Ransom

Jalepeno Kettle Chips, and cheap wine poured over ice. Stupid drivers on the freeway The women in my writer's group Our boat - waiting for us on the cool coast — we're leaving tomorrow at 5:30 am!

Fans...in almost every room...'cause it's.......HOT

Just another gentle reminder — do a few pages of your own art in your book before you send it out. That's much more fun for the first artist in line, rather than getting a blank book with just a decorated cover and a name on the inside.

"DOG YOU! Is that what you..." Before I could finish, I heard him give orders to veer the Relentless away. "Umph, I told you he still mad," Africa said. "Of all the stupid, pig-headed, stubborn... I'll suppose he won't be happy 'till the Rakehell is half sunk and floundering. Blast him, how does he know I can even make it to this favorable anchorage? I'M not sure we can make it much further. In point of fact, due to the storm, I'm not even sure where we are. " Africa ignored my rantings. "Den you best take some bearings." I glared him. "Oh, I'll take some bearings all right. I want to know exactly where that....that, infuriating man is heading. I've no choice, damaged as we are, but to follow him, but blast, I'll NOT have him thinking I'm dogging him. DOGGING HIM!" With my eyes on the retreating Relentless, I growled, "Oh, you're going to regret that little remark, Jacky-boy. Count on it." Really wishing I had a forty-pounder I could fire through the Relentless's stern window, I whirled around to face Roberts, who had been standing quietly waiting. "What the devil do you want?"

Wow! Pyrateleather has certainly raised the bar on book covers! Awesome job! A hint for those making their own books, make sure there is plenty of paper in them. You've got 12 players, who may do 1-5 pages in each book. Average number of pages worked is about 3, but one person in the last round did about 8 pages in my book, so you never know.

"Why does the theme song from Cinderella suddenly come to mind? **Off-screen a lonely sounding male starts to sing** "Some day my Prince..cess will come." Then again, if she's wearing armor, it might be "Flight of the Valkeries" instead.

"Nate, damn your eyes, keep away from the guns, you're making the Commodore nervous." The ships drifted a little closer together. I looked back over the water at Jacky, and gave him my biggest smile. "Oh, come on, Jacky. You know bloody well I'd never fire on you. Only reason I threatened to do so before, was 'cause you were aiming your guns at me. What the hell was that all about, anyway? And you can't be mad over that business in Havana and me leaving, because I sent you a note to tell you why I did." Jacky was listening, but he wasn't smiling. I jumped down to the deck, then threw up my hand in exasperation. "Oh, all right. I'm sorry about the sock. Does that satisfy you? Never thought I'd see the day when you lost your sense of humor." Jacky still wasn't smiling. Leaning with my arms resting on the rail, I gave him a real smile. "So, my ship or yours? You might want to decide before that Spanish bathtub of a galleon finally catches up with us."

I thought so. Totally hopeless!

Best of luck to you, Lady Seahawke. My brother-in-law had that done, and he came through with flying colors. But I can sure see why it would all be pretty scary.

Careful, MadL, you're looking at a red-headed Irish lass. Unless you want this champagne bottle smacked over your head! Then again, it might knock some sense into that rum-soaked, goofy brain of yours.

I give no quarter either — I take them. Quarters, dimes, pieces-of-eight, silver bars, gold bars, jewels ( I likes my jewels, I does), anything worth the taking. Let that be a hint to you not to leave your purse laying around unattended. Welcome to the Pub. Make mine a glass of French bubbly.

^ A surprise birthday party about seven of my friends gave me a few years back. They hijacked me from work, took me to a really nice restaurant, had balloons and flowers at the table. Really kewl. < Getting ready to head to the coast for three days on our boat. Trying to escape the 100+ degree heat here in Grants Pass. V It's a good question, so I'll pass it along.

Smiling, I turned to Africa. "See, I told you the sock would work." Africa groaned. "He don look too pleased, if you ask me. I bet he think that sock an insult." I looked back at Jacky. It was true. He was glaring at me...and the sock. I couldn't believe he didn't get the joke. Quickly, I crawled up the rat line, untied the sock and threw it overboard. It undulated across the surface of the water like a white snake, and the current carried it unerringly to the Relentless, where it slapped against her hull. A few of his crew chuckled, then quickly stopped. From my higher position I yelled back at Jacky, "I'll state my business, alright. But I'm not going to shout myself hoarse doing it. There's the little matter of a BIG HOLE in my ship, blast you. So, either I come to you, or you come to me, but talk we will. You decide."

No worries. All my books have been off the shelf black art sketch books, which I then decorated the covers of. My first one, which turned out rather nice, was covered in strips of crumpled brown paper bag, then aged with paint to look like dirty, worn leather — including my own thumbprints. LOL Really, anything goes. Anything!

Oops, gotta add: 29. Mary Diamond 30. Pete Straw aka Evil Peaches 31. Scuttle Sally 32. And the leader, and a few members of Bounding Main, but I can't remember their names.

