Monday, September 29, 2014

Randy Sanders - Please Read and Share

My blog today isn't about me or one of the story lines in one of my books. It's about something we all go through in our lives, no matter how hard we try to avoid it. It's about Loss. Losing a family member or a friend, a coworker or your pet can be hard for all of us.

This morning as I went through my Facebook posting from friends everywhere, I came upon one that stopped my heart for a second. The post talked about an acquaintance of mine that I had come to think of as a friend. And it said "May he rest in peace."

This young man had made a decision to not go on with his life. As so many of us just recently were stunned by Robin Williams suicide, I was equally shocked to hear that my friend was gone. There would be no fishing in the Stick Marsh in search of that giant bucketmouth he had promised me. There would be no time spent listening to him talk about how much he loved to fish and surf, or how he loved his son, who has taken up surfing, just like his dad.

There would be nothing for me but good memories and warm feelings for this man, who had made such a good impression on me just a few years back. I owned a local fishing magazine back then and I needed somebody to write quality reports from the freshwater lakes to the west of the county. Somebody had asked me if I knew Randy Sanders. When I told him I didn't, he immediately told me to get in touch with him. I called him and convinced him that he was the guy for the job.

And he was! Randy did a great job as a reporter and forecaster. I enjoyed reading his monthly reports as much as any other guide who wrote for me. People who fished with him can tell you that he knew where the fish were hiding on most any day. He ran his boat through the lakes out west like it was his back yard, and for a time it was pretty close.

I knew him as an angler and an avid fisherman, anxious to share his knowledge with anybody. He was a good man, in my opinion. He was equally famous around here as being a beach rat. His surfing legend will live on in the campfires of the local beaches. From the outpouring of grief I've seen so far, Randy was a very loved person. He had a lot of friends and people who cared about him and will miss him dearly.

His ultimate decision will leave most of us who knew him in a quandary, but he will certainly not be forgotten here in our little section of the world. We can't judge someone unless we share their pain. I will never think of him as anything less than a person I'm proud to have met.

Please "Rest in Peace," Randy Sanders. We'll all miss you!


If you know someone who is struggling through their life, make sure that you or someone else share this link with them:

                                                www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Please share this on your timelines if you're a Brevard or Indian River County resident.

Thank you!

Friday, September 26, 2014

Shall We Book Your Flight?


The beautiful beach in the photo isn't in the Caribbean or some secluded Pacific island chain. It's actually in Vietnam, on the island of Phú Quốc. The island is home to about 85,000 residents year-round, and has a very favorable tourist policy in effect as of March, not requiring a visa for the first thirty days of a vacation. It's just one more thing the Vietnamese government is doing to increase tourism.

Phú Quốc is a great place to visit. It is surrounded by a series of twenty small islets. The South Vietnamese Army had a prison camp there during the Vietnam War, but any signs of the war are long gone. But the island does have a troubled past that seems to keep emerging every once in a while. It seems that Cambodia also claims these islands as their own, and the two countries have fought over them for a long time. Who wouldn't want these islands? I'll take two small ones, please!

The Vietnam War was raging when I went to college in 1968. Friends and acquaintances of mine were being shipped over there on an all too regular basis. Vietnam divided our country for several years, and we paid a heavy price in loss of life and permanently scarred veterans returning from the jungles of Nam. I never went there as a soldier like so many I know and honor. I was one of the lucky ones who didn't have to live the nightmare.

I knew a guy in the '80's who told me a story that he thought was funny then, but had horrified him years before. It seems he had joined the Coast Guard in 1969, which wasn't an easy thing to do. Thinking he would end up on Search and Rescue someplace in the States, he ended up in Vietnam on a patrol boat working the Mekong River. As they picked up stranded soldiers and the wounded, they also carried body bags from the fighting. His boat was fired on almost every trip by Viet Cong guerrillas along the shore. 

It wasn't a vacation, for sure! I don't know how much of his story was true, but it was the inspiration for one of the heroes of my book, Serpent's Curse. A young Ensign Rick Perry spends his days on the Mekong, getting shot at and all, while spending his nights and time off in Phú Quốc at a fictional Coastie base there. He develops a love for flying helicopters, which he pursues after getting back from the war.

Years later he ends up as the Commandant at a Coast Guard station in Fort Pierce, Florida. He is pulled into the drama and horror of the Golden Serpent, and almost sacrifices everything to help his friend destroy the monster. He's a great character and plays an even bigger part in the sequel, Serpent's Return. Find out a little bit about the Serpent and my characters by reading the FREE offer of the first seven chapters. Click on the link:

             https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2

To find out more about purchasing the book, please click on the link below:
         
http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury

 

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!


Mark


"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it."
       --- Steven Wright               


Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Cancun and Cozumel - A Little Late to the Party?

If you've ever been to Cancun or the Isle of Cozumel you know that they can be great places to party, relax, dive, sail or whatever else you'd like to do. Whether you fly there, or arrive on a cruise ship, it's always fun to hit these destinations. But they weren't the first seaside hot spots on the Caribbean; the Mayans built a city over a thousand years ago just a few miles south. 

