Book Excerpt The Butcher's Daughter

Book Excerpt

My lads forced the big man down to his knees before me. They stretched his arms out taut and held him firmly in place for me.

“Why, Captain Dowlin,” I said and laughed, “you’ve gone and pissed yourself I see! You’ve gone and soiled my deck! And my crew scrubbed these planks down with holystones just this morning. They put their backs into it let me tell you. They scrubbed this deck down clean.”

“Please,” Dowlin pleaded, whimpering with spittle and snot running down his long beard. His eyes were nearly swollen shut from the good drubbing my men had given him. “Please, please, please...” he repeated over and over again.

“Please?” I asked. “Is that all you can say? How pathetic. I pray you can beg far better than that, especially when it is your own, pitiful life hanging in the balance. Come now, I know you can do better and I promised my lads a bit of entertainment tonight before supper.”

“Please, my lady, please spare my life. For mercy’s sake. I have gold. I have much gold!”

“For mercy’s sake?” I asked. “No, I think not for mercy’s sake. But for gold you say? Well now, you’ve piqued my curiosity there. And how much glittering gold is your miserable life worth to you, Dowlin?”

“Anything, name your price!”

I looked over at what was left of Dowlin’s bloodied and beaten crew herded around the main mast in a tight circle. They were bound in chains, intently watching my every move, soaking in my every word. After today they would be my men.

My own lads knew the drill. They forced Dowlin down lower, exposing the back of his soft neck to me.

I stood to the side and drew my sword. “The price Dowlin - is your head!”

“Nooooooooooooo…” Dowlin screamed just before I cleaved my way through flesh and bone. With one, clean stroke, his severed head rolled grotesquely across my deck until it came to rest at the feet of his defeated crew.

And then I pointed my sword at them, the bright, steel blade now dripping with Dowlin’s fresh blood. “As my men will vouch,” I told them, “I’m no purveyor of lies and because I do not lie I cannot say to you that killing gives me no pleasure. Your master was a wretched pig and it gave me great pleasure to kill him. Now you know why some call me Bloody Mary. Now you serve me and this ship - or not. You are free to choose.”

The upshot of my touch of drama was grand. The prisoners all at once dropped to their knees and groveled at my feet. They all at once pledged their undying loyalty to me.

“Master Gilley!”

“Aye, Madam?”

“Introduce the new lads to our ways.”

“With pleasure, Mum, with pleasure!”

Thomas Gilley was my rock. He had been with me from the beginning. For nearly two years we had crisscrossed the vast and perilous oceans together. For the past year we had sailed under Dowlin’s cruel shadow.

“And our course, Mum?”

“The new lads will tell you - gladly now I should think - what our new heading is to be.”

And by that of course I meant that Dowlin’s men would tell us where Dowlin’s gold was stashed away, or pay the awful price for their silence.

As my men went about their labors, securing the heavy guns and making repairs to shattered planks, to torn lines and sail, I went below to my great cabin, content with a good day’s work. Dowlin had thoughtlessly, and without good purpose, brutalized any who had crossed his path. Men, women, children, he cared not. Yes, Dowlin was a wretched, stinking pig who often killed for sport. I had done mankind a favor by dispatching him. But in my world, Dowlin had also been a lord and master, a prince. His death I knew could not be cheaply bought.

“An inspiring performance, Mum!” a voice called out, startling me as I stepped into my great cabin. The voice popped out from behind the door, closed it quickly and slid the bolt back inside the socket.

I would not give the intruder the satisfaction of knowing that he had, for once, caught me unawares. “I’m glad you were amused,” I told him flatly.

He slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me close against him. “Do you,” he asked with a smile, “despise all men?”

“All but one or two,” I replied and kissed him lightly on the lips. Then I reached down between his legs and grabbed him by his privates. He was already stiff and eager. I couldn’t help myself and moaned with anticipation.

“Only one or two?” he inquired. “Dare I ask who?”

“Ah, you are safe for now my dearest,” I answered, batting my eyes flirtatiously. “Well, at least for a night or two. You have skills, remarkable skills worth keeping.”

“Aye, it was a splendid day indeed. I’ve always been exceptionally good at fighting, equally talented with sword, knife, a musket or explosives. I suppose one could say I was born to it.”