Ummm, you guys might want to bear in mind that this art journal is NOT meant to be period. That was the whole point of doing them, to get away from all the strictly PC stuff and just have fun. Your book could be filled with folded paper bags for pages, if that's what struck your fancy. Seriously, don't sweat this stuff too much. People may be using crayons in your book, so I doubt, with a few exceptions, if the type of paper or binding matters much. You might also keep in mind that it is really helpful if the book, when open, lays flat. Those are much easier to work in.

Here goes. But like everyone else, I'll probably have to add to the list as my memory gets better. 1. Sebastian Devareaux 2. Flintlock Jack 3. Mad d'Dogg (Also his brother, Billy Beech) 4. Rats 5. Bilgemunkey 6. Captain Sterling 7. Cheeky (And her twin sister, Lynn) 8. Lady B 9. Merrydeath 10. Dutchess 11. Red Bess 12. CrazyCholeBlack 13. Billy Bones 14. Quartermaster James 15. Lorien Stormfeather 16. Jacky Tar 17. Patrick Hand 18. Iron Bess 19. Rumba Rue 20. Arthur Richards of Kent 21. Kenneth 22. Red-Handed Jill 23. Iron Jack 24. MadL 25. Ol' Jack the Pirate 26. Iron Hand 27. Oderlesseye, and his lovely wife, Sweet Cricket 28. Dirty Mick Moon

It got close to evening when the storm dropped to no more than a steady, stiff breeze. I had Africa bring the Rakehell alongside the Relentless, and through cupped hands, called across the twenty yards of water between us. "Ahoy, the Relentless. I need to speak with Captain Tar." Next to me, Africa huffed. "He still mad at you. I bet he don answer." "He bloody well better answer. It was his damned cook that holed my ship. I want a word or two about that." Then I gave him the kind of grin I knew he hated. "Besides, I know Jacky will be glad to see me." Then the grin faded as I turned back to the brig. "Well, at least I think he'll be glad to see me." There was no response from the Relentless. Members of her crew lined up at the rail and stared at us, but no one called back. "See, I told you. They all mad at you," Africa said smugly.

I really do enjoy having them around. I think of it as kind of an honor that they feel safe enough in my yard to bring the babies. We don't feed them anything, other than the occasional melon rinds which I put out by the pond. Oh, and Johnny Tarr — that would be "Hey, great pics LASS, not man.

Eyes, contact GoF. He had you book last. I really think he sent it to Black Mab, along with her own book. Or, try to contact Black Mab directly. I PMed Carter awhile back, asking about your book, and asking him to get a hold of Mab, since he seems to know her. I haven't heard anything back from him, but I did tell him to contact you. He's in the middle of planning a wedding, I think, so may have been too busy. Anyway, I would start with GoF and go from there.

I'm sure any of us who have done this before would be more than happy to answer any questions the rest of you have. Just post them here. It really is a fun project, and yes, the anticipation level really goes up the longer your book is gone. Last round it was seven months before I got my book back. And I wholeheartedly agree with Patrick. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, KEEP IN CONTACT BY POSTING ON THE THREAD. Everyone is always excited at the beginning, but momentum tends to slow down the further into the round we get. Posting helps keep the interest level up, and will really help Pew keep track of where each book is. It's one of the most important aspects of this game, besides actually mailing the books on time. I also think it would be a great idea to post pictures of your work in some of the books as we go along. I think this will keep people excited for the whole year this round will take. Besides, like Patrick, everyone likes to show off what they can do! Oh, now I think of it. Each of us should post a picture of the cover of our book. Last round we ended up with a Mystery Book, which no one knew whose it was. It ended up being awarded to Pew, since his original book was lost for a long time. The pictures would be a great reference to fall back on.

Just to give some ideas of what you might get in your book, when it finally makes it home. Here is the front of my second round book after it came home. I had an envelope inside full of tags, and everyone put a characature of themselves on one, and tied it to the spine, as I already had danglies tied there to start with(I love danglies. LOL ). This is some of my own work that I did inside before I sent it out. Then here is a silly one I did for Patrick's book. Just to show that, really, anything goes! And on a more serious note, I recommend photographing the work you do in each book, including your own. It is a record for you, and if a book gets lost, you can e-mail copies of what you did in it to the person whose book went missing, so they at least have something. I did that for Patrick, since he still doesn't have his first round book back.

All these pictures were taken either from my front deck, or from inside the house looking out the front window. Okay, in May and June, it was "The Boys" loitering around in my front yard. They are in the process of growing out their antlers for the year, and at this point, the bone is still covered in velvet. Here is a wider shot, showing all three guys. Then, in late June and still living in my front yard, are "The Girls and Children". It is a doe with twin fawns, and a young doe that is probably last years fawn by the same mom. They really make themselves at home! They even drink from my birdbaths. Then it's down our driveway and off to our pond, for a big drink. Ya gotta love living in the country. Just make sure you plant stuff in your yard that they don't like to eat.

Best of luck to you, Rumba. I know how frustrating buying a house can be. I'll keep fingers and toes crossed that all goes well, and works out for the best. As for me, weeel, I'm a little bummed. Last night I tried to win a pretty antique silverplate tea pot on Ebay. I bid as high as I could afford, but lost it by $50 dollars. Drat! It was a beauty, made in 1840. Sigh.

Hoop de wadda wadda.....Bump!