A Motley Sisterhood of Pirates!
“A fun, imaginative seafaring adventure with inventive worldbuilding and a lively pirate crew.“
— Darren Joy, author of the dark fantasy Plagueborn series
An Action Adventure story of song, survival, and when necessary battle
A Motley Sisterhood of Pirates! song:
Lost on land
At home at sea
Where the hills are liquid
And the mountains roll
We’re a raucous, wild sisterhood
Mocking everyone, including ourselves
But harm any one of us, and your days are doomed
At dawn we groan at all the work, to do
But by noon, we’re laughing
And at night, with a cup of rum to keep us warm
We sit on the deck, in a circle singing
While First Mate, “One Eye” Olanis, plays her mandolin
Helmswomen “Wheel Turner” Synthia portrayed by Leah Weir 
First Mate “One Eye” Olanis portrayed by Taylor Norris 
The Nagua depicted by the Shtandart Frigate with permission from Captain Vladimir Martus 
Navigator “Storm Caller” Master Jo Anne portrayed by Joanne Gosling background pic by Daiana Duca 
Master at Arms “Dizzying Blade” Sadie portrayed by Maegan Curylo 
“Ship Protector” Umi the Ama depiction by D.W.
Excerpt
Olanis nods at Helmswoman “Wheel Turner” Synthia who is standing before the helm. The spoked wheel is almost as tall as “Wheel Turner”. Next, she and Aarini climb up the steps to the fo’c’sle where the Captain is holding Olanis’s mandolin and standing with the Navigator “Storm Caller” Master Jo Anne and Zala. Together they watch as the girls pour up the stairs of the hold to the deck. Making sure they line up properly is the Master-at-arms “Dizzying Blade” Sadie.
“We’re a sisterhood of pirates,” the Captain whispers into Olanis’s ear as she hands over the mandolin.
“Ahoy, me hearties!” Olanis sings down to the crew and strums her mandolin.
We’re a sisterhood of pirates!
The Captain says it’s time to sail
Turn the capstan to lift the anchor
Unfurl the masts, it’s time to roam
“Aye, aye, Captain,” the crew sings back.
“We’re a sisterhood of pirates,” they continue as the Master-at-Arms grabs a hold of one of the capstan’s handles. The cook, “Unibrow” Nippi joins in along with some of the teenagers.
“Round and round clockwise we go!” They sing over and over again.
The surgeons get some of the younger girls to climb the masts and help unfurl the main and mizzen sails.
Once the anchor is locked into place at the side of the forecastle, Olanis changes the song:
Heave the sheets to open the sails
And watch the position of the sun in day
And the stars at night
While we search for things to steal
From that Monstrous Captain Barthadrow!
WHISPERS
Future VII ship from the Future Wake series
EXCERPT
Jack uses a closed fist to rap on the door of President Elizabeth Shield’s office. He tried to keep the contempt out of his voice when he originally called. His last conversation with Lowry had told him much more about Future Wake than his original conversation with Elizabeth had.
The door opens and she lets him in. Her hair is in disarray with strands sticking out everywhere. Dark circles hang under her eyes “Come in,” she tells him with a hoarse voice. “Sit please. I’m afraid I haven’t had much sleep.”
He sits down and glares directly at her.
“Speak Captain.”
“I just learned we will be colonizing the designated planets with human zygotes that are all clones.” He doesn’t try to keep the anger out of his voice.
“Yes,” she answers as she massages her temples. “Some of the greatest minds and athletes from around the world voluntarily, or for a substantial sum of money, gave us copies of their DNA. A waiver form was signed so we can clone them, just not on
Earth.”
He leans towards her. “I don’t like the idea of clones. I was told the ships would carry human zygotes but nothing about them being clones.” He bares his teeth and adds gruffly, “My understanding is there are cloning machines that will be optional.”
“We don’t have a choice, captain. Each ship will have two female and two male teenage clones. They will start to grow thirteen years out from the designated planet; young enough to listen and old enough to be useful. They will have most of their First’s memories and will be able to speak. However, they will not have the wisdom or comprehensive skills of their First’s. That’s something that will come with experience.” She rubs her temples harder. “They will also be hormonally manipulated to love one of the opposite sexes.”
He shakes his head. “What do you mean, love?”
“If the clones are Brenda, Sally, Jake, and Rob; Rob will be smitten with Brenda and Brenda with Rob. Same with Jake and Sally. Everything is a gamble captain. Cloning is just becoming accepted so we do not have a lot of insurances that it will work. That’s why we have a back-up plan.”
“And that is?” he asks.