“You are a great warrior, James Hunter,” I replied honestly and squeezed him even harder. “But those are not the skills that interest me tonight. I dare say you have other skills that I’ve taken quite a fancy to, skills I wish to test.”

“Ah, now, that is why I’m here my lady,” Hunter replied and flashed his brilliant smile for me. “Not too tired from all that killing?”

“Shut up and take me you fool. Ravish me - I am hot for your wicked touch…”

Hunter obliged me gladly, with all he had to give.

About the Book

Title: The Butcher’s Daughter

Author: Mark M. McMillin

Genre: Historical Fiction

In an age ruled by iron men, in a world of new discovery and Spanish gold, a young Irishwoman named Mary rises from the ashes of her broken childhood with ships and men-at-arms under her command.  She and her loyal crew prowl the Caribbean and prosper in the New World for a time until the ugly past Mary has fled from in the old one finds her.

Across the great ocean to the east, war is coming. The King of Spain is assembling the most powerful armada the world has ever seen – an enormous beast – to invade England and depose the Protestant “heretic queen.” To have any chance against the wealth and might of Spain, England will need every warship, she will need every able captain. To this purpose, Queen Elizabeth spares Mary from the headman’s axe for past sins in exchange for her loyalty, her ships and men.

Based on true historical events, this is an epic story about war, adventure, love and betrayal. This is a timeless story about vengeance. This is a tale of heartbreak…

Author Bio

Mark is an attorney by day and an author by night. He has always had a passion for history and writing. The Butcher’s Daughter is his fourth book. Mark began his career with the military. He is a veteran of the “Cold War” and served with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Germany. Mark currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia and is the general counsel for an airline and freight forwarding company.

Links

Website

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Promo Post The Kaminsky Cure

About the Book

Title: The Kaminsky Cure

Author: Christopher New

Genre: Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction

The Kaminsky Cure is a poignant yet comedic novel of a half Jewish/half Christian family caught up in the machinery of Hitler’s final solution. The matriarch, Gabi, was born Jewish but converted to Christianity in her teens. The patriarch, Willibald, is a Lutheran minister who, on one hand is an admirer of Hitler, but on the other hand, the conflicted father of children who are half-Jewish. Mindful and resentful of her husband’s ambivalence, Gabi is determined to make sure her children are educated, devising schemes to keep them in school even after learning that any child less than 100% Aryan will eventually be kept from completing education. She even hires tutors who are willing to teach half-Jewish children and in this way comes to hire Fraulein Kaminsky who shows Gabi how to cure her frustration and rage: to keep her mouth filled with water until the urge to scream or rant has passed.

Author Bio

Christopher New was born in England and was educated at Oxford and Princeton Universities. Philosopher as well as novelist, he founded the Philosophy Department in Hong Kong University, where he taught for many years whilst writing The China Coast Trilogy (Shanghai, The Chinese Box and A Change of Flag) and Goodbye Chairman Mao, as well as The Philosophy of Literature. He now divides his time between Europe and Asia and has written novels set in India (The Road to Maridur), Egypt (A Small Place in the Desert) and Europe (The Kaminsky Cure). His books have been translated into Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese and Portuguese. His latest novel, Gage Street Courtesan, appeared in March 2013.

Links

http://www.christophernew.com/

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Guest Post Full Circle for Mick

 

Guest Post:

What inspired you to start a writing career?

When the Australian Immigration Department refused me an Australian passport on the technicality of “Your Australian Citizenship papers do not state if you were born as a male or female, so you cannot have a passport”. It did not unduly worry me. It just meant that my wife had to travel to Britain on her own. With the money saved by me not going with her, I was able to install more solar electricity generating panels and tile the floor in the kitchen area and refurbish both bathrooms in the house.

So, my wife set off for Britain, and while she was there, I received a letter from Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), that they would now cancel my Australian Citizenship papers on the grounds that I had “Falsified a Legal Document” in that I had lied about my age when I joined the Australian Army in 1967.

This set off a period of despair, which was followed by a long period of extreme anger. Looking at my situation, it became apparent to me that many negative thoughts were present because of the whole fiasco with DIAC and I began to think that I had better do something about the situation because it was not legal to hold an Australian Driver’s Licence unless I also had either “Approved Residency Status or else Australian Citizenship” In my case, I now had neither of these. That night I obtained a case of Cooper’s Stout and proceeded to consume it.

