Yes, I know, this is not what I usually write. But I couldn't resist the temptation of The Treasure Map 2001 Contest hosted by SecretTreasures
As the challenge required for this story to be structured in a quite specific way, let me explain a few things before you start reading.
First of all, we need to introduce several members of our pirate ship's crew, in flash fiction pieces no longer than 750 words, each character having his/hers own chapter (5 chapters maximum).
Afterwards, we should lead them all, together with the rest of the crew, into our short story, which can be divided in chapters too, but mustn't be longer than 6k words (3-6k words on top of the 'character' chapters).
Ok. That's about the structure. Now let me tell you a few words about my story itself.
My pirates navigate the Mediterranean sea from Antalya (Turkey), to La Goulette (Tunis), Monte Cristo and Elba (Italy), and they plan to visit the shores of Cornwall (England).
The story is set in the 16th century, nearly two hundred years before the 'golden age of piracy'. My galleon, Restless Soul, belongs to the notorious Turkish pirate/ privateer-- Barbarossa.
Even though he only appears personally in a few of the initial chapters, let me tell you some interesting facts I've read about him.
Do you remember the Dread Pirate Roberts? It is the identity assumed by several fictional characters in the novel The Princess Bride. Various pirates take on the role of Roberts and use his reputation to intimidate their opponents, before retiring and secretly passing on the name to someone else.
Well, Barbarossa was something like that too-- he became so dreaded and well known only because... he wasn't one person only. They were three or four brothers who passed the nickname on, when one of them died.
But speaking of him as of one man, the summation of them all, we can say that he was an Ottoman corsair and later an admiral, fighting for Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid 16th century. A sailor who turned to a privateer to counteract the privateering of the Knights Hospitaller (Knights of St. John). He was well educated and spoke several languages-- Italian, Greek, French, Arabic and (in my story) English.
Ok, I won't bore you further, this explains where I got the inspiration to write this story sufficiently. However, should you want to find out more about him, there's a whole lot of information on numerous websites.
I will start publishing the first chapters soon (they need some editing to fit the word count 😄).
Thank you for taking your time to read this story, I hope you'll enjoy it! ♡
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