BOOK INFORMATION
TITLE – HOOK
AUTHOR – K.R. Thompson
GENRE – Fantasy/Fairy Tale/Adventure
PUBLICATION DATE – January 1, 2015
LENGTH (Pages/# Words) - 300 Pages/78,000 words
BOOK SYNOPSIS
Archie Jameson dreamed of
adventure.
Today, it found him.
Caught in a chilly October
storm, he ducked into a tavern, hoping to escape the rain. What he
found, was a room teeming with pirates. Shanghaied by the most
elderly of the lot, Archie awakens to discover that he is serving on
a ship captained by the fiercest pirate ever to sail the seven seas –
the man known
as Blackbeard.
Through a series of
thrilling twists, Archie finds himself captain of another of
Blackbeard's ships, the Jolig Roger. In an attempt to flee danger,
his ship becomes lost beneath uncharted stars and arrives at a
mysterious island.
Determined to save both his
crew and the woman he loves, Archie will make decisions that will
forever seal his fate.
For in Neverland, not all is
as it seems.
BUY & TBR LINKS
EXCERPT
The
breeze picked up and was bursting insistent, frigid puffs that
threatened to dislodge his hat. Archie clamped one hand on top,
squishing it down around his lean face as he resolutely lengthened
his stride and marched on, determined to make it home before the
storm set in.
He'd
almost made it to the corner, to the place where he normally made the
left on N. Westburl, and then a right onto 43rd, followed by a
various assortment of other long deviations that would get him safely
home, when a large crack of thunder shook the air. He decided that
just this once he might consider taking the most direct route, albeit
dangerous, foreboding, and possibly life-threatening. He stopped
right on the bend of the street, uncertain for a split moment, until
the next jolting crack of thunder made up his mind for him. He headed
straight along Market St that followed the length of the Thames
River, hoping that the seedy individuals who lurked around the pier
were as mindful of the storm as he and would not cause him trouble on
this particular evening, for even though he was quick-witted and
could talk himself out of most troubles, sailors tended to be a
harder breed of people. They were a sharp and cunning lot, and Archie
did not know if he could outsmart anyone else that day and didn't
wish to press his luck.
He
made it past the pier, hesitating just long enough to glance at the
small boats tied to the dock. There were obviously people about, and
so far he had been lucky enough not to encounter any of them.
But
one final ground-shaking crack and the tinkling sound of bells
changed it all. The clouds overhead clashed and he ran for the
shelter of a nearby tavern, barely escaping the torrent of rain.
Archie
had never been in The Captain's Keg before. He stopped just inside
the door and let his eyes adjust to the dark, smoke-filled room. He
realized that not only had he run into the very people he wished to
avoid, but that he also had a new problem.
These
men weren't just sailors.
He
was ready to run back out and take his chances of drowning in the
street, when he heard the same tinkling of bells from earlier. This
time, it sounded like mocking laughter.
Well.
He might very well be losing his mind, but a coward he was not.
He
straightened to his full height—all six feet and four inches of
it—and removed his crumpled hat with a flourish, tucking it under
his arm. He walked proudly down the three steps that led into the
heart of the tavern—to a bar, teeming with pirates.
A
couple of heads turned at his arrival and those who met his solemn,
blue gaze were quick to drop their eyes back to their drinks. His
spirits momentarily lifted, Archibald nodded to himself more than to
anyone else in particular, a slight smile playing on his lips. He was
holding his own.
Still
erring on the side of caution, he scanned the length of the bar,
finding three open seats. Two were between rather burly,
shifty-looking blokes with tattoos. The third seat, nearly on the end
of the bar, sat betwixt an elderly gentleman with longish white
sideburns, a round belly, and spectacles to match that sat
precariously upon a rather bulbous nose. The gent on the other side
was scrawny, his clothes in tatters, thin face in a scowl as he
stared at a leaflet of paper before him. Even though he sat still,
there was a nervous energy that pulsed off the small man. He gave
Archibald the impression of a jittery, starving squirrel. Archibald
decided his best chances lay between the old man and the squirrel and
so he took his seat, nodding in a genial fashion to the old man,
whose watery blue eyes barely gave him a passing glance. The squirrel
didn't acknowledge his presence.
"What'll
it be, mate?" the barkeep asked.
Archibald
bit his lip to keep from laughing. Every drink in the tavern was the
same yellowish liquid. Why the bald man standing behind the bar
bothered to even ask such a mundane question was beyond him. Perhaps
he was daydreaming again. He did do that a lot and at times it seemed
real. "'Tis all ale, is it not?"
"Aye,
but will it be single or double ye'll be havin'?"
Archibald
lifted a single finger and waited for his drink.
"Ye'd
have much better luck with rum, I should think," the old man
said quietly as he stared down into his own glass, "The ale's
watered down. Not fit for a fish to drink, it isn't."
One
dreg out of the glass, and Archibald was quite certain the gentleman
was more than right. It tasted like something poured from an old
boot. Not that he regularly drank from old boots, mind you. Thank
heavens he hadn't ordered twice the amount of the vile stuff.
