Year: 2011

Queens of the Sea #9: Red Patchwork Tunic for Winnie Flapjack from Random Magic by Sasha Soren

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Welcome to day nine of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Winnie Flapjack: The Future Pirate Queen

Winnie Flapjack is the main character from Random Magic, a girl of distinctly piratical disposition who bests a pirate king and finds her own destiny waiting for her on the waves.

She crosses paths with bemused book-jumper Henry Witherspoon when he quite accidentally helps her rescue herself from a fate worse than death.

Orphaned at birth and essentially a scrappy loner with a gift for magic and sarcasm, she’s brave, feisty, abrupt, resourceful, very loyal and also very tricky.

As Henry soon finds out, he’ll have reason to thank his lucky stars a thousand times for having Winnie by his side — if the experience doesn’t kill him, first.

Winnie is described as wearing a red patchwork tunic; I pulled out all my most random colors for the fabric scrap patterns, because this is indeed a very random book! I still do intend to review it, but I’m not finished with it yet so I don’t want to review it prematurely. When I do, I’ll post it here.

Tomorrow is the last day for this series, and I’m going to have two polls: one for your favorite pirate story out of the ten, and one for your favorite pirate outfit. I’ll definitely do another outfit for the winner of “favorite outfit” — if I’m really ambitious, I might do a second outfit for the one who wins “favorite story.” I’ll try to get it up nice and early, so don’t forget to come by and vote!

The contests will be open until May 27th, 11:59 PM Pacific time. So if you haven’t entered, be sure to write your comment today! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!

Queens of the Sea #8: Green Justacorps for Anne Dieu-Le-Veut

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Welcome to day eight of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Anne Dieu-Le-Veut: The Brave Buccaneer

A buccaneer during the Golden Age of Piracy. She was originally from France, and deported from France to Tortuga by the order of governor Betrand d’Ogeron de la Bouere, himself a former adventurer and pirate.

She fought a duel with a Dutch pirate who’d killed her first husband. He was impressed with her courage in challenging him and asked her to marry him on the spot. He already had a wife whom he’d abandoned, but from that day forward they were recognized as partners and fought side
by side on raids, sharing command.

Anne had a reputation for being laconic, brave, and willful. She also didn’t back down, and this was how she earned her nickname (Anne Dieu-Le-Veut, or Anne What-God-Wants), as people said of her that what Anne wanted, God would make happen for her.

Although it was a common superstition at the time that a woman on board brought bad luck, Anne’s presence was considered lucky. Reportedly born circa 1650, she disappeared from recorded history in the early 1700s.

In my imagination, there was certainly at least one time in Anne’s life where what she most wanted was a sweet pirate coat and gloriously shiny boots. Who can say whether or not the Almighty granted that particular request, or indeed any of them; at least I can, although it is rather too late for her to enjoy it. In any case, this kind of coat is called a justacorps, and it’s what we think of — or, at least, what I think of — when we think of over-the-top pirate captains from the Golden Age of Piracy.

So, I’m quite behind on my pirate series, I’m sorry to say; today was supposed to be the last day, but I still have two left, so I’ll do one tomorrow and one on the 26th, which is when the final poll will be open.

Don’t forget to enter my contests! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!

Queens of the Sea #7: Pirate Costume for Unknown Pirate Captain

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Welcome to day seven of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Unknown French pirate captain: The Mystery Captain

Jamaica Rose and Michael MacLeod relate the tale of a mystery pirate captain in their book, The Book of Pirates

In 1805, an American who was held prisoner in Cuba reported on a French privateer vessel, La Baugourt. He said the ship had a crew of one hundred, ‘commanded by a woman.’ This is about all that is known of this unnamed captain.

This anecdote might’ve easily been dismissed as just a fanciful tale, if not for the fact that there is, indeed, a mention of the activity of French privateers at that time — and this very ship — included in a volume of The Mariner’s Mirror, a quarterly bulletin printed by the Society for Nautical Research.

I have been trying to stay at least true to the spirit of the historical periods, and to think “well, someone in this century would have worn this, not that” or “if someone was just a regular sailor she wouldn’t be swanning around in a fancy coat, right?” or “no, somehow, I get the feeling hot pants were never actually part of most female pirates’ wardrobe.” But if this mysterious pirate captain may have never existed, I feel a little more free to give her a costume that never existed! Well, it’s not the most unreasonable pirate costume I’ve ever seen…

By the way, I’m scheduled to have another paper doll up tomorrow, but I’ll be out of town, so I’m going to try to do two over the weekend instead.

Don’t forget to enter my contests! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!

There is still time to join my crew… Take the poll!

poll by twiigs.com

Queens of the Sea #6: Purple Tunic and Brown Cloak for Awilda

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Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

Welcome to day six of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Awilda: The Runaway Royal

The full story of Awilda might be a legend, although she is mentioned in a historical book, the Gesta Danorum (A History of the Danes or Deeds of the Danes).

Awilda (or Alwilda, Alvild, Alfhild) was a princess who was meant to marry, but instead runs off to sea. During an onboard battle, she fights someone who turns out to be her intended. Mutually impressed with the courage the other has shown in close combat, they decide they might be a good match for each other, after all.

A full version of Awilda’s story is told by medieval literature scholar Carolyne Larrington in her book Women and Writing in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook, for anyone
who’d be interested in additional details about this legendary Nordic princess and some background about her life and times. If anyone just wants a quick summary of the story, a sketch is included here.

You can read more about Awilda at vvb32 reads on May 19th, as part of the Queens of the Sea series. (I’ll update the link after it’s been posted.)

I do like her story, whether she is just a legend or not! I was talking to Brian about her, and he said “So this is a few centuries before Beowulf, right? Yeah, those were good times. You meet someone, you fight with them, then you kind of know where you stand with them, whether you’re going to get along or be enemies or what.”
“What if you and I met and had a fight?” I asked.
“You’d win, of course.”
“But if you’d never met me before, you wouldn’t care about me. I’d say ‘Ow! My foot!’ and instead of saying ‘Oh, what a poor delicate little foot’ and letting me win, you’d stomp on the other one, too.”
Happily we met in a more genteel day and age…

Don’t forget to enter my contests! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!

Apparently the Good Ship Paperdoll is filled with the strong, silent type! I’m not complaining. I’m the shark food type, so I would appreciate a lot of more capable people around to have my back.

poll by twiigs.com