I had originally hoped to finish Shipwreckd before the birth of my daughter. September came and went, the baby was born, and there I was still knee-deep in my unfinished manuscript. Fortunately, my publisher was very reasonable (one of the many perks of self-publishing) and we pushed the deadline back a little.
So here we are a few months later, and at last the book is finished, published, and available! You can buy Shipwreckd for $7 ON AMAZON HERE.
I hope you like it, but if you don’t that’s okay too.
And now, to hook you, here’s chapter 1. Enjoy!
CHAPTER 1: AS WILD AS THE SEA
A long time ago—before the invention of electricity, before the discovery of the automobile, yes, even before air conditioning and indoor plumbing—in the little port town of Ellesmere, lived a boy named Wildr, and his name suited him quite well. You see, Wildr was best known for his unpredictable temper. “There goes Wildr,” you might hear someone from Ellesmere say, “the boy as wild as the sea,” and they would shake their head and sigh a heavy sigh.
Wildr never felt that he could control his swelling anger. If he could put words to it, he would describe it like fire in the belly of a dragon; he simply opened his mouth and flames came spewing out. His mother said he got it from his father; his sister said it was because he was always hungry. Regardless, Wildr’s hot streak had cost him more than a few times in his life, and it didn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Wildr lived with his mother and sister in a small farmhouse on a hilltop overlooking Ellesmere Harbor. The farm sat at the very edge of town, and if you were to keep on going past the house, you would end up in open fields and wild lands. This suited his mother and sister well—they loved animals and enjoyed the ample space that the countryside gave them—but Wildr had always been more interested in the sea.
“You’ve got salt water in your veins, just like your father,” his mother often told him.
“Tell me more about Father,” Wildr said one evening before he began to notice how sad Mother always looked when she talked about him. Her voice got dreamy and somehow felt further away, and her eyes fogged up as if she would cry.
“Julep was fearless and full of fire,” she began. “I think he loved the ocean because it matched his passion. He dreamed of sailing across the world, of finding places never before touched by man, of seeking out dangerous adventures and returning home a hero.”
“I want to be a sailor too! The world is so big and I haven’t seen any of it!” Wildr said, his eyes almost as wide as his imagination.
“I know you do,” Mother said ruefully, “but you must be careful to not get swept up in the romance of adventure. It was the greed for life—a life that wasn’t his to live—that was your father’s undoing.”
“What happened to him? Where is he now?” Wildr asked.
“I never saw him again after we separated,” said Mother. “I took you and Coriander, and we left Thalassa and began a new life here in Ellesmere. That was when you were both very young.”
“Oh, but Mother!” Wildr cried, “You must know more than you’re telling me! Why did we have to move to Ellesmere? What was Thalassa like?”
“Some things are best left in the past, my son,” replied Mother. “We have a life to live, and we can’t change history.”
It was clear to Wildr that that was the end of the conversation, even though he had a thousand more questions. But he would have to wait—just as you do, I’m afraid—for the answers.
In those days, a boy typically worked alongside his father as his apprentice from the ripe age of twelve, until he became competent and trustworthy enough to take over his father’s trade or business. When Wildr turned twelve, a well-known and respected Ellesmerian named Andrs Bagsby agreed to take him in as his apprentice. Andrs was a shipbuilder and repairer and owned a little shipyard down on the harbor. Wildr was ecstatic, for this apprenticeship meant two things: first, he got to be by the sea all day and watch ships come and go from harbor; and second, he earned a small salary—nine pieces of silver per week!
It couldn’t have come a moment too soon either, for that summer, Adrienne (that’s his mother) grew ill and began to require all sorts of doctors and medicines and potions and remedies, and those things cost money. At first, she did improve, and everyone thought she would make a full recovery, but then she began to have relapses, and for weeks at a time, she could hardly eat or drink or leave bed. This went on for many years—healthy and active for a time, then suddenly bedridden and in need of constant care. As I’m sure you can imagine, this brought a great deal of stress and worry to the whole family, especially Wildr.
This story begins when Wildr was fifteen years old and his mother was going through an especially bad bout of illness. Wildr was at the shipyard one morning in early September—the breeze coming off the sea was cool, which was a pleasant change after a hot summer—but his mind was preoccupied with Mother. So preoccupied, in fact, that he wasn’t paying much attention to the ship in front of him, which had a damaged hull.