Deciding it better not to even bother asking for the rum, which most
definitely hidden beneath the counter and out of sight, he tossed a
couple of coins down on the scarred wooden bar, and sat looking down
into the remnants of his glass, listening to the patter of rain on
the tin roof.
A
strange thought came suddenly. For a bar filled with pirates, it was
most unusual. It was rather quiet, an odd comment here or there, but
otherwise there was nothing but silence. Surely they weren't all
sitting around listening to the rain. Archie couldn't figure it out.
But he knew one thing, these people certainly weren't living up to
his expectations of the loud, fearless persons he always thought
pirates to be.
The
squirrel on his left shifted around on his stool, staring even harder
at the parchment. Sweat popped out on a face that was now a color
that reminded Archie of the paper in the print shop, a colorless,
pasty white. Good for paper, not for squirrels.
"Well?"
a low, deep voice rolled out from a dark corner and broke the silence
so suddenly that it startled Archie. "Give us the news then,
Harper."
Ah,
well now. Things may get lively yet, Archie thought, casting a quick
look to the corner from where the voice rumbled. It was too dark to
see the man who sat against the wall, but Archibald got a good look
at the pair of worn, dark leather boots propped up on the table, and
the curling wisps of cigar smoke that floated up to the rafters.
"It
says a r-roy, royy…" the squirrel named Harper stuttered, the
paper shaking in his hands.
"Ach!
The man canna read it anymore than the rest o' us." A complaint
hurtled from one of the tattooed blokes at the opposite end of the
bar.
As
if he were getting more anxious, Harper tried again, his voice in a
near squeak, "A royy-alll…"
Archie
spied the lettering, and against his better conscience, whispered
just loud enough that Harper would hear, "A royal pardon is
offered to those pirates who surrender on or before the fifth of
September, this year of 1718." He waited as Harper relayed the
message, then continued, "Being limited to crimes committed
before the fifth of January. All other crimes committed after such
date, will be considered for a death of hanging."
Archie
sensed the old man on the other side of him shuffle about, as if he
were searching for something on the insides of his pockets, but
Archie's attention was fixed on the squirrel he saved. Harper turned
and gave him a toothless, yet thankful, smile and set to guzzling the
contents of his glass as quickly as possible in an effort to calm his
shaking nerves.
"Well,
that counts us out, lads," a dark chuckle came from the corner,
"'No pardon for the likes o' us, I fear. We all be hanged."
"Aye,
but they must catch us first. I won't be finding me neck in a noose,"
a shout rang out, followed by the murmur of agreement from all the
others as they lifted their glasses in salute.
Feeling
rather in-tune with the pirates, Archibald picked up his glass as
well and toasted the luck of the now boisterous lot, draining the
last contents of his glass. Some small part of his brain noted that
while the ale was certainly vile before, it also became bitter the
longer it sat. The bitterness left nearly as soon as he noticed it,
having been replaced with a rather calming sensation.
Pirates
truly weren't a bad lot, he thought sleepily, just people like
everyone else. They were only misunderstood. He turned to convince
the elderly gentleman on his right of exactly that, when the darkness
came and took over. The last thing he heard was the old man chuckle,
singing softly,
"Yo-ho,
me mateys, yo-ho…"
***
"Careful
now, lads, mind the poor lout's head, aye? He'll be having a dreadful
headache come morning without any extra bumps ye'd be givin' him
along the way."
The voice was familiar—rather achingly
so—though Archie couldn't quite seem to get his faculties in order
to remember who the owner of the voice was. The few times he could
open his eyes, nothing at all made sense. It all came and went in
blurs with distorted figures he couldn't quite make out. The darkness
came and went, so in the end, he figured it better to keep his eyes
shut for the time being and try to concentrate on other things, foggy
and confusing as they might seem. He thought he was being drug along
the rough boards of the pier, and while that familiar voice seemed to
care about the condition of his head, his legs and backside seemed to
be another matter entirely of which the man cared not a whit as they
bumped him along each splintering plank. Luckily, the drug slipped in
his drink deadened the pain, and he only registered the faint, odd
pricks and scrapes where the wood had its way with his flesh.
"He's
got hair like black candles, he does," a crackling voice
snickered by his head.
"Aye,
Smee, are we taking this poor soul aboard for his long locks? Did the
Cap'n order you fetch him a wifey, then?" another voice chimed
in, followed by raucous laughter, and a low retort from the man named
Smee that Archibald couldn't make out.
"A
good bit heavier than he looks," the first voice by his head
huffed, "Slow ye down a bit, Murph. I'm losin' my grip. Oh drat,
there he goes!"
And
those were the last words Archibald ever heard on the shores of
bonnie England as his head hit the pier and the darkness crept over
him once again.
AUTHOR BIO
K.R. Thompson lives in southwest Virginia with her husband, son, three cats, and an undeterminable amount of chickens. An avid reader and firm believer in magic, she spends her nights either reading an adventure or writing one. She still watches for evidence of Bigfoot in the mud of Wolf Creek.AUTHOR FOLLOW LINKS
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