About Martin Blackshaw
Do you really want to read about me? Surely, you'd rather read a good book?
Well, if you’ve got a couple of minutes, here’s a brief run-through of my life.
The first time someone asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I answered, “Author.” I’m not sure I really understood what that meant. I certainly didn’t appreciate how hard writing could be. The next time someone asked, I said “Architect.” Then “Movie director.” Then “Artist.” I was seven. What did I know? I think I knew I wanted to be creative. And looking back, I now realise I always enjoyed writing—and grew to love reading.
The first book I ever finished was S.E Hinton's The Outsiders. I think I was compelled by the realism and grittiness of the characters. The next book I set me sights on was The Lord of the Rings. These early reads opened up whole new worlds, where anything was possible. Your imagination was the only barrier. And the joy of getting to the last page (which, in the case of LotR, took me quite a while). I just love reading. But I don’t need to tell you that. You’re reading an author’s bio—you probably love reading more than I do.
A few years ago, I was up in my mum’s loft (attic - for my friends in America) and found some old scenes, half-finished books, and scripts I’d written. It took me right back to being a teenager, frantically scribbling away in my bedroom. They weren’t great, but there was something there—and I remembered how much I enjoyed it.
After those scribbling days, I went to university. I applied to Bournemouth, Brighton, Southampton, and Plymouth. As you can probably tell from the list, I had to be by the sea. I chose Plymouth to study business. After graduating, I started a few businesses selling this and that, until a friend asked me to give him a hand in the building trade. I was only supposed to help out for a few weeks—but I never left.
I think it was the fresh air, the freedom an office could not offer, and the creativity of transforming someone’s home. I started as a labourer and, as soon as I could, began running my own jobs. I was the captain of my own ship, so to speak. But time flies when you're building extensions.
When I reached my forties, I was a decade into reading historical fiction—Bernard Cornwell quickly became my favourite. I loved his Sharpe series, and later The Last Kingdom. I enjoy their pace, how the history is there as a backdrop to dip into, but never bogs down the story. Characters and plot come first.
So, I was deep into reading again, the sea was still calling, and I had a thought: There must be a series like Cornwell’s, but set in the world of pirates. Surely there were loads of pirate books out there?
Well, not really. There's C. S. Forester's Hornblower series—but that’s from an officer’s perspective. Patrick O’Brian was similar. Both excellent series. I would highly recommend, but very naval and officer-focused. Where were the pirates? When I dug a little deeper I obviously found Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Rafael Sabatini’s Captain Blood, and a handful of others. You've probably read some of these yourself—and there are great books among them—but I was looking for something more modern, with some grit. Blood stained with dirty fingernails. The more recent novels often have a fantastical element, which I do enjoy, but it wasn’t what I was ultimately looking for. Michael Crichton’s Pirate Latitudes came close but he passed away before seeing his vision fully realised. It was something raw. An action-adventure told from the viewpoint of the sea dogs, the rag-tags, and the scallywags.
Eventually, boredom and imagination teamed up with a dash of overconfidence and convinced me maybe I could write that story myself. A series about real pirates, grounded in the real world, told through the eyes of one of their own.
Jacob Penjerrick was born.
I now have a deep admiration for every writer who finishes even one book—let alone a whole series. But after three years of hard work (which I genuinely loved), I’ve finally joined their crew. I may only be a lowly deckhand, no better than Jacob on his first day aboard Kestrel, but at least I’m on board. My first book is published.
The second is on its way. I’ve learned a lot from the first book, so hopefully the rest of the series won’t take three years each. Maybe one day, some bored forty-year-old with a love of the ocean will search for a pirate series and stumble across The Pirate’s Wake.
If that’s you—say hello.