What can I say, I was there and loved it. Everyone got the chance to dress up, listen to parts of Blood Captain and ask Justin Somper questions. (yes I know the sword hanging from my tiara shifted in the photos, I should have checked the mirror first!) We first had to sign up to his articles, then we discovered that he did masses of research for the series and things like the sea lanes existed in the golden era of piracy. I feel as if I will be researching chunks for this website for quite a while to come by the tit-bits he told us. Including a character that is appearing in the next book. All in all, if you get the chance, these live shows are well worth getting to. Next time when I get asked to describe Cheng Li I will not go the same shade as my wig.

I was helping at school today and googled for this site. It came up. To begin with one of the teachers said she thought it might be blocked. But I got access to it.

The updates to the characters page and timeline as slow going at the moment, as I am trying to sew pirate flags on my Ma Kettle costume. The one on the back took way longer than the time I have spent on some of these pages. I hope it looks worth it on Saturday.

I got my first message through the squeak page, and it was from the Captain. I am bouncing, and very happy here. Here it is:
Monday, September 24, 2007 at 17:08:37, The Captain, THANKS

Hi! This is Justin Somper writing to say thanks for creating a wonderful site. I've just found it and was really delighted and impressed with how much you have up so speedily. I'm just kicking off a national tour to introduce readers around the UK to BLOOD CAPTAIN. I'm also busily drafting ideas for the fourth book - as yet unnamed - which I will start writing in earnest on my return. Trust the tide!
Justin Somper

Welcome to everyone who has visited this site. So far we have United Kingdom, Network, US Commercial, Old style Arpanet (arpa), Luxembourg, Canada, Germany, Australia, Tonga, Japan and Sweden. Keep it up.

Hubbie's Dad dropped by today. He and Nai Nai (Nanny in mandarin) found the Tempest Twins website intriguing especially the Chinese pirates. Nai Nai found me a website to help me pronounce the Chinese names, Please note that each district has their own variation, so for Cheng you have to go down to the meaning finish / complete / accomplish / become / turn into / win / succeed / one tenth for the correct pronunciation. Although to western ears they sound very similar.

22nd September 2007 at The Guildhall, Bath.
Justin Somper appear at the first Bath Festival of Children's Literature. Did anyone go and see it and wants to publish their comments here?

My son and his best mate have been working hard to add to this website, so here is a list of jobs they believe should be in our crew. They also found a list of famous pirates and buccaneers.

Carpenter - A carpenter can make hull repairs at sea.
Cook - A cook can prepare tasty meals at sea.
Cooper - A cooper can preserve food in sturdy barrels.
Gunner - A gunner can train the crew in rapid firing of the cannons.
Surgeon - A surgeon can heal wounded crewmen.
Navigator - A navigator can increase the ship/fleets speed.
Quartermaster (QM) - A quartermaster can enforce discipline at sea.
Sailmaker - A sailmaker can make sail repairs at sea.

Famous , bounty hunters and pirates:
Henry Morgan, Jean Lafitte, Edward Teach (Black Beard), Anne Bonny, Sir Francis Drake, Jack Rackham, Klaus Störtebeker, Captain William Kidd, Christopher Condent, Bartholomew Roberts, Henry Avery, Charles Vane, Francois Lolonois, Stede Bonnet, William Dampier, Godecke Michels, Samuel Bellamy, Woodes Rogers, George Lowther.

Yippee I got a message back on the nocturn's message board.

"thenocturn (OFFLINE): Ship's Mouse, thankyou for the news. I wasn't aware of that myself. And can I say that your site is amazing. Far better than mine. I just hope people still like it here and don't all jump ship to your site. lol."

You have got to go to the http://www.vampirates.co.uk/ website and read under the latest news the comments from fellow authors like Anthony Horowitz.

I have just discovered September 19th (every year) is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. So button down the hatches for some terrible one liners, as my kids deliver various pirate-esk orders while changing my bed into a pirate ship.

I have just spotted the Vampirates website news has an another two additons. One being Justin Somper is appearing on the Simon Mayo's Show. A podcast is going to be available to download via http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/mayo.shtml after the show.

I am very happy here. Google has found two pages from the Tempest Twins website, the Dirty Dolphin and Our Crew. I have just types in Tempest Twins and pressed uk and we are second. Yipee, I am bouncing here. Just for the record so has MSN. Ok little things please little minds but it has made my day, people can find me.

Ahh, I am using a different copy of Vampirates, Demons Of The Ocean to my usual (as a friend is borrowing mine), and my kids went by. Now it does look more authentic with Strawberry, Blackberry and Raspberry juice down the side. Well back to up-dating the character page and hoping the pages don't stick together.

There are some wonderful people on the web. Here is just one.

"You've a wonderful website and I shall add a link at the end of my review so readers will know about Tempest Twins. I've another of the Vampirate books to review, but there are several other pirate books ahead of it.
Thanks for the link! Have a wonderful day. "

Her link can be found with the other pirating links and well worth a look.
Pirates and Privateers
This website includes Pirate articles, links, book reviews and more.

A friend told me the reason why although I have told Google about this site, Google's googlebot has crawled us, they will not list us is:

"There's a ~6-month spell called the 'Google Sandbox', in which it's disproportionately unlikely that you'll appear in search results. When you have some respectable inbound links, the site will be increasingly visible to the search community.

Try finding blogs on related topics and leaving helpful comments, leaving your URL -- that will lead to both curious (and relevant) visitors, and on-topic (and therefore Google-strength-enhancing) backlinks."

So here is a blog to try and get us noticed. I hope you like it, I will try to update it monthly with anything Vampirate esk that I or you lot find.

I've got my ticket to see Justin Somper in Windsor the weekend after next. I can't wait!

A friend read my website and sent me an email. I am so happy, I created a praise page so I could share it with everyone. No one is willing to use the Squeak page yet. I had to check again that it worked.

"Well done! What an accomplishment! I loved it all and found your explanation of how you got started reading the series very interesting. I'm sure it will be an encouragement to anyone who has struggled with reading.

I have one little titbit of info for you. I noticed in your character section that you were wondering about the origin of the name Jez. Well, it's short for Jeremy (who knows why!), which means God's appointed one."

When I was researching to produce this website, I discovered about the Windsor Festival. I have just ordered my ticket, I guess I better go as Ma Kettle. What do you think?

Tempest Twins Website goes live. I did it I promised myself that it had to be up by Friday and with my hubbies help I managed to get it up.

After school, my kids and I got all dressed up and went round to a friends house with accessories and a camera to get some photos for the Look alikes pages. My son's best mate's family were willing to have a laugh too so loads of photos were taken. My Blood Captain square had to have the replica sword held with both hands as it is heavy. Just watching the kids playing pirates with it and a plastic sword was hilarious. That and arguing on who would have the map and tankard made a fun afternoon.

I got it the domain name I wanted. See here it www.tempesttwins.co.uk. I hope it is catchy enough for people to remember it and be able to spell it.