Pirate history & the writing journey
True stories from the Golden Age of Piracy, and notes from behind the writing desk.
Chasing Pirate Ships Through Three Centuries of Paper
How three centuries of ship's logs, harbor surveys, and pirate articles shaped the world of Crimson Cross: Azure Waves, and why the real history turned out better than the myth.
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Tacking Toward Landfall: An Azure Waves Update
A progress report from the editing desk: where Crimson Cross: Azure Waves stands this summer, what's changed since the first draft, and how to claim your copy.
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The Island With No Law: Nassau in Crimson Cross
Two years before Samuel Drayton ever set foot on its sand, Nassau's own governor took a bribe from the most wanted pirate alive and let him sail free. By the time Crimson Cross reaches its shores, the island isn't hiding what it is.
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1698: The Peace That Made the Pirates
A treaty signed in a small Dutch town emptied the Caribbean's privateering fleets almost overnight, and the men who'd sailed them under the King's own commission suddenly had nowhere left to point their guns but wherever they pleased. Azure Waves opens in the wreckage of that peace.
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The Compass Rose: How a Footnote Became the Heart of Azure Waves
Some details you plan into a novel from the outline. Others you find buried in a court record and can't let go of. This is the story of a small piece of jewelry that ended up carrying the emotional weight of the whole book.
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If You Loved Black Sails, Read These 7 Pirate Books
Missing Black Sails? Seven books — real Nassau history and gritty pirate fiction — to fill the void, and where a new voyage fits in.
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Mid-2026 Is Here: A Report from the Quarterdeck
Mid-2026 has arrived, and Azure Waves is in its final stretch. Here is a report from the quarterdeck on what stands between the manuscript and your hands.
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Sable's Lessons: The Woman Who Made Samuel Drayton a Pirate
Before Samuel Drayton could command a deck, the pirate called Sable had to take him apart and build him back up. Meet the mentor at the heart of Azure Waves, and the surprisingly fair world she taught him to love.
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The Best Golden Age of Piracy Novels (and Where Crimson Cross Fits)
From Treasure Island to modern Caribbean adventures — the pirate novels worth your shelf, and where a new voyage joins the fleet.
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The Ballot Beneath the Black Flag: How Pirate Crews Governed Themselves
Long before most of the world let common men cast a vote, the crews of pirate ships were electing their captains and signing written constitutions. The truth of pirate government is stranger, and fairer, than any legend.
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The Quiet Work Before the Storm: Editing Crimson Cross Toward Launch
Finishing a first draft felt like sighting land after a long crossing. These past months of editing have taught me the real voyage was only beginning.
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The Pirate Round: The Secret Sea Route That Made Pirates Millionaires
The smell hits you first — salt, rot, and tar baked into timber that hasn't seen a dry dock in six months. You're two thousand miles south of the last port you trusted, the Cape of Good Africa grinding past your starboard rail, and the men around you aren't desperate fools chasing sloops in the shallows. They're investors. They're patient. And they know exactly where they're going. Most of what gets written about Golden Age pirates is Caribbean by default. Warm water, short hops, easy escapes...
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Tearing Up the Floorboards: The Brutal, Beautiful Work of the Developmental Edit
There is a specific kind of vulnerability in taking something you’ve built and deliberately pulling it apart. During the Golden Age of Piracy, crews routinely performed a grueling task called careening. They would intentionally run their ship aground on a shallow beach, heave the massive vessel onto its side, and expose its belly to the sun. For weeks, they would scrape away the barnacles, replace rotting timbers, and reseal the hull. It was ugly, exhausting, backbreaking work that left the...
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The Real Pirates of the Caribbean: Escaped Slaves, African Navigators, and the Most Diverse Crews in the Atlantic
Forget everything Hollywood taught you about pirate crews. The real Golden Age of Piracy (roughly 1680–1730) produced something far more remarkable than eye patches and parrots: some of the most racially diverse working communities in the Atlantic world. While colonial societies enforced rigid hierarchies based on birth, skin color, and national origin, pirate ships operated on a radically different principle. If you could do the job, you were welcome aboard. A Floating Meritocracy Consider...
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What Pirates Actually Ate: The Surprising Truth About Food at Sea (1698-1700)
When most people imagine pirate food, they picture crusty sailors gnawing on rock-hard biscuits and washing them down with rum. It's a romantic image, reinforced by countless movies and books. But like most pirate mythology, it's only a sliver of the truth—and the reality is far more interesting. During the Golden Age of Piracy, food wasn't just fuel. It was politics, economics, and survival all rolled into one. If you want to understand why men turned pirate in the first place, you need to...
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The Most Democratic Society on Earth: How Pirate Ships Were More Egalitarian Than Colonial America
When most people picture pirates, they imagine lawless thugs—violent men driven by greed and operating outside any moral code. Hollywood has given us Jack Sparrow's chaotic scheming and Blackbeard's demonic fury. But the historical reality of Golden Age piracy (roughly 1680–1730) reveals something far more surprising: pirate ships were among the most democratic institutions of their era. In fact, pirate crews operated under written constitutions decades before the United States had one. The...
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The Pirates' Code: How Outlaws Created Democracy at Sea
When most people think of pirates, they imagine chaos. Lawlessness. Every man for himself in a brutal scramble for gold and glory. And sure, there was plenty of that. But here's what the romanticized versions rarely tell you: pirate ships in the Golden Age were often more democratic than the "civilized" societies they rebelled against. No, really. Let me explain. The Problem with "Legitimate" Ships In the Royal Navy and on merchant vessels of the 1690s-1720s, the captain was God. His word was...
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Charting New Waters: A Personal Update
When I started this project, I envisioned a steady voyage—regular updates, consistent progress, the manuscript growing week by week like barnacles on a ship's hull. Life, as it turns out, had other plans. The past several months have been a tempest of their own making. I lost my regular employment, which meant charting an entirely new path in itself. Then came an even bigger shift: my family and I moved from New Zealand to Canada, uprooting everything we knew for new horizons. Finally, in...
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The Pirate Story Hidden in Plain Sight
How living in Bermuda led me to uncover forgotten tales of the Golden Age of Piracy I never intended to become obsessed with pirates. But when you live on a small island in the middle of the Atlantic, surrounded by centuries of maritime history, some stories have a way of finding you. The Discovery It started with a walk along Bermuda's South Shore. I was exploring the coastline near Warwick, when I noticed something odd about the way the locals talked about certain beaches and coves. They'd...
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