with Jesse Giles Christiansen
We are delighted to welcome novelist Jesse Giles Christiansen to Omnimystery News, courtesy of Great Escapes Book Tours, which is coordinating his current book tour. We encourage you to visit all of the participating host sites; you can find his schedule here.
Jesse's second book in his Captain Shelby Trilogy is titled Captain Shelby (Imajin Books; September 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we asked him if we could hear from the the captain himself. He agreed, and Nereus H. Shelby's guest post for us today is titled, "How To Mend a Fishing Net".
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What are ye at? This here be only me second blog thingie. I hope she sails right good.
'Sposed to be after discussin' how to mend a fishin' net with ye. Truth be told, me net don't be like yers or others. She be older than I feel comfertible sayin'. Sure, I used to mend net when I was yer age, but that be long ago and me don't remember much. But what I be after tellin' ye here be far better than doin' regular mendin'.
If ye want to mend a net the real way, ye have to learn to sit with the sea. Ye can't be in a big hurry like all the rest of them land folk. Here's what ye must do.
Take yer skip a ways out, away from other boats. The sea, she be more shy than ye think; she won't have much to do with ye if there be a lot of noise and land stink nearby. See? 'Tis like me father used to say, "Brawl with a pig and ye take away his stink."
When ye reach a good distance from the land, don't grab yer net, but listen to me. No one be after talkin' to the sea anymore. Be a sad state a things, if ye ask me. This is why the land folk have to mend net the hard way. Just sit there and talk to her. I know, 'tis a bit silly at first, but just try it. What have ye to lose? Truth be told, ye been mendin' yer net over and over again and not makin' much wake, right? Talk to her from yer heart … from yer soul. She don't have to answer back, see? But ye will know if she answers.
When ye feel ye hath bonded with the sea fer a right while, drop yer net in the sea and let her sit fer a spell. If yer net ain't mended when ye take her out, there be somethin' wrong with ye … something turned crooked in yer life … and you'll have to be after settin' that thing straight first. Then ye can try again.
Hope this blog thingie helps ye. If not, don't blame me; I don't know everythin'. Besides, ye can always return to yer land nonsense. Perhaps that be all ye were after to start with.
May the sea be with ye,
Captin Shelbee.
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Photo provided courtesy of
Jesse Giles Christiansen
Jesse Giles Christiansen is an American author who writes compelling literary fiction that weaves the real with the surreal. He attended Florida State University where he received his B.A. in English literature, and holds an M.A. in philosophy from Georgia State University. One of Christiansen's literary goals is to write at least fifty novels, and he always reminds himself of something that Ray Bradbury once said: "You fail only if you stop writing."
For more information about the author, please visit his website at JesseGilesChristiansen.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Captain Shelby
Jesse Giles Christiansen
The Captain Shelby Trilogy
There are places even the sea cannot go …
In coastal Denmark, a young man named Nereus builds a longship and leaves at age eighteen to discover a new, enigmatic land. Faced with unimaginable obstacles, he crosses the North Atlantic, only to be captured by the Skraelings, the Inuit indigenous people who seek revenge on all settlers because of a "Great Red Man" who murdered many of their family members.
Years later, Nereus is hired by a group of Irish settlers who are fleeing the tyranny of King Henry VIII, and he takes them across the North Atlantic to the New Found Land. A fierce battle ensues against the sea, the Little Ice Age, and the vicious Skraelings.
When Nereus falls in love with Laura Hodges, fiancée to the group's leader, William Brockelby, he becomes embroiled in a dangerous love triangle … until the formidable mystery surrounding Captain Nereus H. Shelby is finally revealed.
