Sailing ships or steamboats?

"When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman. We had transient ambitions of other sorts, but they were only transient... now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. These ambitions faded out, each in its turn; but the ambition to be a steamboatman always remained."
- Mark Twain

Best swashbuckling books

(Besides mine, of course)

Best fencing - Captain of Dragoons, Ronald Welch
Best intrigue - The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
Best castaways - The Coral Island, RM Ballantyne
Best Barbary corsairs - The Sea Hawk, Rafael Sabatini
Best treasure hunt - Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
Best sea battles - The Buccaneers, Iain Lawrence
Best naval midshipman - Hornblower, CS Forester
Most evil captain - Captain Hook in Peter Pan by JM Barrie
Least blood-thirsty pirates - Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

That's what I reckon, anyway.

Mind over matter

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
- Dr Seuss

Swords

People often ask me why I write about pirates, but it just seems very obvious to me: I love ships and boats, I love history, and I love swords.
I always have. I started fencing when I was eleven, and I read as many books about swords and fencing as I could (the best ones were Ronald Welch's books about the Carey family, who all seemed to be expert swordsmen).
Here's the sword I bought as a present for myself, to celebrate publishing the Swashbuckler! books.

Welcome

Welcome to this new blog for readers of the Swashbuckler! books. I'm happy to answer questions, or you can just make notes (use the Comments tag under each post) about the books, the people and places, and what happens next.