Wayward Voyage
by Anna M Holmes
Synopsis
Anne is a headstrong young girl growing up in the frontier colony of Carolina in the early eighteenth century. With the death of her mother, and others she holds dear, Anne discovers that life is uncertain, so best live it to the full. She rejects the confines of conventional society and runs away to sea, finding herself in The Bahamas, which has become a nest for pirates plaguing the West Indies. Increasingly dissatisfied with her life, Anne meets a charismatic former pirate, John 'Calico Jack' Rackham, and persuades him to take up pirating again, and she won't be left onshore. The Golden Age of Piracy is a period when frontiers were being explored and boundaries pushed. Wayward Voyage creates a vivid and gritty picture of colonial life in the Americas and at sea.
Purchase Links:Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wayward-Voyage-Anna-M-Holmes/dp/1913551725/Waterstones:
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https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/wayward-voyage/anna-m-holmes/paperback/9781913551728.htmlBlackwell’s:
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https://www.bookdepository.com/Wayward-Voyage-Anna-M-Holmes/9781913551728?ref=grid-view&qid=1607937748433&sr=1-1 Guest Post
It is difficult to imagine in these days of global interconnectivity and cheap flights what it would have meant to set off on a long sea voyage in the early 18th century. What were conditions like on board? How might you feel knowing you would not see family members again? What was the mindset of those who emigrated or, like Captain Woodes Rogers, embarked on long expeditions lasting several years?
Voyaging–actual and metaphorical–is at the heart of Wayward Voyage.
At the start of my story, it is 1704, and Anne, aged six, is sailing from Ireland to the young colony of Carolina. She loves clinging to the ratlines, rolling with the vessel, feeling the wind and salty spray in her face. She is young and free-spirited trusting her parents to know what they are doing... if she were to think about such a thing. But children don’t. They accept.
Exactly 150 years after that date, my own family (parents and older siblings) set sail from Tilbury Docks London for New Zealand. About that time my mother’s sister and family emigrated to Vancouver. It was understood that the older generation left behind in the UK would die far away from their departed children. That was the way of things.
My oldest brother would have been 13 when they left the UK. After my family had sold off belongings and were packing items to take, my mother asked my brother to purchase a hand axe to pack. Throughout my childhood this hatchet was used for cutting kindling. Did my parents (who were teachers) wonder if they would be clearing land? worried they might need to defend themselves? imagined hardware stores were few and far between? Whichever way you look at it, it raises questions about how much my parents really knew about their destination. And that was1954.
The world view of my characters is a colonial one. The New World was just opening and the Pacific a vast largely unknown expanse. In the early 18thcentury,much of the world was yet to be mapped. At the time my story is set, New Zealand, the country where I was born and brought up, had been ‘discovered’ by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, but James Cook’s explorations were yet to come.
Captains of vessels due to sail to the New World displayed notices at the waterfront talking up the opportunities to be embraced. In my story it is one such as this that tempted Anne’s father to leave Ireland. When they arrive in Charles Town (I use the old spelling) it is clear how tiny and vulnerable this place is and how little Anne’s parents knew about what they were coming to.
On my 24th birthday, (easy to recall the date)I flew out of New Zealand for the first time for my Overseas Experience. What might have lasted several years has extended to the rest of my life. I am used to the reality of what it means to be far away from family. I did not attend either of my parents’ funerals .Not expected. Too far away. Too expensive. Too late.
This pandemic we are experiencing gives a taste of how people lived daily with unexpected death: childbirth, malaria, dysentery. My maternal grandmother died in the 1919 flu pandemic with her ninth baby in her womb. My mother was aged four at that time. A sister, aged eight, also died in that pandemic and two infants had died in infancy. Her brother grew to manhood only to be killed in the Second World War.
I invite you to read Wayward Voyage as an unsentimental traveler but at the same time allow yourselves to become sucked into Anne’s search for ‘something bigger, something more’ and enjoy the adventure.
On my website
https://www.annamholmes.com you will find links to Twitter and Facebook, and you can sign up to receive a monthly newsletter on the Contact page. I am keen to engage with readers and welcome questions. The Book Club page has links to further reading and there is a PDF with suggested questions and discussion topics. If you enjoy reading Wayward Voyage, I would love you to leave a review on the retailer’s website and recommend to friends.
Bon voyage and happy reading.
-Anna M Holme
Anna, going aloft on the Lord Nelson, during a week at sea.
Author Bio
Anna is originally from New Zealand and lives in the U.K. with her Dutch partner. WAYWARD VOYAGE is Anna’s first novel. She has been fascinated by the lives of women pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, for a long time. Some years ago, she visualized this story as a screenplay before exploring and building their world more deeply as a novel. WAYWARD VOYAGE made a longlist of 11 for the Virginia Prize in Women’s Fiction 2020.BLIND EYE an eco-thriller, will be published by The Book Guild in September, so this year, 2021, Anna will have two novels coming out. Her screenplay, BLIND EYE, is joint winner of the 2020 Green Stories screenplay competition. A documentary about pioneers of flamenco in the UK that Anna produced and directed was screened in Marbella International Film Festival and in London. This passion project ensures a slice of cultural history has been captured. It is available on YouTube and via a portal on her website. She holds a Humanities B.A, a post-graduate diploma in Journalism and an M.A. in Dance.
Social Media Links:Website:
https://www.annamholmes.comFacebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AnnaMHolmesWriterTwitter: @AnnaMHolmes_
