THE PIRATE BRIDE - Kathleen Y'Barbo - One Free Book

Bio: Bestselling author Kathleen Y’Barbo is a multiple Carol Award and RITA nominee of more than eighty novels with almost two million copies in print in the US and abroad. A tenth-generation Texan and certified paralegal, she has been nominated for a Career Achievement Award as well a Reader’s Choice Award and is the winner of the Inspirational Romance of the Year by Romantic Times magazine. To connect with her through social media, check out the links on her website at www.kathleenybarbo.com.

Welcome back, Kathleen. I know you speak at various conferences and meetings. What do you have coming up in 2012?

I will be teaching two classes at the Texas Christian Writers conference in Houston on August 4. In September, I will be taking part in the ACFW National Conference (truly it’s International since writers come from all over the globe), and I will also be teaching at an all-day conference sponsored by my local ACFW group—Woodlands ACFW Chapter/Writers on the Storm—in October. Watch for more news about those events as details become available.

If you were planning a women’s retreat, what would be the theme for it?

Forgiveness. How much do we hold against others? Worse, for what do we blame ourselves? Finding forgiveness is such a big part of having an effective Christian life. It’s also the ONLY way to live.

Who would you want as speakers and why?

Donna Pyle is the first to come to mind because her book Forgiveness: Received from God and Extended to Others is just so amazing.

Where would you hold the retreat and why?

Somewhere warm and sunny!

Do you read print books or e-books? Or a combination of the two?

Unless I’m reading the Bible or books for endorsement that are not available in digital format (which is RARE), I read e-books exclusively.

I'm usually reading both a print book at home and an e-book when I'm away from home. Pirate Bride is an interesting title. How did you come up with it?

Actually I didn’t but I like it. Pirate Bride is part of the Mayflower Brides series, and as such, each book has the word Bride in it combined with another word that hints at the story it tells. I’m thrilled to announce I’m currently working on my next book for that series, Alamo Bride, which takes place in 1836 Texas and features the great-granddaughter of the couple in Pirate Bride.

So what is the book about?

The last time New Orleans attorney Jean-Luc Valmont saw Maribel Cordoba, a Spanish nobleman’s daughter, she was an eleven-year-old orphan perched in the riggings of his privateering vessel proving herself as the best look-out on his crew. Until the day his infamy caught up with them all, and innocent lives were lost.

           

Unsure why he survived but vowing to make something of the chance he was given, Valmont has buried his past life so deep that no living person will ever find it—or so he hopes as he seeks to live as the new man he has become. Until Maribel Cordoba arrives on his doorstep and threatens all he now holds dear. 

One hundred years after her mother's family came to the New World on the Mayflower, Maribel Cordova has landed in New Orleans with one purpose: to find what she has lost. Twelve years after she was pulled from the warm Caribbean Sea and deposited in an orphanage, hazy memories and vaguely remembered stories all collide in the presence of a man she never really forgot. A man who does not want her to remember. 

I can hardly wait to read it. Please give us the first page of the book.

Maribel and the Captain

Part I:

In the waters of the Caribbean, April of 1724

Chapter One

Aboard the Spanish vessel Venganza near Havana

Mama may have been named for the great-grandmother who traveled from England on the Mayflower, but that fact certainly did not keep her in the land of her birth. Twelve-year-old Maribel Cordoba sometimes wondered why Mama refused to discuss anything regarding her relations in the colonies beyond the fact that she had disappointed them all by marrying a Spaniard without her papa’s blessing.

The mystery seemed so silly now, what with Mama gone and the father she barely knew insisting she accompany him aboard the Venganza to his new posting in Havana. Maribel gathered the last reminder of Mary Lytton around her: a beautiful scarf shot through with threads of Spanish silver that matched the piles of coins in the hold of this magnificent sailing vessel and clutched the book she’d already read through once since the journey began.

Though she was far too young at nearly thirteen to call herself a lady, Maribel loved to pretend she would someday wear this same scarf at a beautiful ball along with a gown in some lovely matching color. Oh she would dance, her toes barely touching the floor in her dancing shoes. And her handsome escort would, not doubt, fall madly in love with her just as Papa had fallen in love with Mama.

Her fingers clutched the soft fabric as her heart lurched. Mama. Oh how she missed her. She looked toward the horizon, where a lone vessel’s sails punctuated the divide between sea and sky, and then shrugged deeper into the scarf.

Nothing but adventure was ahead. This her papa had promised when he announced that as newly named Consul General, he was moving her from their home in Spain to the far away Caribbean.

She had read about the Caribbean in the books she hid beneath her pillows. The islands were exotic and warm, populated with friendly natives and not so friendly pirates.

           

Maribel clutched her copy of The Notorious Seafaring Pyrates and their Exploits by Captain Ulysses Jones. The small leather book that held the true stories of Blackbeard, Anne Bonny and others, had been a treasure purchased in a Barcelona bookseller’s shop when Papa hadn’t been looking.

Of course, Papa never looked at her, so she could have purchased the entire shop and he wouldn’t have noticed.

But then until the day her papa arrived with the news that Mama had taken ill and was now with the angels, she’d only seen this man Antonio Cordoba three times in her life. Once at her grandmother’s funeral and twice when he and Mama had quarreled on the doorstep of their home in Madrid.

On none of these occasions had Senor Cordoba, apparently a very busy and very important man, deigned to speak to his only daughter. Thus his speech about Mama had been expectedly brief, as had the response to Maribel’s request to attend her funeral or at least see her grave.

Both had been answered with a resolute no. Two days later, she was packed aboard the Venganza.

She watched the sails grow closer and held tight to Mama’s scarf. Just as Mama had taught her, she turned her fear of this unknown place that would become her new home into prayer. Unlike Mama—who would have been horrified at the stories of Captain Bartholomew Roberts and others—Maribel’s hopes surged.

Perhaps this dull journey was about to become exiting. Perhaps the vessel on the horizon held a band of pirates bent on chasing them down and relieving them of their silver.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

Facebook: www.facebook.com/KathleenYBarbo

Twitter: www.twitter.com/KathleenYBarbo

Website: www.kathleenybarbo.com

Readers, here are links to the book.

The Pirate Bride - Christianbook.com
The Pirate Bride: Daughters of the Mayflower - Book 2 - Amazon paperback
The Pirate Bride (Preview): Daughters of the Mayflower - Book 2 - Kindle

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