Interview with Kathryn Ryan
UPBEAT
Radio interview with Eva Radich
Radio interview with Eva Radich
While I am happy to help writers, genealogists, and fellow old salts, I prefer not to be acknowledged in any published work. This leaves the writer free to state opinions and draw conclusions that I might not necessarily share. And, anyway, anyone who produces something good after lots of hard work deserves to keep all the credit!
I am a professional speaker, which means I do charge a speaking fee. The amount of this depends on the organization making the request. If it is a library, museum, or historical society where I have done research and have found helpful assistance, I may charge a nominal fee, or nothing at all. Otherwise, I am willing to negotiate the charge, within limits. Additionally, travel expenses and accommodation (as necessary) are the responsibility of the contractor.
I do accept books for review on my blog (World of the Written Word). They must be in printed form, as my Kindle is for personal use only. If I am not hooked by page 40, the book will be discarded, as my policy is not to post negative reviews. Contact me on druettjo@yahoo.com.au for details.
I am a professional speaker, which means I do charge a speaking fee. The amount of this depends on the organization making the request. If it is a library, museum, or historical society where I have done research and have found helpful assistance, I may charge a nominal fee, or nothing at all. Otherwise, I am willing to negotiate the charge, within limits. Additionally, travel expenses and accommodation (as necessary) are the responsibility of the contractor.
I do accept books for review on my blog (World of the Written Word). They must be in printed form, as my Kindle is for personal use only. If I am not hooked by page 40, the book will be discarded, as my policy is not to post negative reviews. Contact me on druettjo@yahoo.com.au for details.
SALT -- a new Wiki Coffin story
See "my Works" for more about the Wiki Coffin mystery series. Clicking on the title of each one brings up the first chapter . . . just to whet your appetite for this sleuth who has already made many fans in the United States.
Selected Works
Biography
The story of the extraordinary -- but unacknowledged -- Polynesian who ensured the success of Cook's first discovery voyage
Castaway drama
A gripping tale of two starkly contrasting castaway experiences
Controversial castaways of Campbell Island
The ordeal of the castaways, and the political fall-out that followed their rescue
Wiki Coffin Mystery #1
Murder most foul in Portsmouth, Virginia, is solved in the middle of the Atlantic.
Wiki Coffin Mystery #2
Pirate-hunting on the coast of Brazil
Wiki Coffin Mystery #3
Wiki Coffin must clear his father's name of murder in this third seafaring mystery set aboard the U.S. Exploring Expedition.
Wiki Coffin Mystery #4
Contracted to track down the man who stole a sealing schooner, instead Wiki Coffin finds a skull at the foot of a sacred Gualichu tree in the stark hinterland of the Rio Negro, and joins the Patagonian gauchos to solve a grotesque murder
Wiki Coffin Mystery #5
A murderous encounter in the icy seas south of Cape Horn
Revenge at Sea
Murder and rebellion on the whaleship Sharon.
Women Under Sail
Captains' wives at sea.
Quick Links
The Mystery Place
Home of the world's best short mystery fiction
Kindle Publishing Hints
A step-by-step guide to publishing your novel on Kindle
Random House New Zealand
Publishers of TUPAIA, THE REMARKABLE STORY OF CAPTAIN COOK'S POLYNESIAN NAVIGATOR
LATEST NEWS
LATEST NEWS
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Old Salt Press
Watch this site for exciting developments in fine maritime writing
As she stood on the deck of the brig Gosling, Harriet Gray was forced to face an unhappy truth. She had been duped, yet again. At eighteen, the lovely English actress had already known more than her share of betrayal. And now, a dishonest shipmaster had stranded her on board a ship that was manned by a lusty, treasure-hunting crew, with a pirate captain whose dangerous smile barely concealed his fury. And whose quest for the dark secret of Judas Island was about to unveil an ancient tragedy…
PROUDLY PUBLISHED BY OLD SALT PRESS
PROUDLY PUBLISHED BY OLD SALT PRESS
Like a phantom dogging Harriet Gray’s trail, Frank Sefton is polished, charming—and utterly ruthless. Once, he abandoned the actress to a miserable fate on the far-flung shores of New Zealand. Now, he is back in her life—full of devious schemes to rob and mortify her, far from the protection of Captain Jake Dexter, and his gold-seeking crew.
PROUDLY PUBLISHED BY OLD SALT PRESS
PROUDLY PUBLISHED BY OLD SALT PRESS
That the Gosling Company should become a theatrical company was a preposterous idea—as crazy as the actual fact that Captain Jake Dexter, once a respectable Yankee mariner, was now an infamous pirate. Yet, he had already travelled such a long, strange path as a fortune-hunting adventurer that metamorphosing into the manager of the first theatre in Sacramento was just another step. But Jake Dexter could never imagine the danger that this would involve for his actress, Harriet Gray, or that his own life would be so threatened.
PROUDLY PUBLISHED BY OLD SALT PRESS
PROUDLY PUBLISHED BY OLD SALT PRESS
Wiki Coffin cover story
Eighteen-year-old Wiki is a seaman on the weatherbeaten little brig Bengal Tiger in the South China Sea. Becalmed and drifting helplessly onto the dragon-haunted island of Komodo, the brig suddenly catches fire.
Her cargo is an explosive mixture of gunpowder and fireworks, so naturally there is panic. But which is worse -- to be blown to Kingdom Come, or to land on Komodo, where huge, poisonous dragons drool bloody salive as they lurk in wait?
It is February 1839, and the ships of the United States Exploring Expedition are thrashing about dreaded Cape Horn, on their way to a rendezvous at Orange Harbor, Tierra del Fuego, on a crazy mission to be the first to find Antarctica. A sealing schooner hails the brig Swallow with a strange tale of a murdered corpse on an iceberg--surely a case for Wiki Coffin, half-Maori, half-Yankee "linguister," who is the representative of American law and order with the fleet.