She was a beautiful galleon—the largest ever to enter Andrs’s shipyard (a fact he would eagerly share with anyone who had ears)—and by far the greatest financial triumph of his career. She belonged to a prestigious sea captain from Catalina, who was staying in Ellesmere while repairs were being made. That Andrs trusted Wildr to work on the ship alone while he was away spoke to the trust Wildr had built with him. Recently, Andrs had even talked with Wildr about the possibility of a promotion—to “Master Builder,” which would come with a much-needed pay raise!
Wildr was inside the ship’s hold, working to replace an emergency patch job, which had been performed by the ship’s crew after drifting into shallow water and dragging the hull across a sharp reef. Their patch job had served its purpose, but it was time for a long-term fix. But a job like that required skill and focus.
Snap! Fssshhhhh! Cree-eeakk!
Wildr froze. What had he done? Did he accidentally push the brace beam too far to the side? Did the plug pop out on its own, or was it his fault? He wasn’t sure, but water rushed into the hold at an astonishing rate. Wildr threw down the hammer that was in his right hand dramatically as if to say “I didn’t do it,” but nobody was there to incriminate him. At first he was relieved that nobody saw his blunder, but then the realization of what was happening dawned on him, and he really wished somebody else was there to help. The ship is sinking!
Wildr frantically tried to hold up a timber to the hole, but the pressure coming from the spewing fountain was too great. He tried to push the wooden plug and brace beam back in place, but that didn’t work either. In a panic, he leapt up the steps to the main deck to look for help.
“What’s wrong, boy?” shouted a gruff-looking man from the edge of the dock, seeing Wildr’s desperate face. Wildr was horrified, for the man was none other than Captain Hornsby, the very owner of the galleon, coming to check on her progress. He was the very last man in the world Wildr wished to see. Wildr’s tongue felt like a block of ice in his mouth.
“Uh, the ship… it’s… everything is… I don’t know how…” Wildr sputtered.
“What is it, boy?” Hornsby demanded, “Spit it out! I have no patience for this nonsense!”
“IT’S SINKING!” Wildr exclaimed at last, much more dramatically than he had hoped. As he said those fateful words, the ship rocked violently and a deep groan resounded from below his feet. Wildr struggled to keep his balance as the ship moved and slid in the water. She was going under!
Wildr scrambled ashore like a rabbit fleeing a manic dog, and there he lay panting as the ship in his care sank lower and lower until, with a groan and a final splash (her last cry for help), she slipped beneath the harbor.
The silence that followed was more than Wildr could bear. He stammered through apologies and excuses, trying to explain his absentmindedness, but Hornsby would hear none of it. He was furious—swearing up and down that Wildr would never again set foot on another ship.
“What’s this? What’s happened?” It was the voice of Andrs, stumbling upon the ill-fated scene. Hornsby yelled and screamed until he collapsed to the ground in a coughing fit. The scene drew several curious passersby. In the end (the affair took all of an exhausting hour to resolve), Andrs compensated Hornsby generously for his trouble and sent him on his way. Once the captain had left, Andrs turned on Wildr.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done? I’ve lost my largest client—no, more than that! Once word gets out about this, my business will be ruined—RUINED, do you hear!” Wildr was in tears. His apologies were drowned out by the cries of a man who had lost everything. “I trusted you, Wildr, and this is how you repay my generosity? How many years have I mentored you? I took a risk bringing you on—even offering a salary!”
“Andrs, I—”
“Silence! You will listen and do as you’re told! You will work for me without pay until that ship is paid off in full!”
“Andrs, you know I can’t—”
“Not only that,” Andrs continued, his voice growing louder and more confident, spittle flying from his mouth. “You’ll come live with me as a slave and take on the house chores for me—so I can keep a closer eye on you. And don’t you dare let me hear you complain! Yes, that’s it—oh, how forgiving I am!—this is your reckoning, boy! I pray it teaches you to be more careful. Now, go gather your things and say your goodbyes. I’ll come collect you shortly.”
“Andrs, please!” wailed Wildr desperately. “Mother isn’t well; I can’t leave her while she’s ill! I’ll pay you back for the ship—with interest even!—but don’t take away my salary or force me to live with you! Please! She’s going to die, Andrs!”
“You should’ve given that some thought before you sank Hornsby’s galleon! If you try to refuse my generous offer, I’ll see you rot in jail!” Andrs turned on his heel to walk away, then suddenly swung back. “And be assured of this, boy: they don’t let prisoners out to attend funerals!”
With that final word, Andrs spun around and left the shipyard, and the ensuing silence swallowed Wildr whole.
Wanna know what happens next? Buy the book HERE!
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