My Star-Crossed experience as a crewmember aboard HM Bark Endeavour, a circumnavigating replica of Captain Cook's ship.

So how did I come to write an historical adventure novel that takes place on a ship in the mid-18th century? My first two books were guidebooks. My degree is in Nursing, not History!


First of all, I'm a sailor (thanks to my husband, who lured me into that obsession!) And I read a lot of history. But it takes something to ignite the creative fire, and this time it was a journey.


The idea for Star-Crossed came to me in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on a night watch, at the helm of HM Bark Endeavour, an Australian-built replica of Captain James Cook's famous 18th century ship. Bob and I had the amazing good fortune to serve as voyage crewmembers on Endeavour, for her three-week crossing from Vancouver to Hawai'i, in 1999. (Endeavour went on to complete her circumnavigation, and is now home in Sidney's Harbor.)


Living and working aboard the Endeavour was the closest thing to a time machine, with the ability to transport living souls back to mid-18th century maritime England, that can possibly exist! As voyage crewmembers Bob and I (and thirty-three other ordinary sailors) stood our watch, taking turns at the helm, climbing aloft to make and furl sail, hauling on halyards and heaving away on lifts and braces. We learned to braid reef points, chip rust from cannons, make canvas buckets from scraps of canvas, and we slept in hammocks lashed to the deckhead. Four of us were female, and there were three women among the officers during that particular voyage.


Steering the three-masted ship was a thrilling experience! One night when I was at the helm, I realized I would write a novel. I had no idea of the plot. But I knew the setting, because I was living it. I was enthralled with it. And I wanted to explore what it might have been like to be a girl, a young woman, aboard a ship much like this one, back in the mid-18th century. A sailor woman, not a passenger. (After all, if a old girl like me could climb the rigging, steer the ship, and swab the decks alongside the men, then surely a much younger woman could hold her own!)


When I stepped back into the future at our landfall, Hawai'i, I carried with me the seeds for what would become Star-Crossed. I researched the background for more than three years, while playing with characters, who eventually dictated the plot. Maritime history became a hobby, a passion, an obsession. The research continues (and so do Patricia's adventures, in the sequel...)


I hope you have as much fun reading Star-Crossed as I had living it and writing it!