Swashbuckler! book two?

Someone has left a comment asking when the next Swashbuckler book is due out.
Good question.
It's called The Pirate's Revenge, and it will be published in October of this year (by HarperCollins).
Book 3 is called The Silver Swan, and it will be out around April next year.
Hope you can wait that long.

Something fishy

This morning, it was the Great Onetangi Beach Surf Casting Competition. The person who catches the biggest fish wins a thousand dollars. So the beach, which normally has a couple of dozen people wandering aimlessly along it, and a few kids playing in the sand or shallows (depending on the weather), was this morning filled with people fishing.
Well, they were trying. Nobody seemed to be catching anything but seaweed, although I did watch a couple of people catch one another (ooh - nasty).
The remains of the shipwreck were still visible at one end - the tide has washed over it many times now, so there's only part of the prow sticking up through the sand and shells and seaweed. It has become part of the beach - part of the ocean. One day there'll be nothing at all left.
It was very hard to think while I was walking along the beach. Usually, I write stuff in my head while I walk, or think about what will happen next in the books I'm writing, or completely change my mind about something I wrote the day before. I can mutter dialogue to myself and nobody can hear me. If I get confused I can stare out to sea.
Once I wrote a whole story in my head , and then rushed home to scribble it down - it's set in that bay, but many years ago, during World War One. After the initial scribbling, of course, I rewrote it and tweaked and polished it until it was finished. But everything that happens in the story, and the cast of characters in it, was invented while I was walking, because I was staring at the farmhouse on the headland and imagined what it would have been like to live there before all the holiday-makers came.
The story is called Anzac Day, and you'll be able to read it in a Random House anthology, History: Hideous and Hilarious, later in the year.
But I have to admit I didn't write anything at all in my head this morning - I was too busy watching everyone else, and wondering where I'd put my trusty old fishing rod.

How to talk back

If you want to ask a question or talk about anything on this site - or about the Swashbuckler books - click on the word "Comments" at the bottom of this note. It will pop up a little window for you to type in a message, and then send the message straight to me. I will publish it here, with any reply. Sometimes people ask me to post anonymous comments for them, which I can do, too.
If you want to leave a comment on a particular piece of writing (or post) on this site, each one has its own "Comments" link.
Cheers,
Kelly

Never trust a pirate

Will Turner: You cheated.
Jack Sparrow: [shrugs] Pirate.
- From Pirates of the Caribbean (bring on number two - due out in July!)

Latest reviews of Swashbuckler, book one

Here are extracts from a couple of recent reviews of Ocean Without End:

"Lily Swann's transformation from slave to pirate princess as she searches for her father ... is surprisingly believable. Set off Santa Lucia, near Malta, the swashbuckling story also carries a palatable dose of history."
- Ann Packer, Dominion Post

"...A good narrative for either sex to get their teeth into. It is well-assembled in a young person's (not to say children's) sense, with sentences and paragraphs structured to meet the target audience.
But an Enid Blyton tale this is not... There's a bit of everything thrown in - drama, violence, escape - as is required with a young person's read, but the yarn will keep them up to finish it. And then they'll want the next in the series. A good stimulus to get them reading.
If you give Ocean Without End to your offspring, remember to set the alarm on school mornings."
- Christine Jordan, Greymouth Star.

There are a few more reviews posted on my other blog.

Anytime, anywhere

Pirates could happen to anyone.
- Tom Stoppard (playwright)

Shouldn't you be outside playing?

"No!" says that old pasty-face Lemony Snicket, who is calling upon young people to "stay indoors and read" this northern hemisphere summer.
"Mr. Snicket believes that summertime is such a dangerous season, what with sunburn and melted ice cream and the possibility of summer camp, that it's best to stay indoors and read," said Snicket's "representative", Daniel Handler, who still denies the overwhelming evidence that he is in fact the author of the million-selling Snicket books, A Series of Unfortunate Events.
He suggested that in summer, to avoid the heat, humidity and insects, children might want to stay inside, "with a good book and a glass of lemonade that has not been poisoned" - perhaps even one of his own "wretched books".
Mr Handler, or possibly Mr Snicket, was speaking at the launch of Barnes and Noble's annual Summer Reading Program, in which the big chain store provides a reading journal, all you have to do is read, and you get a free book. Cool.
The only other thing is that you have to live in the US. But hey... We have the Storylines Festival in NZ soon, and Reading Challenges are already underway in lots of schools in Australia this very moment.

So many books, so little time

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky.
My pile of books
Are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I'll have a long beard
By the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel (author and illustrator)

Barking mad

Inside a dog is a great new website about books, especially designed for young readers. There are lots of reviews, themed booklists, quizzes, and you can even write your own reviews - and win prizes.
Funny name? It comes from this comment by comedian Groucho Marx:
"Outside a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read."

A book of your own

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes)

A few more reviews

"I enjoyed the part where Lily gets sent down to work with the cook, because the cook is the only one at the beginning who is nice to Lily... I look forward to reading the rest of the series."
- Laura Rogers (aged 12), Timaru Herald

"A really good read."
- Marlborough Express

"Kelly Gardiner doesn't avoid the violence and death of the pirate world - Lily has to help the cook treat the wounded and dying in battle - but she has also created a fast-paced, swashbuckling story... the first of what promises to be a very lively series."
- The Press

"Readers will be captivated by the story and will look forward to the release of the second exciting novel."
- Tomorrow's Schools Today

Reading out loud

Last week I visited Erskineville Public School in Sydney, to read and talk with some of the older students.
It was interesting to hear how many of them had read and loved some of my favourite books, like Treasure Island, and of course everyone has seen Pirates of the Caribbean, so they are very clued up on pirates.
We talked about how my books aren’t really scary, but then when I was reading they thought it was all pretty tense during the build-up to the first battle, and someone muttered, “This is really freaky!”
And that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.
Thanks to everyone at Erskineville for listening, and for your fascinating ideas and questions.