Shiver me deck plates and roll out the laser cannons! There be plunder off the port bow!
This past Sunday was International Pirate Day and I thought I would mark the occasion by putting some of my favorite pirate stories on sale for the week. As I noted last year on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, Wikipedea tells us the event was started by John Baur and Mark Summers (no relation that I know of) who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. Of course, when they say everyone should talk like a pirate, they mean everyone should talk like Robert Newton who played Long John Silver in Disney’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island. To mark the occasion, I’m giving readers 25% off the first two volumes of my Space Pirates’ Legacy novels at Smashwords. For good measure, I’ve also added Vampires of the Scarlet Order to the sale.
Firebrandt’s Legacy is the first book of my Space Pirates’ Legacy series. In the novel, Ellison Firebrandt fights the good fight for Earth. Under a letter of marque, he raids the ships of Earth’s opponents, slowing down their progress and ability to compete with the home system. On the planet Epsilon Indi 2, he rescues a woman named Suki Mori from a drug lord, only to find she isn’t so happy about living a pirate’s life. However, when the captain finds a new engine that will make him the most successful pirate of all, Suki is the only one who can make it work. Now Firebrandt must find a way to keep his crew fed and his ship supplied while relying on a woman who barely trusts him and while every government in the galaxy hunts him to get the engine back!
According to Midwest Book Review: “Firebrandt’s Legacy is a rip-roaring space adventure! Privateer Ellison Firebrandt pursues the ships of Earth’s enemies under a letter of marque. But when he stumbles across an extraordinary woman who knows the secrets to a new type of engine that every government wants for its own ends, he and his crew get swept into a maelstrom of galactic proportions! A grand space opera filled with high adventure from cover to cover, Firebrandt’s Legacy is highly recommended.”
You can pick up Firebrandt’s Legacy for 25% off the cover price through the end of the week at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/916916
The Pirates of Sufiro is the second novel of my Space Pirates’ Legacy series. It’s the story of a planet and its people—of Ellison Firebrandt the pirate captain living in exile; of Espedie Raton, a man from the streets of Earth looking to make a fresh start for himself and his wife on a new world; of Peter Stone, the geologist who discovers a fortune and will do anything to keep it; and of the lawman, Edmund Ray Swan who travels to Sufiro seeking the quiet life but finds a dark secret. It is the story of privateers, farmers, miners, entrepreneurs, and soldiers—all caught up in dramatic events and violent conflicts that will shape the destiny of our galaxy.
Author Jane Lindskold says: “When I first ‘met’ Ellison Firebrandt in Firebrandt’s Legacy, the last thing I even imagined was a future where our hero and his devoted crew did not immerse themselves in swashbuckling space battles with clever intrigues played out against challenging opponents within the dark reaches of outer space. Firebrandt’s creator, author David Lee Summers, was far more ambitious in the future he envisioned for his hero.
“In The Pirates of Sufiro Firebrandt faces challenges that press even his courageous heart and clever mind to the limit, as well as testing the loyalty of those he loves and trusts most deeply. This dynamic generational saga provides enough twists and turns to satisfy the most devoted space opera fan.”
The Pirates of Sufiro is 25% off the cover price through the end of the week at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1031018
Vampires of the Scarlet Order features one of my favorite real-life pirates, Grace O’Malley. Her scene is short but fun.
In the novel, a new generation of vampires embarks on a quest to save humanity.
Opening a forgotten crypt during a military exercise, Dr. Jane Heckman is made a vampire and begins a journey to unlock the secret origins of her new kindred.
Elsewhere, solitary vampire Marcella DuBois emerges from the shadows and uncovers a government plot to create vampire-like super soldiers.
Daniel McKee, a vampire working as an astronomer, moves to a new town where he’s adopted by a family, only to have government agents strip those he loves away from him.
All three vampires discover the government is dabbling in technologies so advanced they’ll tap into realms and dimensions they don’t understand. To save humans and vampires alike, Jane, Marcella, and Daniel must seek out the legendary master vampire Desmond, Lord Draco and encourage him to resurrect his band of mercenaries, the Scarlet Order.
Author Neal Asher says Vampires of the Scarlet Order is “A novel with bite. An amalgam of Blade and The Name of the Rose with a touch of X-Files thrown in for good measure.”
Vampires of the Scarlet Order is available for 25% off the cover price through the end of the week at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1038560
David Lee Summers' Web Journal 
If they work for you, they’re a buccaneer. If they don’t, they’re a pirate.
(That’s something of a simplification, but I think it’s largely accurate.)
Basically, or more broadly if they work for you, they’re a privateer. Buccaneer’s were privateers who worked in the Caribbean during the 17th and 18th century and the name comes from a type of frame used to smoke meat. In effect, a bucanero was a person who hunted for meat, which is where the word bcccaneer came from. But yes, privateers did the work of pirates, they were just sanctioned by governments. Not that said sanctioning helped you if you were caught by the people you were raiding!
Arrr!
Esss! Teee! Yuuuh! Veee! (Oh no! Letter pirates!)