But circumstances are against him. As Wiki has been banished from the Swallow to the Peacock, where he is forced to battle racism in the wardroom, and vengeful sealers on the decks, the puzzle is surely too much even for this experienced sleuth. Then Wiki is tested even further when he uncovers a brutal murder on board. To solve this double mystery, Wiki is forced to make a dangerous voyage to the utmost fringes of the beckoning ice.
PROUDLY PUBLISHED BY OLD SALT PRESS
In the heady climate of the nineteenth century goldrushes, “going to see the elephant” was a saying that described an exciting, often dangerous, and usually profitless adventure—something to tell one's grandchildren about.
In the spirit of Island of the Lost, the story is told of the crew of the Connecticut schooner Sarah W. Hunt. When two boats are blown out to sea, off one of the most icy and hostile islands in the sub-Antarctic ocean, the twelve men are abandoned by their skipper, left to live or die by their own wits and stamina. Six struggle ashore against unbelievable odds.
Their rescue from remote, inhospitable, uninhabited Campbell Island is a sensation that rocks the world. But no one could have expected that the court hearings that follow would become an international controversy, with repercussions that contribute to the fall of a colonial government, and reach as far as the desk of the president of the United States.
Released as a digital book
Historian and novelist, Joan Druett won the General Non-Fiction Category Award for her work, Tupaia: The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator.
"Tupaia's richly detailed drawings and paintings are a precious legacy and are stunningly reproduced in a book which will intrigue and inspire. Everything about Tupaia reflects Druett's careful research and passion for her subject.
"This is a wonderful book." -- Judges' report.
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"Tupaia's richly detailed drawings and paintings are a precious legacy and are stunningly reproduced in a book which will intrigue and inspire. Everything about Tupaia reflects Druett's careful research and passion for her subject.
"This is a wonderful book." -- Judges' report.
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TUPAIA, THE REMARKABLE STORY OF CAPTAIN COOK'S POLYNESIAN NAVIGATOR WINNER OF THE NON-FICTION CATEGORY OF THE NEW ZEALAND POST BOOK AWARD
GENERAL NON-FICTION CATEGORY WINNER
Tupaia by Joan Druett - Tupaia, lauded by Europeans as 'an extraordinary genius', sailed with Captain Cook from Tahiti, piloted the Endeavour about the South Pacific, and interceded with Maori in NZ. His story has never been fully told. Tupaia, a gifted linguist, a brilliant orator, and a most devious politician, could aptly be called the Machiavelli of Tahiti. Being highly skilled in astronomy, navigation, and meteorology, and an expert in the geography of the Pacific, he was able to name directional stars and predict landfalls and weather throughout the voyage from Tahiti to Java.
Though, like all Polynesians, he had no previous knowledge of writing or mapmaking, Tupaia drew a chart of the Pacific that encompassed every major group in Polynesia and extended more than 4,000 kilometres from the Marquesas to Rotuma and Fiji. He was also the ship's translator, able to communicate with all the Polynesian people they met. As a man of high social ranking, Tupaia performed as an able intermediary, interpreting local rituals and ceremonies. Joseph Banks, the botanist with the expedition, is famous for his detailed, perceptive descriptions of the manners and customs of the Polynesian people. Much of the credit for this belongs to Tupaia. Not only did Tupaia become one of the ship's important artists, drawing lively pictures to illustrate what he described, but he could justly be called the Pacific's first anthropologist.
Despite all this, Tupaia has never been part of the popular Captain Cook legend. This is largely because he died of complications from scurvy seven months before the ship arrived home. Once he was gone, his accomplishments were easily forgotten-indeed, by removing Tupaia from the story, what the Europeans had achieved seemed all the greater. - Wheelers Books.
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Tupaia by Joan Druett - Tupaia, lauded by Europeans as 'an extraordinary genius', sailed with Captain Cook from Tahiti, piloted the Endeavour about the South Pacific, and interceded with Maori in NZ. His story has never been fully told. Tupaia, a gifted linguist, a brilliant orator, and a most devious politician, could aptly be called the Machiavelli of Tahiti. Being highly skilled in astronomy, navigation, and meteorology, and an expert in the geography of the Pacific, he was able to name directional stars and predict landfalls and weather throughout the voyage from Tahiti to Java.
Though, like all Polynesians, he had no previous knowledge of writing or mapmaking, Tupaia drew a chart of the Pacific that encompassed every major group in Polynesia and extended more than 4,000 kilometres from the Marquesas to Rotuma and Fiji. He was also the ship's translator, able to communicate with all the Polynesian people they met. As a man of high social ranking, Tupaia performed as an able intermediary, interpreting local rituals and ceremonies. Joseph Banks, the botanist with the expedition, is famous for his detailed, perceptive descriptions of the manners and customs of the Polynesian people. Much of the credit for this belongs to Tupaia. Not only did Tupaia become one of the ship's important artists, drawing lively pictures to illustrate what he described, but he could justly be called the Pacific's first anthropologist.
Despite all this, Tupaia has never been part of the popular Captain Cook legend. This is largely because he died of complications from scurvy seven months before the ship arrived home. Once he was gone, his accomplishments were easily forgotten-indeed, by removing Tupaia from the story, what the Europeans had achieved seemed all the greater. - Wheelers Books.
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CONGRATULATIONS TO SASKIA NICHOL
TUPAIA WINS PANZ AWARD FOR BEST COVER DESIGN
TUPAIA WINS PANZ AWARD FOR BEST COVER DESIGN
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