Walk the Walk Series - by Marilyn Barr
Welcome back, Marilyn. Always a pleasure to have you visit. I can’t wait to hear more about your new series Walk the Walk!
Thank you, Jean, for hosting me and my scallywags. I know you love to travel so I want to take you to one of my favorite vacation destinations. My husband and I had our honeymoon in Charleston, SC. While we were married nineteen years ago, Charleston’s history goes back much further than ours. In fact, Charleston’s roots can be traced back to Charles Town Harbor which was a thriving naval hub before the USA was a thought. That’s where I’d like to take you today—to the bustling city of Charles Town Harbor where you could meet Blackbeard, Charles Vane, Anne Bonnie, Jonathan Hornigold, Jack Rackham, Black Sam Bellamy, Mary Riley, or any other pirate who happened to be getting cupshot drunk at the tavern. Living on spirits on the boats couldn’t prepare the saltiest pirate for the ale they serve in the colonies.
We must be precise with our time travel expedition because the Golden Age of Piracy in the New World—as calculated by the rise and fall of the Pirate Republic of Nassau—was only four years long. I plan to take you to 1718 because this is the peak of Edward Teach’s (or Thatch’s, horrible handwriting has created this controversy) eighteen-month career. Why would I pick to introduce you to the crew of a pirate with such a short career? How much damage can one man do on the high seas in eighteen months without motorized boats? Just ask Edward Teach…but he prefers to be called Blackbeard in 1718. The condensed timeline was just one of the many things I found fascinating when I was researching my newest paranormal, historical romance series: Walk the Walk.
When we think of life on Blackbeard’s many boats, we tend to think of the sensationalized version—by Blackbeard’s design. Looking back at historical records of lost cargo, Blackbeard boarded 25% (or less) of the boats he robbed. His crew wasn’t constantly sword fighting, torturing victims, or sinking boats. He chose to fight with psychological warfare just like Black Sam Bellamy, and the other wildly successful pirates. By creating the legend of Blackbeard (with firecrackers in his beard), he was able to scare the superstitious merchants into handing over their valuables. Why waste the cannonballs on a boat that won’t fight back?
Blackbeard’s flagship, The Queen Anne’s Revenge, was a captured slave ship which was transporting slaves through the Bahamas to England. The boat was massive with more cannons than any other model of ship on the water at the time—just like Sam Bellamy’s Whydah. The slaves aboard were offered jobs on the boat and taught to sail, shoot, fence, read, and any other skill a pirate could teach them. They were given a vote in all boat matters (even giving the captain the black spot) and a full-share salary. Women who weren’t prostitutes were also given these privileges. I fell in love with pirates while researching about them because they were pioneers in true democracy and equality. I knew I wanted to write a book series with the real accounts of these men and women instead of the mindless killing machines.
Blackbeard’s career flourished until the bad boy lifestyle caught up with him. It was ultimately sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll (okay, bawdy sea shanties) which did him in. He contracted the Bube (syphilis) from one of the coastal tavern wenches about one-hundred-fifty years before Louis Pasteur discovered Germ Theory. In 1718, the cause was dark spirits, and the cure was quicksilver (mercury). Charles Town Harbor was the medical mecca of the New World and the largest distributor of mercury, so I wasn’t surprised to find Blackbeard made monthly visits to Charles Town Harbor (as logged into the harbor records.) If he was as far north as Carolina (it wasn’t divided into north and south until decades later), then how could he have been plundering the trade route around the Bahamas to pay for the quicksilver?
He couldn’t be in two places at once. Historians argue whether the pain and desperation of his disease changed his views on equality, or pressure from the colonial Governors to stop hurting the slave trade. Whatever the reason, in 1718, Blackbeard was selling his crew members into slavery in exchange for quicksilver treatments. One such transaction went bad and Blackbeard blockaded Charles Town Harbor for three days with his fleet. Commerce stopped. Boats approaching the hub were plundered. Important diplomats were kidnapped. However, there are mixed accounts of what broke the line of ships and freed Charles Town Harbor. With all the excitement, mystery, and controversy I couldn’t resist starting Book 1: Walk the Plank here.
