But one threat will emerge as the most dangerous of all: the buccaneers.Ĭamped on the shore of Hispaniola, these half-wild men eke out a living hunting the island’s feral livestock. But such total control cannot last, not with the riches of an empire at stake, and French, English and Dutch all struggle to pry open the Spanish grip. More than one hundred years after Columbus blundered onto Hispaniola, the West Indies are held in Spain’s iron fist, and no threat to that absolute rule is tolerated. With enemies at every hand, and loyalties as fickle as the weather, Thorgrim must lead his men, the white invaders, the Fin Gall, in the fight of their lives, with both Irish and Dane eager to see them dead. Soon the Norsemen are plunged into the violence and intrigue of Medieval Ireland, where local kings fight with each other and with the invaders from the north for rule of the island nation. The Vikings eagerly snatch the prize, unaware of its significance to the people of Ireland and the power granted to the king who wears it. En route to the Viking longphort there, known as Dubh-Linn, Thorgrim Night Wolf and Ornolf the Restless stumble across an Irish ship that carries aboard it a single item - a crown. Such was the case in the southern lands of Ireland. They came at first to plunder, and then to settle, an encroachment fiercely resisted where ever they went. Few could resist the power of their violent onslaught. For decades the Vikings have swept out of the Norse countries and fallen on England, Ireland, whatever lands they could reach aboard their longships. Lisa and I now live in Harpswell, Maine (which really is a seaside town), with our four children.īook I of the ongoing Norsemen Saga. My book George Washington's Secret Navy won the Naval Order's Samuel Eliot Morison award in 2010. My first work of non-fiction was Reign of Iron, a detailed look at the ironclads Monitor and Merrimack (Virginia, Benedict Arnold's Navy about the Revolutionary war naval battle that took place on Lake Champlain. Recently, my writing has expanded to include non-fiction. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction. My 2003 title Glory in the Name was selected as the winner of the American Library Association's W.Y. My books have sold in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain. I've been a full-time writer since then, with fourteen books either published or in the process of being published. The following year I finished By Force of Arms, my first book. In 1993, I 'swallowed the anchor.' Lisa Page, made good on her threat and we married that year. Leaving the Hinde in Houston, Texas, I worked aboard the brig Lady Washington (after my time she played the Interceptor in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie) and the ship 'HMS' Rose, (Surprise in Master and Commander, also after my time) I sailed aboard Rose for two years, as Able Bodied Seaman and Third Mate. Lisa vowed then and there to marry me and make me pay for that for the rest of my life. There I met a foretop person named Lisa Page, whom I beat out for the job of bosun. In 1988 I joined the crew of the Golden Hinde (rhymes with mind), a replica of Sir Francis Drake's vessel of 1577. After working in the television industry for two years, I realized that I could not stand a) the television industry, b) Los Angeles and c) being ashore. After a year of hitchhiking and motorcycling around the country, I attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, later transferring to UCLA Film School (Official Motto: '.but what I really want to do is direct.'), from which I graduated in 1986. I graduated from Lewiston High School in 1980, if not with honors then at least with a diploma. In high school I built a fifteen foot sailboat, and with a friend, an eighteen foot canoe. Despite that, my interest in ships and the sea began early, reading Hornblower and building ship models. And maybe Lewiston isn't exactly a seaside town. I was born in a log cabin in the sea-side town of Lewiston, Maine. To sign up for notices about upcoming books and the occasional newsletter, please go to the Contacts page on my web site.
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