Acknowledgements Foremost, I am grateful to my Heavenly Father, who fills me with inspiration and exciting ideas. To my wife, Cheryl, for all she does to support my writing. Also, to everyone who helped put this work together with me. Any novel is a team effort, and this one is no exception.
Brandy, Ballad of a Pirate Princess, Book #1 Synopsis Brandy Erasmus is the daughter of the most feared pirate of the Caribbean in the early 19th century. Erick Erasmus, aka The Plague, and his infamous wife, The Scarlet Mistress, have marauded and ravaged the seas of the Caribbean since before Brandy was born. But on one fateful day when she is fifteen years old, that life drastically ends. First, her father is killed by his second in command, Don Lomoche, and then an evil, self-important, pompous British admiral named Bennets captures and executes her mother. She and her uncle barely escape the same fate. They spend the next fifteen years hiding in Kingston, Jamaica, where they run an inn near the harbor. A chance meeting with one of the British Empire’s most celebrated sea captains, Arthur Joshua, and his enigmatic first officer, John Edwards, changes everything. Both men are part of the abolitionist movement in the Caribbean to get runaway slaves from the United States settled in maroons. Although passionate about the movement, Captain Joshua is also on a second mission to find his long-lost wife and daughter, who came to the Caribbean fifteen years earlier to wait for him. His wife, Cassandra, was a former prisoner on a slave ship headed to the new world when they were intercepted by the British Manof-War under his command off the coast of Africa. After they were married, she bore him a daughter, and he sent them on to the New World where he felt they could live together as a family. The King of England kept him from joining his family for seven years, having him fighting one war after another. When Captain Joshua found out that his family was lost somewhere in the Caribbean, he begged the then “Sailor King William,” his former commanding officer, to let him go find out what had happened to them. The King gave him leave to find his family and commissioned him to aid the freed slaves of the British Empire in the Caribbean as he saw fit. He also gifted Captain Joshua with the fastest ship in the British fleet, a ship
Captain Joshua named the Morning Star. Joshua asked First Lieutenant John Edwards to join him in his quest, and with the king’s leave, they set out on Captain Joshua’s dual quest. Brandy and her uncle Skynyrd find themselves drawn to these men. She especially finds herself drawn to John Edwards, the first officer. But her battle with her past and the demons that haunt her about being raised to be a cutthroat pirate impede their budding, if not tumultuous, romance. During this time, Brandy’s enemies have been busy plotting against the abolitionist movement in British waters, which pits them against Captain Joshua and his cause. Soon she and Skynyrd must decide whether they will fully commit to Joshua’s cause and be a part of taking down their old nemesis, Don Lomoche. Secrets are revealed and lines are drawn as her decision to stand with John Edwards and his captain spirals her life into a whirlwind of adventure and romance she never thought possible. Circumstances brought on by forces long set in motion dictate she must rise to save the one she loves and champion a cause bigger than all of them. It forces her to reclaim a cursed ship and crew that have anxiously waited for her to return and take them to confront her mortal enemy. Armed with her love for John Edwards and the cause he fights for, and enabled by the teachings of a Master Shaolin Priest named Zhang Yong, Brandy Erasmus sails into hell. With friends and allies, she wins the day and a lease on a new and better life.
Principal Characters Brandy Erasmus Edwards
The Pirate Princess
Captain John Edward
Brandy’s husband and captain of the Morning Star
Zhang Yong
High Priest of the Shaolin order. Brandy’s teacher (Sifu) and martial arts instructor. Uncle to Kailli Yong, the Jaded Empress.
Arthur Edwards
Son to Brandy and John, 8 years old
Katrina Edwards
Daughter to Brandy and John, 6 years old
Robert Hanson
Second Mate of the Morning Star
Albert Henderson
Third Mate of the Morning Star
Robby Went
British Midshipman assigned to the Morning Star by Vice Admiral Joshua
Skynyrd Erasmus
Father to Brandy, co-owner of the tavern Katrina’s
Terrence Edwards
John Edwards’s father and CEO of Joshua Shipyards
Vice Admiral Arthur Joshua
Supreme Commander of the British Royal Forces in the Caribbean, joint owner of Joshua Shipyards, London, England, benefactor to the crew of the Morning Star.
Christopher Joshua
Older brother to Arthur Joshua and chairman of the board to Joshua Shipyards, recently deceased
Ralph Austin
First Mate of the Morning Star, son-in-law of Arthur Joshua