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Across a Moonlit Sea
Welcome to my stop along the Blogger Book Fair! I'm featuring terrific authors all week. Dawn Chandler and Haley Whitehall kicked off the BBF here, and today, we have a longtime favorite author, Marsha Canham!
Jacquie: Give us a brief bio and tell us what has driven you to write in your genre.
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| Marsha Canham |
Marsha: Pirates have always fascinated me, starting with Errol Flynn as Captain Blood and travelling down through the years to the amazing Pirates of the Caribbean. When I wrote Across A Moonlit Sea, I was swashing and buckling right alongside the main characters and had such a grand sail, it has resulted in two sequels, The Iron Rose and The Following Sea. Not only that but I am currently working on the fourth book in the series, tentatively titled The Far Horizon. Love my pirates. Love my Dante men. Love my heroines who not only keep up with the Dante men, but prove they are every bit as strong and dangerous.
Jacquie: Entice us! Tell us about Across A Moonlit Sea.
Marsha: A rip roaring high seas adventure set in Elizabethan England when dashing privateers known as sea hawks banded together to guard their country and their queen against the Invincible Armada being amassed by Spain. Simon Dante, the Pirate Wolf, meets his match in battle and in love when he crosses swords with Isabeau Spence. Together they join forces with Sir Francis Drake on a daring attack on Cadiz.
Jacquie: Why do you write in the historical romance genre? What aspect of life in this genre intrigues you the most? Did you work that into Across A Moonlit Sea?
Marsha: I've always loved the old black and white adventure movies and heroes like Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks, John Wayne. I loved Robin Hood and Zorro and Sir Lancelot, so it just felt natural to write about what I loved. My books are filled with that same kind of woo hoo action and adventure that hopefully takes readers on a wild, satisfying ride.
Jacquie: If a person who had never read a historical romance asked you for a recommendation, what novel or movie would you recommend and why? What did the author do to bring the story alive for you?
Marsha: I would probably recommend Braveheart, with Mel Gibson. Or Robin Hood with Russell Crowe. Both movies put the viewer right into the gritty heart of the era. No pretty makeup or false eyelashes on the heroines. And the heroes..? *swoon*
Here is a brief excerpt from Across A Moonlit Sea, where the hero Simon Dante discovers that Isabeau Spence is far from being the captain's meek daughter.
Across A Moonlit Sea
by Marsha Canham
While every man within earshot held his breath and waited, Dante stared at Spence, at the wide slick of blood that streaked his throat and spread across his collar. Something in the fierce, burning topaz of the captain’s eyes made Dante look down to where Beau was still crouched on the deck. He took a casual step toward her and used the barrel of his musket to lift her chin, and there was no mistaking the similarity in the bright, hot sparks of amber that flared up at him. His own gaze narrowed in speculation as he glanced back at Spence.
“Such rare coloring,” he mused. “Unlikely there should be such an exact match within a thousand miles … unless the two were related somehow. She appears to be too young and fresh for a sister. A daughter, perhaps? One with a long, shapely throat more than suitable for slitting in order to ease you of some of your stubbornness.”
Spence stiffened perceptibly. But instead of bowing to the implied threat, he allowed a wide, somewhat contemptuous grin to settle across his face as he folded his arms across his barrel chest.
“A clever deduction, Cap’n Dante. And, aye, Beau’s my daughter. The sweet fruit o’ my loins. Mayhap that’s why she doesn’t take any kinder to threats than I do.”
Dante felt a sudden, sharp intrusion of steel next to his skin and his body froze even as his gaze was drawn slowly downward again. Beau’s golden eyes were still staring up at him, but it was her hand that won his full attention, and more specifically, the stiletto clutched in her fist. The point had already pierced through his hose and was resting like a cold sliver of ice across the impressive bulge of his manhood. A flick of a slender wrist would reduce that impression considerably.
“We seem to have reached an impasse, Cap’n Dante.” Spence chuckled wryly. “Unless, o’ course, ye’ve no objection to pissin’ out a hole in yer belly. She’s a fair hand at carvin’, an’ blow me dry, but look at them eyes ye were so admirin’ of a minute ago—I’d say she were in a ripe fair mood to prove it, would ye not agree?”
Jacquie: What’s next? Is Across A Moonlit Sea a part of a series?
Marsha: There are currently three books in the Pirate Wolf Series: Across A Moonlit Sea is the first, followed by The Iron Rose and The Following Sea. I am working on the fourth installment of the Dante saga as we speak, The Far Horizon.
