Elena

And may all your wishes come true!

MANY HAPPY RETURNS!

I can't do graphics, but I have friends who do them for me... so these are for my characters (Pirates, navy, mercenary and tavern keeper alike): And I hope you accept the Vikings too - they have also been pirates...

I sent mine weeks ago but theres a huge back log of mail over here so not sure when it will get to the USA.

So did I. ANd I'll need a confirmation when it will arrive because until then I am keeping the bill for eventual investigations, but hopefully my small package won't get lost.

Many happy returns, lots of rhum and whatever you wish to come true!

And which birthday wish for a pirate would be coplete without a bottle of rhum?

Many happy returns, and all your wishes come true!

Many happy returns, lots of muses to inspire your good writing... and may all wishes come true!

It was a regulation meant for Christmas, as far as I understood. It sucks,anyway

as far as our "cues" go.....there is always a "cue"...with the sword positioning...that indicates to your opponent/partner....where the srike will be comming from.....and a subsequent cue for the blocks.....that way....in fight...if one or other forget their position in sequence...or must be changed/improved differently foir saftey...somethings in the way etc....then the cue from either the attacker or the defemdant may dictate the action.

for example....

if i am comming at you with my sword pointed down....i will be striking for a head....off to the side....a shoulder strike....or up over my head...is a leg strike

and conversaly....if i am holding my sword at waist level...i am cueing for a head block....shoulder height...a shoulder block...or held high over my shoulder....a leg block...etcetcetc.....that way...with the roar of the crowds....music....or any other distractions like an improved change in choerography due to a saftey hazard(rocks,slopes,holes,edge,fence,audiece member,live animals)....i can visually see the next attack/block...

But... is it how it should be? I mean... I never faced an opponent, but I read several fencing manuals in order to be able to write my fencing scenes. Isn't the "cue" supposed to MISLEAD? Isn't the adversary supposed to not know exactly where the fencer is striking? I got this impression, of surprise moves and secret blows, from swashbuckling books and from the fencing manuals!

I had an unpleasant surprise when mailing my gift too. They put in the customs rules for Christmas a limit of 400g to the gifts to USA. So one of the books I intended to send remains with me until next time...

Welcome aboard!

Only one? OK then...

But I guess I have another one too...

I haven't seen Pirate Santas before, but I found these and Iuse them for holidays on my site...

Merry Christmas everybody, and may Santa bring you everything you wish!

I gave you my Spanish treasures (vizcaina, navaja, Toledo sword) photos, please give me some flying knives... I need to see some. I know styles were different... so any of you who are into blades, please help.

Belated happy birthday to you....

Join the club, my friend! Here in Bucharest no pirates either... but I get them online, in my games... Join one of them, play a pirate and feel the Caribbean sun in the winter of the North...

Thank you very much, all of you! You gave me ideas not only for the scene I had to write yesterday, but also for different future ones! (And, by the way, my writing partner had a lot of fun when I described it, including the horse harnesses and especially teapots )

Jackdaw, I don't need to go to UK for fish and chips, we have here at the seaside and at the beer festivals too

Thank you very much, you helped me a lot! I think Jen understood me the best, even if the others' sugestions are good too. She helped me solving my problem. Well, partially it was that I didn't know where to look for the artwork, and the other problem was vocabulary connected. I mean, English is still a foreign language to me, and, irrespectively that I speak it fluently, I am still struggling with some specific vocabulary (besides the fact that, not having anybody in my family into fishing, I think I wouldn't know even in my mother tongue how some things I see in the picture are called )

Please, help! My character helps another one to buy a harpoon. Somebody had advised them to go to a ship selling items for fishing ships. How to describe the shop? What do they see inside? (It is 1719, if it helps you).

I still don't see my name there in the list, is it any problem because I am not in the US? I was inscribed the twelfth if counting from down up on the first page.

Count me in!

Welcome here!

I think there were Catholic Irishmen too...

In the New Model Army? I'd be surprised.

In Jamaica? Possibly.

In Jamaica and all the islands, yes, and if not among the soldiers, at least among the sailors.

Additionally, conscripted recruits might be of almost any denomination (barring Papists).

I think there were Catholic Irishmen too...

Congratulations, Captain! But why "SANCTIONED"? What has she done?

All this talk is very interesting for any writer, i followed it with enthusiasm too. And I think the problem is to be as historically correct as the story makes sense. It doesn't matter how the things are viewed now, it matters to keep close to how they were viewed THEN, in order to portray the right atmosphere and to offeryour readers the experience of a XVIII-th century tavern, not of a bike pub of today.

Most adventure books (or stories on the net) have their rowdy part there, which are still appreciated nowadays, even if in our times stle, behaviour and norms are different. (Besides, some modern writers have a style... which made more sense if describing a scene in Port Royal than in the modern day they do ). And yes, I am talking about behaviour in a tavern.., or with a woman.