We’re thrilled to announce that our first published novel will be titled The Cabin Girl.
This milestone has been a long time coming for us, and we’ve put over two years of work into this title alone. We began brainstorming this idea in December 2016. It was meant to be an entry into a writing competition. A fun little story we whipped up from scratch. Then it grew into so much more. We didn’t make the deadline, didn’t even enter that competition, but this adventure romance was born. We decided to make this story our first published novel.
We worked on it throughout all of 2017, and finished the rough draft in February 2018. It was a cause for celebration! An entire novel complete! We went out for a celebration dinner at a place neither of us had tried before (I had some grilled pineapple teriyaki chicken that was to die for, by the way) and then we tried karaoke for the first time. We’ve done countless videos on SingStar, but never tried singing in public. It was a blast and a fun way to add to our celebrating. We even had a random guy photobomb our obligatory selfie. It was a memorable night, that’s for sure!
And then, like any proud parent of a newborn novel, we got our rough draft printed in book form. It gave us such a strong sense of pride and accomplishment to hold that book in our hands for the first time. We’ve been wanting to publish one of our stories for over a decade and now it was finally happening. That’s it up there, in the header image, in all its beauty. Swoon.
We took a break for a while, to step away and have fresh eyes when we came back for the edits. When we did come back to it, we used our paperback versions to do a full read-through review. We made our notes on everything that needed tweaked or rewritten, and then came the grueling task of actually doing those edits and rewrites.
That’s where we are right now. In the middle of our edits. In the middle of our long, tedious, frustrating edits. If we survive to the end of this, next will come another read-through review, followed by our final touch ups. On a funner note, we’re looking into cover artists. We’ll certainly update you here with that progress.
So now that you’ve slogged through all this background, we should probably tell you what The Cabin Girl is about!
The story is set in a fictional world that’s partly the Golden Age of Piracy, partly a made up ancient world, and partly a fantasy with mythical creatures. It’s an adventure romance that takes place on a pirate ship. We label it that way because it has a lot of action and adventure, along with the inevitable love story that unfolds. It follows a young woman named Cassia who disguises herself as a cabin boy. She’s desperate to escape her life, and takes a position on the first ship that’ll have her. She thinks she enlisted onto a merchant ship and is in for quite a shock when she realizes it’s actually a pirate ship. She finds herself working for the Dread Captain Malko, the devilishly handsome yet extremely dangerous pirate captain.
The Cabin Girl was so much fun to write. We fell in love with the characters and we already have two sequels planned. We also found a theme song for it. Because every good story needs a theme song! Having music that fits the themes or characters has always been something that inspires us with our writing. If you’re interested, the song for them is “Hold My Heart” by Lindsey Stirling (a mindblowingly talented artist) featuring ZZ Ward. Check it out here.
We’re so excited to share this story with everyone. It will still be a few months before the final product is released, but we plan to share excerpts along the way. Here’s the first one. Keep in mind, this is cut from the first draft, so it’s yet to be polished. Hope you enjoy!
-A
Excerpt from The Cabin Girl
She had seen them sing shanties before but never on such a nice day. On a day like this, she felt like nothing could wrong. Everyone seemed so happy, and it made being on a pirate ship feel less scary. No one was fighting or threatening each other. Even the captain up near the helm seemed to be in good spirits. He wasn’t smiling but he looked content. That was probably the happiest she had ever seen him look. And possibly the most handsome, as well.
The way he stood there, in that confident posture, with the wind blowing through his wavy locks, it was almost like something out a dream. He looked as if he didn’t have a worry in the world. As if he was some kind of powerful ruler. And Cassia guessed, in a way he was. He was the king of the Savage Mamba. The ruler and leader of this magnificent ship. And although he was a scary man, especially when made angry, Cassia could understand why the men respected him. There was an air of confidence that radiated from him. He was a man that knew what he wanted, and wasn’t afraid to take it. He didn’t cave under pressure and he knew how to keep order. He seemed to have all the right qualities of a great leader. And he was looking right at her…
Cassia quickly looked away as her eyes locked with the captain’s for one brief moment. Even though she was heavily attracted to him, she always tried to make sure that he didn’t see her looking! If he caught her staring at him, admiring him like a lovestruck girl, she wasn’t sure how he would react! Or what he would think! For all he knew, she was a young boy! Had he seen her just now?! Should she dare look at him again and find out?
Time seemed to slow in her short moment of panic. The music got quieter, the voices of the men singing become slower and distorted. Captain Malko was far enough away, she could have been staring at anything. He probably didn’t notice. She was probably just worrying for no reason! Get a grip, Cassia. He didn’t see…
“Boy, the captain would like a word with you!”
Amber is half of the co-author duo that is Danica Avery. She lives in Maryland with her three furbabies. When she’s not being a crazy cat lady, or working on books, she enjoys playing video games, baking sweets, crocheting, and other artsy hobbies.