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<\/p>\nShipping News: Rhode Island Rendezvous, Book Three of the Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventures, scheduled to arrive in port September 1, 2017.<\/p>\n
Newport Rhode Island: 1765<\/p>\n
The Seven Years War is over but unrest in the American colonies is just heating up\u2026<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>Maintaining her disguise as a young man, Patricia is finding success as Patrick MacPherson. Formerly a surgeon\u2019s mate in His Majesty\u2019s Navy, Patrick has lately been employed aboard the colonial merchant schooner Andromeda<\/em>, smuggling foreign molasses into Rhode Island. <\/em>Late October, amidst riots against the newly imposed Stamp Act, she leaves Newport bound for the West Indies on her first run as Andromeda\u2019s<\/em> master. In Havana a chance meeting with a former enemy presents unexpected opportunities while an encounter with a British frigate and an old lover threatens her liberty \u2013 and her life.<\/p>\n What began as Star-Crossed<\/em>, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2006 as a Young Adult historical novel, has become the Patricia MacPherson series — adult historical fiction. Not that there is graphic sex and gratuitous violence in the adult editions, but because I always intended it for adult readers, which includes many mature teens.<\/p>\n For me, chronicling Patricia’s story has been a way to rediscover history through the eyes of an orphaned teenager, born of a rich English planter in Barbados, who matures as she is forced to make her own way in the world. Writing in first person as I have done is a very immediate and personal experience, almost like reliving a past life.\u00a0 So intense is the immersion, and challenging because of its limitations, I’ve added a prologue to Rhode Island Rendezvous<\/em>; a prologue written in close third person from Patricia’s former lover’s perspective.<\/p>\n Writing a book is indeed a journey.\u00a0 A fourth book and final book in the series is planned and the voyage is soon to begin…<\/p>\n The inspiration for the fictional vessel Andromeda<\/em> comes from the historic Schooner Lewis R. French, pictured here, and used with their generous permission. While not from colonial times, the Maine-built schooner was launched in 1871 and is very traditional in her design. According to her website, “she freighted bricks, lumber, firewood, granite, fish, lime, canning supplies, Christmas trees, and now people.”<\/em> <\/strong>Bob and I were among those people, having had the pleasure of cruising aboard the French some years ago. Highly recommended, if you get the chance!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/schooner-LewisRFrench2-300x225.jpg\")
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