My next act was to employ Engineering Problem Solving Techniques, by firstly Defining the problem, next listing all factors pertaining to the problem and then listing possible solutions. The list was then put into the desk drawer overnight. During the night, more solutions presented themselves. These resulted in my posting the entire problem onto the Veteran’s Net which resulted in suggestions of how to deal with the problem and an offer of help from a Defence writer of a major newspaper and that marked the beginning of the end for DIAC. It was during this time that I began approaching the whole mess as a military operation which had to be won. This meant that all correspondence had a distribution list at the bottom of all correspondence and that all people listed on this did in fact receive a copy of the communication. As well, everything was sent by registered mail, meaning that the recipients had to sign for the mail. All mail was followed up by email.

At a later date, after my wife had returned from Britain and things were finally resolved, we held a function at my home and quests were astounded by the story. They found it difficult to believe that an Australian Citizen could be stripped of his citizenship for the “Great Crime of Serving the Country During the Time of War” One of these guests said, “Mick, if I had not seen the documents from DIAC, I would not have believed this. It is almost totally unbelievable and I think you should put this story into a fictional novel and pull no punches when you write it. I think that this story has the potential to be a best seller.” As this person was an ex-newspaper man, I have done as he suggested, one thing about all of this has been the calming influence of writing about the then problem. All has been resolved and I am now again an Australian citizen complete with Australian passport and what happened is just a memory.

About the Book

Title: Full Circle for Mick

Author: Michael Kramer

Genre: Historical Fiction

                In 2013, Carolyn and Michael Georg Kaspar Friedrich Lampman applied for passports at the Albury Post Office and while hers went through immediately, (she is Australian born), his application resulted in a phone call being made to Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) and that department refusing him a passport on the grounds that his Australian Naturalisation Certificate “Did not say if his gender was male or female.” It did however; state that “Michael Georg Kaspar Friedrich Lampman presented himself before me at the Millicent Council Chambers on …. To swear allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her Heirs and Successors. This makes one wonder if the clerks at DIAC are conversant enough in the English language to know that “Himself” can only mean a male.

                Michael’s reason for wanting his passport was to return to Vietnam and to fulfil his promise to a Buddhist Monk to return as a qualified engineer to help to rebuild the country that he had helped to destroy as a young Australian soldier in the Vietnam War during 1968 and 1969.

                At a later date, DIAC cancelled his citizenship and papers, (he was a naturalised Australian Citizen, originating from Germany) even threatening to send him to jail for two years, for “Falsifying an Official Document,” resulting in him then using “Engineering Problem Solving Techniques” to rectify the situation as he was now also driving illegally on the grounds that in NSW it is not legal for someone to hold a driver’s licence unless that person has either “Approved Residency Status” or Australian Citizenship.

                This is the story of a man’s battle and final victory against rampant bureaucracy, racism and PTSD. It deals with the first symptoms of PTSD, its diagnosis and its treatment and self-help strategies.

Author Bio

In 1967, he volunteered for service with the Australian Army in the Vietnam War, and was told that seeing how he was only twenty years old, he would need the signatures of his parents in order to join the army. Yet, the Australian Government was calling up males aged twenty years for service in the war if they wanted to serve or not. This prompted him to simply alter the date of birth on his Australian Naturalisation Certificate from 01/03/1947 to 01/03/1946 and he was in the army and this action was something that would become a problem forty five years later.

He went on to serve in Vietnam with the First Battalion of Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) and continued to serve until he received a medical discharge some ten years later. As a treatment strategy for diagnosed PTSD, he was instructed to undertake tertiary studies which resulted in his better management of PTSD and his becoming a much better person as a result.  In time, he was to undertake studies and now holds the Advanced Diploma of Mechanical Engineering, and the Associate Degree of Civil Engineering. He operates his own architectural and engineering drafting service, providing a high level of competent drafting work.

In 2010, he applied for an Australian passport which was refused by Immigration on the grounds that his Naturalisation Certificate did not list his gender. At a later date, the Australian Department of Immigration cancelled his Australian Citizenship papers, which have since been re-issued to him as well as an Australian passport. At a function held at his home, it was suggested that he put the experiences into a novel and this is the result.

Links

Author Website: http://mickkramer.com/

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/573456

Bookpal: https://my.bookpal.com.au/Bookstore/b/10840-Full-Circle-for-Mick

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