“That’s why you get Sharon. Each ship will have a female and male captain. Who, if necessary, are expected to copulate. And if none of the clones grow and all the children are yours—than incest might be necessary.”
Jack feels his face grow hotter as rage swells inside him. “Clones and incest, any other abominable ideas?”
He can see anger in her tired eyes. She leans back in her chair and clasps her fingers over her stomach; the fingers start tapping. “Well, there might be other species with compatible sex organs.” She leans forward like a viper but he refuses to back off. Face-to-face she tells him, “We can’t put a large group in stasis; we need clones. And, everything we do costs: the ships, the clones, the AI’s, everything! Do you want to be a potential savior for the human race? Do you want to be in the history books as someone who made a difference, who went where no one else has, who opened the doors for others?” She leans back again, “or remembered as someone who could have, should have but did not?”
He stares at her for a long moment, letting his anger cool. “I was commanded to do this, mam. I just don’t like clones, incest, or bestiality.” He curses under his breath, stands up, and walks out the door.
BARD: Bearer of the Gemstone
Book One of the BARD series
EXCERPT
Bran leans over an anvil in his father’s blacksmith shop. He uses a cloth coated in linseed oil to wipe the grime off its well-used surface. As he cleans a chrysoprase gemstone attached to a silver necklace dangles out of his shirt. The last of the sunlight reflects off the gemstone reminding him of two years ago:
The heat of the summer equinox was making him dizzy as he worked in his father’s blacksmith shop. His father noticed and told him to cool off in Silvan’s stream.
As he bathed in the stream, he heard a girl crying out. Forgetting his clothes, he grabbed the nearest stick, and ran towards the screams.
In the distance, he could see two boys throwing stones at a kneeling figure. As he got closer the boys ran away all the while shouting over and over again, “Royal Bitch! Royal Bitch!”
He knew the voices. The two boys were old school comrades of his, Larry and Jespo. He stopped running and rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Larry and Jespo had died in a boating accident a year prior. As the boys continued to run away, he saw that their bodies were sickly pale, and dead skin hung from the bones of their arms.
The kneeling figure was a girl. Her long brunette hair hung past her waist covering a torn yellow blouse and emerald green skirt. On the ground beside her was an olive-green cloak made of a material he didn’t recognize. She was bleeding from her upper lip.
He knelt in front of her, only to blush, as her evergreen eyes examined his uncovered body. He tried to turn his gaze from hers but he couldn’t stop staring. Her oval face, with its narrow nose and quivering lips, engulfed his vision.
Shaking his head to break the enchantment, he looked away, and with a voice cracking with puberty asked, “Are you alright?”
At first, she just stared at him in silence. Then a thoughtful expression crossed her face and she undid the top two buttons of her blouse. He remembers being confused by her intentions.
Against the centre of her chest rested a turquoise green gemstone with a vein of white and grey. He stared with wonder at the craftmanship of a silver dragon’s claw bail. The dragon claw connected the gemstone to a plain silver necklace.
She unclasped the necklace and placed it around his neck. His eyes closed as her fingers brushed his skin. Never had he felt so close to someone. Even in that short time, in the silence that she kept him in, he felt as though he were divided in two. He opened his eyes, and gazed longingly into hers. It was as if he was looking into a pond with a reflection of one half of himself staring back.
Her moist lips pressed against his. Blood from the cut on her upper lip slowly trickled into his mouth. She touched the gemstone where it lay against his chest and said in a mezzo-soprano voice, “When we are older, it will lead you to me.” She stood up and straightened out her skirt and blouse. “It would have burned you if our destinies were not as one.”
“When will we meet again?” he had asked, desperate to keep her presence close.
As she stared into his eyes he felt as though they were frozen in time together. “I don’t know when, I just feel it throughout my soul,” she told him, and smiling shyly added, “I thought I would be safe here, from my father’s minions, so I slipped away from my protector, to be alone for awhile. He will be searching for me, so I must return. Always wear the gemstone by your heart!”
He remembers standing there watching her lithe body disappear into the distance.
After returning to Silvan’s Stream, and redressing, he hurried back to his father’s blacksmith shop.
Covered in sweat and grime, his father had looked up at him with a questioning expression. Instead of saying anything, his father’s gaze had lowered to the lump on his chest where his shirt covered the gemstone. He had looked down at himself and saw a pale-yellow glow through his shirt. When he glanced up, he saw his father grimacing.
For a moment his father had glanced above the mantle of the shop’s door, where a broken sword lay, and gave a nervous sigh before saying, “If you’re feeling better help me with these horseshoes.”