Branko is a typical ratline climber on The Queen Anne’s Revenge when he is informed by Black Sparta (taken from the historical figure Black Caesar who was Blackbeard’s right-hand man) that Branko is next to be traded. Having a superpower of extra high jumps, Branko can escape the boat when it docks in Charles Town Harbor. Without Branko to make the trade the deal goes sour, and Blackbeard’s blockade is set up to retrieve Branko. They suspect he is hiding on one of the boats in the harbor because the Governor is searching for him on the shores. Branko has secured a boat for his escape, but it has one problem…a lady chained in the hull…who believes she is a vampiress…shiver me timbers, can he not catch a break?
I loved creating the dynamic between Branko and Magda the vampiress. Being rescued from a slaver’s vessel himself, Branko can’t leave Magda in chains. He frees her and reasons with her as an equal instead of slitting her throat like the historical accounts of pirates suggest. Too bad she’s an independent woman who is set on sailing the boat. Their friends-to-lovers romance is the result of running from common enemies mixed with the mutual desire for a place to belong. The search for equality leads them to one another’s arms but will it lead them to a safer place than Charles Town Harbor? Find out in Book 1: Walk the Plank, Book 2: Walk the Deck, and released today—Book 3: Walk the Night.
Congratulations to Branko and Magda for making it to book three of their trilogy… well kinda… here’s the back of the book blurb for Walk the Walk Book 3: Walk the Night (available on Amazon and free with Kindle Unlimited subscription).
Magda’s second chance at marriage promises to be a dream come true—if she survives her mysterious nightmare illness. She has been married for a week and is desperate for a much longer happily ever after.
Branko would trade places with Magda in a heartbeat, but the sickness plaguing Nassau prefers European hosts and spares the natives of the Caribbean. While he believes Mother Nature is punishing those who destroy her beautiful islands, he refuses to accept that Magda deserves to be on the list for retaliation.
The civilized world hasn’t a cure for Magda, but Branko will try anything to save her—including reuniting with a ghost from his past. He requests the help of a Hoodoo priestess, but magic always comes with a price… She’s asking for Leaf, the young wildcrafter and ship’s cook, in exchange. Will Captain Branko repeat the betrayal of Blackbeard and sell a deckhand for treatment, or say goodbye to the love of his life?
About the first book in the series: Walk the Plank…
Branko learns he will be sold into slavery when they dock in Charles Town, so he doesn’t hesitate to jump ship onto a neighboring sloop in the harbor. This boat will weigh anchor with him at the helm–once he decides what to do with the lady chained in the cargo hold who claims she’s a vampire.
Magda Dashkovari’s body has been given to science while she’s still living in it. Her prayers are answered when a pirate boards her boat, but she should have asked for her rescuer to be less bloodthirsty than she is…
Scientists hunt her in town, plantation owners hunt him from the north and south, Blackbeard blocks Charles Town Harbor to the east, and a war rages between settlers and natives to the west. These unlikely allies will have to link together to
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An Excerpt from Walk the Plank:
“Who is Blackbeard?” My heart skips a beat at her naivete. Her accent is foreign, so I forgive the slight. Unfortunately, she takes the opening to worm her way further into my mind. “We got off to a poor start. I am Magda Dashkovari, and I am a vampire.”
My disbelief bubbles like a good ale as we reach the deck. Gut-busting, belly-aching, side-stitching laughter brings tears to my eyes. From a madman captain who masquerades as a demon to a madwoman boat owner who masquerades as a vampire—I can pick ’em, can’t I? She wraps her wrist with furious revolutions while I wipe my tears.
“I don’t care what you are,” I tell her, “as long as you are leaving.”
“I could drain you.”
“I could throw you overboard.”
“I’m staying.”
“—in Charles Town Harbor, and this boat is leaving.”
“I will sink this boat before I let you return it to my husband! Whatever he has promised in reward is a lie. Once you are in his harbor, one of his minions will drain you—”
“Oh, he’s a vampire, too. Is there a whole colony waiting for me somewhere? Listen, sea hag, I don’t know your husband, and the last thing in my future is to return his boat.”
Marilyn Barr currently resides in the wilds of Kentucky with her husband, son, and rescue cats. She has a diverse background containing experiences as a child prodigy turned medical school reject, published microbiologist, special education/inclusion science teacher, homeschool mother of a savant, certified spiritual & energy healer, and advocate for the autistic community. This puts her in the position to bring tales containing heroes who are regular people with different ability levels and body types, in a light where they are powerful, lovable, and appreciated.
When engaging with the real world, she is collecting characters, empty coffee cups, and unused homeschool curricula. She is a sucker (haha) for cheesy horror movies, Italian food, punk music, black cats, bad puns, and all things witchy.
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