the 18th century include vignettes with gay characters, but they vanish by the end of the century. One wonders why . . .

Quite aside from that tiny glimpse into the subject of gay men at sea, I found Roderick Ransom to be a very useful reference work with regards to the morals, livelihood and especially the profanity of men on the bottom edge of the middle class at the time. There is comfort in knowing that 'son-of-a-bitch' has been a choice epithet for two and a half centuries. In the whirlwind of the 21st century, some things remain the same.

So, one day in March of this year, I through down the book I was reading, and said, "Bother, I'll write something for my own entertainment." The character, Peter Thorton, a very junior lieutenant in the British navy of the mid-18th century, sprang full grown from my head like Athena leaping from the brow of Zeus. I had only a vague idea where he was going when I launched him. With no goal in mind, content to write whatever tale happened to emerge, whether long or short, I figured I might get a story of some five or six chapters out of him. 130,000 words and forty-six chapters later, we have a novel.

I realized the story had legs somewhere around chapter ten when Thorton, aboard His Britannic Majesty's frigate Ajax, encounters a Spanish galley founding in a storm in the Bay of Biscay. Chained on board was a rogue of a corsair captain, one of nearly two hundred slaves being left to drown as the panicking Spanish abandoned the galley. Released by Thorton, and commanded by Isam Rais al-Tangueli, known thereafter to the English as 'Captain Tangle', the slaves save the galley and promptly begin raiding the Spanish, with Thorton stranded aboard.

Writing for my own entertainment I didn't worry too much about historicity. The first draft came out in a rush in a mere ten days. But as I shared chapters with friends who enjoyed it, I realized it was a romping good tale and there were probably other people that would enjoy it too. That meant I had to address the issue of history. I have great respect for history; I enjoy it. But I didn't want to let the facts get in the way of a good tale, either. Thus my history deviated from the actual history of the middle of the eighteenth century.

I also had to deal with the fact that I was depicting Muslim characters and a Muslim nation with what I felt was a less than thorough education in the subject. I read the Koran and consulted it frequently, and also researched Muslim jurisprudence, discovered that the Maliki school dominated thought in North Africa, and considered my options. I finally decided to make a fictionalized country drawn from historic material. There are a great many fictional countries in literature, but none in the canon of British naval fiction. The British tales are almost always set during the Napoleonic Wars, with excursions into areas and times around that. I was tired of Napoleonic Wars and the rather predictable course of events. For a while I thought the War of Jenkins Ear might suit my purposes, but it didn't, quite, whereas the Seven Years War was immensely longer and more complicated than I really wanted to deal with. As a consequence, the political events of the novel are drawn from a variety of things that happened in the seventeenth century, but chart their own course to serve the purpose of the novel.

I also deliberately kept the scale small, ship-level, with much emphasis on the daily/weekly life at sea. This suited the complicated relationship between Thorton and Tangle, while still providing plenty of scope for individual peril and heroism, storms, duels, battles at sea, and the other action and nautical procedures expected of the genre. It even admits a certain humor, as when the excessively tall Captain Tangle is obliged to go to battle dressed in a pair of pants made from a tablecloth, there not being any trousers aboard to fit him.

I had a great deal of fun writing it, and I'm happy with the way it turned out, while being well aware of some of the criticisms that might be leveled at it. I must say I was very heartened when reading a Hornblower novel I detected an error that made me realize C. S. Forester had never gone to sea -- rising storms do not blow hot, no matter how sweltering the day is: they announce themselves with a clammy heat that chills the sweat on the skin. Hornblower has been turned into numerous movies and even a mini-series in spite of his author being an armchair captain. Maybe my readers will be kind to me.

Once I decided I had a tale worth sharing I had to figure out how to share it. I didn't bother to offer it to any of the publishers of the usual nautical adventures as I figured they wouldn't be receptive to a gay protagonist. Maybe that is small-minded of me. The usual gay small presses don't publish such things unless they are erotica, which Narrows Seas isn't. Oh, there are some steamy scenes in which Tangle does his best to seduce Thorton, but Thorton's too busy being British to succumbed entirely to his blandishments. Thorton's struggle to cope with his sexuality given the extreme repression on one side and potential license on the other side is one of the subtexts. That makes it a 'coming out' story, albeit a very different one than is usual.

It was my daughter that suggested I use the site she enjoys, fictionpress.com. I have some qualms about using an amateur site, but it's free, and although they don't support Macs, they do support RTF, so I was able to convert my work and get it uploaded with only a moderate amount of hassle. My goal is to be read, so giving away something for free on the Internet seems the cheapest and easiest way to get a readership. I hunted for other sites out there on which to publish a novel length work, tried some of them out and abandoned them, and was annoyed by the pesky sites searching for the naive to con into shelling out hundreds of dollars to get published and 'advised'.

All of which is a long-winded way of suggesting that you give it a read :)

~K~