BARD: Owner of the Gemstone
Book Two of the BARD series
EXCERPT
Half way up the hill, Bran can see his breath. He slips on the gloves from within the robe’s pockets. Out of curiosity he pulls the rim of the robe away from his chest to see the gemstone. The yellow light blinds him momentarily. He trudges on with more energy. If he can, he will use Aragon’s power to defeat the elf and escape.
As they halt atop a plateau the sky turns a beautiful red. Long, blue grass sways in the cool air. Bran can make out a large cave opening at the junction between the plateau and where the hill continues to rise. The elf holds up his hand. Bran stays still, and watches as the elf crosses the blue grass and enters the mouth of the cave.
As the daylight wanes, Bran stomps to keep his body warm. He hears nothing but the wind whistling against the grass. Every part of him is freezing but his heart. He notices the gemstone glowing faintly through his robe.
The elf steps back out of the cave now followed by three elders. The elders have their long silver hair tied back, fully exposing their pointed ears. They wear matching fern green robes and carob-coloured scarfs that ripple in the wind. As they walk closer to him, he can see the elder to his left has blue eyes, the central elder beige, and the elder to his right scarlet. The central elder reaches out and touches the part of Bran’s robe where it covers the gemstone. The elder speaks to the other two elders in a language Bran does not understand. The elders nod to one another and return to the cave.
A short time later, the elf that brought Bran steps out of the cave. In a blink of an eye, he strikes Bran on the side of the head. Bran nearly tumbles over but he refuses to fall. The elf’s smooth face creases with surprise. With incredible speed the elf kicks the back of one of Bran’s legs, causing him to crumble to his knees.
A figure in an olive-green cloak, steps out of the cave. Bran can tell by the figure’s gait that it is a young woman. He squints to see her face but her cowl is drawn too tightly. The gemstone is now burning his chest. He wants to stand up and throw back her cowl.
The young woman moves as if she is will-less, her steps rigid and choppy. She walks right up to him and places her cold hands inside the flap of his robe. He feels one of her hands slip around the gemstone, while the other slides along the silver necklace to the back of his neck. She unclasps the necklace, and yanks the gemstone away, then hurriedly steps back.
The sides of Bran’s cheeks quiver with confusion. He can find no words to say to her though he desperately wants to.
The young woman holds the necklace up at him with her right hand. “You took this from him!” she shouts at him, her voice full of hate. “You came to destroy me in the name of my father but have failed! Did you think the elves are so dim-witted to not expect your eventual arrival? Thrice my father has failed to kill me, and now with the gemstone, I will be able to leave here.
“But tell my father, he has won a battle though not the war. Tell him, he ruined my heart by taking away the boy I gave this to for safekeeping. The one who scared away the ghoul children–.” Her mouth opens in shock as she peers closer at Bran. She takes a step towards him and shudders.
QUEEN OF CAELUM: Book One of the Children of the Myth Machine: Science Fiction and Fantasy 
SYLVIA: Book Two of the Children of the Myth Machine series: Science Fiction and Fantasy 
ACHEBE: Book Three of the Children of the Myth Machine: Science Fiction and Fantasy 
Laura Suen, CEO of Fire and Steel: 2018 Kitchener Comic Con 
2018 Kitchener Comic Con 
2018 Kitchener Comic Con 
2018 Kitchener Comic Con 
2018 Kitchener Comic Con 
2018 Kitchener Comic Con
Interviews and Reviews
Books by Friends
Author of Climate Change — Health Connection, and Songs of Bittersweet Memories
Books by Indie author, Darren Joy: A Viral Imperium, A Malignant Fetch,
and Fantasy World-Building And Magic System Planner…at Books2Read
To learn more about Darren Joy and his books go to darrenjoy.com
Booksradar also has a listing of my books.
The Other Place: #15 Hello, Aunt Thelma!
The Other Place Blog 2: The Between Place
Slide Show of Books By Authors Who Never Existed [Steampunk hybrid story]
Lady Evelyn Oolong puts on her top hat and grabs her perched drake cane. 
Chief Dimoso Shabani 
Mr. TLC and the Book Stealer [Part 2] (Books by Authors Who Never Existed: A Steampunk Hybrid story) By the author of BARD: Owner of the Gemstone 
Concept artwork 
Books Written by Authors who Never Existed (Steampunk Hybrid) 
The Inventor (Steampunk hybrid)
Weekly Blogs
Currently blogging “Books by Authors Who Never Existed” A Steampunk hybrid story
https://caedar-writing-artwork.com/2022/06/27/a-loud-noise-and-chief-d-shabani-part-4/
Caedar Writing & Artwork 