Tulum, on the eastern coastline of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico is an archeological delight. It is said to be the only seaport city built by the Mayans, and it  is also the only city built with fortress-like walls. It was originally called Zama, which means "City of Dawn." The belief is that the city was built as a port for the larger city of Coba to the west, which was hidden in the jungles of the Yucatan. If you stand on the cliff above its beach overlooking the Caribbean Sea, you'd think that it must have been quite the resort in the later days of the Mayan Empire.

The truth is it was actually the center of a maritime trade established by the Mayans.They used large wooden canoes to travel the distance between Tulum and the islands and regions south and north of the city. You might be surprised to hear that one of their main items of trade was obsidian, a glass-like rock used for making knives, arrows and spears. They controlled the supply of this stone and used it to establish their dominance in the area. They traded it for anything else they might need, as it became the central currency of their commerce.

They also exported feathers and copper goods made further inland in villages throughout the Yucatan. Jade was another commodity traded fairly heavily, as well. The returning canoes generally brought back textile goods and salt, both necessary for life in the cities and villages of the Maya.

The city is built on top of cliffs close to forty feet high. There's a break in the cliffs that lead down to a beautiful beach. Most importantly, there is a cut through the offshore reef directly in front of the city. This feature allowed their canoes to pass through deeper water on their way in or out. The city is completely walled in on the remaining three sides, and has watchtowers built into the walls in the two corners furthest from the cliffs. The walls were as high as sixteen feet and as thick as twenty-five feet!

In my fictional work, Serpent's Curse, I use Tulum as the site of a Spanish camp of treasure seekers. By the year 1715, which is when my Spaniards are there, the Mayans were long gone, having disappeared almost two hundred years earlier. But the stone buildings were there, like they still are today. My Spaniards use the old temples and palace of the King to set up their camp. I reference several of the buildings in my book.

Here's a couple photos of Tulum's famous buildings. If you ever get a chance to go there, don't miss out on the chance. For those of you who have visited the old city, you'll know I'm not exaggerating. It's a very impressive place! The smaller photo on the left is the "Temple of Frescoes."

For a FREE sample read of Serpent's Curse, go to the link below:
                                
 https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2

To find out more about purchasing the book, please click on the link below:
         
http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury


Thanks for reading! Have a great week!


Mark



 


  
                                                        El Castillo, on the cliffs overlooking the Caribbean.



Friday, September 19, 2014

Sebastian, Florida, and the Hurricanes of 2004

Many of you who read this post may have vivid memories of the storms that crushed the Treasure Coast of Florida in 2004. Frances and Jeanne destroyed our coastline here with back-to-back cyclones within three weeks of each other. There hadn't been a major hurricane to hit this area since 1964, a period of forty years, but Mother Nature made up for that with a whip-lashing unseen in this area for over a hundred years.

The two storms followed the exact same path, landing south of us in Sewall's Point, part of Stuart, and wreaking havoc on everything north and south of there. Sebastian is about forty miles to the north, which put us in the center of the worst part of any hurricane; the eye wall.The eye wall of both storms slammed us with the most intense winds and rain, with dozens of tornadic cyclones thrown in for good measure.

I remember being at my desk on the second floor of my condo all through the night as Jeanne just wouldn't let up. At one point early in the night I heard an unusual noise in the hallway, and when I went to investigate I found the trap door to my attic bouncing up and down like a breathing monster. The roof was creaking and things were being thrown against the sides of my place. I was certain that my roof was going to be ripped off at any time, but it held up and I escaped with minimal damage to my condo.

There was incredible damage to the beachside barrier island and the shores of the Indian River Lagoon, which is Sebastian's natural border to the east; it was like a horrible dream that you woke up from and discovered it wasn't a nightmare. Boats were thrown across US 1 and the riverfront up and down the coast, and homes throughout the area were destroyed by the tornadic activity. We had devastating erosion at the beaches, and almost everybody lost all or most of their docks. I hope it's another forty years (or never) before we see anything like that here in Sebastian!

These two storms inspired me to make them part of the adventure that became my book, Serpent's Curse. The second storm rips a new inlet across Highway A1A on the beachside, exposing new treasures from the 1715 Plate Fleet. Two local fishermen hook into something they didn't expect while trying to load up on some fresh pompano that are coming in through the new opening.

What they discover in the peaceful lagoon opens a window of horror that began over a thousand years before. A cursed relic from the Mayan Empire, stolen centuries before by the Spanish and put on one of the ill-fated treasure galleons that sank off the coast here in 1715, surfaces in the shallow waters. It turns out to be not such a good day for these two local boys, and things only heat up from there.

Explore the Curse on your own. Go to my link below and read the first seven chapters FREE. There's a link to find the book if you'd like to continue reading. Catch up with this one; there's a sequel coming out soon and you'll want to read them both!

                        https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2


For more information, go to:

http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury

Have a great weekend! Thanks for taking the time!



Mark
 
This was a typical scene along the shores of.the Indian River in Sebastian.







Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Pirates of the Treasure Coast

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, the Treasure Coast of Florida is the graveyard for the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet. Eleven Spanish galleons had crashed on the shallow reefs along the beaches of what is now Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin Counties, depositing millions in gold and silver on the ocean floor. "Plata" is the Spanish word for silver, and over the years the sunken ships became known as the "1715 Plate Fleet," when Englishmen confused the Spanish word as "plate."

But it wasn't about plates, even though there was a shipment of fine porcelain from China aboard one of the ships. It was all about salvaging as much of the gold and silver as could possibly be found. The Spanish made an alliance with local Indians, called the Ais tribe, who assisted in the recovery. The Spanish and their Indian allies were fortunate and found a vast amount of the sunken treasure, hoping to send it on to King Felipe, who desperately needed the treasure to pay off a huge debt.

But, as we know, good news travels fast. Word of the catastrophe along the central coast of Florida spread like wildfire throughout the Caribbean. The Spanish got busy putting together a salvage fleet to go to Florida to recover what they could and continue on to Spain. Before they could get there, a fast-acting pirate named Henry Jennings sailed to the salvage site and raided the camp.

Jennings and his crew of buccaneers swarmed the camp and overpowered the men protecting the treasure. They made off with 87,000 British pounds in recovered silver and gold. That amount today is worth millions of dollars. On board Jenning's ship was another pirate named Charles Vane, who would go on to become one of the most infamous of the lot, gaining a reputation as one of the cruelest pirates ever. Vane was one of the last of the "Privateers," since many before him had accepted a pardon from the King Of England and had returned to a normal life.

In my book, Serpent's Curse, pirates are feared by the Spanish captains who sail the Caribbean. They are constantly on the lookout for roving pirate ships, known to fly a Spanish flag until they got close enough to attack, when they raised the Jolly Roger and set their cannons blazing. And we worry about "Road Rage?"

Step back in time to when men made their life on the seas, whether for good or bad. Check out the link below for a FREE look at Serpent's Curse:

                           https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2


For more information on Serpent's Curse, go to:

http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury

Have a great day and thanks for reading!



Mark

Thursday, September 11, 2014

A Rainy Night in Boston

Young Jackie Burke, the would-be hero of my book Serpent's Curse, starts out in a pretty tough environment. He's the oldest son of Big John Burke, one of the most feared Irish mobsters in Boston. After witnessing his drunken father beating up on his mother for the umpteenth time, he strikes back one night and puts his father down.

He moves out of his house and takes over a gang of young thugs. He's heading in the same direction as his father when something awful happens one rainy night. He leaves Boston and goes into hiding in Charleston, SC, where he changes his name and starts a new life. Something powerful affects his life while he's in Charleston, sending him in a very different direction.
 Please follow the link below for a FREE look at the first seven chapters:

           https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2

For information on my book, "Serpent's Curse," please follow the link:

http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury/  

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!


Mark 
 


Photo: Young Jackie Burke, the would-be hero of Serpent's Curse, starts out in a pretty tough environment. He's the oldest son of Big John Burke, one of the most feared Irish mobsters in Boston. After witnessing his father beating up on his mother for the umpteenth time, he strikes back one night and puts his father down.

He moves out of his house and takes over a gang of young thugs. He's heading in the same direction as his father when something awful happens one rainy night. He leaves Boston and goes into hiding in Charleston, SC, where he changes his name and starts a new life. Something powerful changes his life while he's in Charleston, sending him in a very different direction.St. Michael's Episcopalian Church Charleston, SC - 1761
                                     

Monday, September 8, 2014

Bangin' a U'ey!

For those of you who didn't grow up in the Boston area, "bangin' a U'ey" simply means making a u-turn. We all have colloquialisms no matter where we're from, but I personally think Massachusetts has some of the craziest! And they're all wicked cool!

Back to the U'ey; I've decided to change my blog postings to reflect more on my writing projects. Most of you know that I'm an author, but I'm also certain that most of you haven't read my books. I'd like to change that, so I'm going to focus more on topics that are relevant to what I'm writing about.

My blog will include stories about events that take place in my books, or related subjects that have influenced my writing. The content could be historical, actual, whimsical or comical, depending on which way the wind's blowing that day. But I will always attempt to make it interesting, and I would welcome your feedback as we travel the roads of the fictional tales I weave.

If you've been viewing my Author page on Facebook lately, you'll have an idea of what I'm talking about. I've been posting snippets about my books there for the past couple of weeks, with Free links to some of the earlier chapters. I will continue to do that with this new format. Here's today's little nugget:

              The Mayans were a curious civilization. They were incredibly intelligent in the ways of science, especially astronomy, but were reviled for their practice of human sacrifice. But for the Mayans, sacrifice was a way into their afterlife.

             They actually had a ball game that was played on a large field in a stadium-like arena. The object was to put a small round ball through a stone ring on the sidewall of the arena. Playing this game was an honor for Mayan men, and they fought furiously to win the event. And here's the best part (or the worst, depending on your perspective): the winners were sacrificed to the Gods and the losers were looked down upon as failures.

            You think you're stressed out? Under pressure? Mayan culture was so different than what we've come to accept as normal human behavior that it's quite difficult to accept these people as a civilized nation. Yet they devised a calendar that is so perfect scientists today still can't figure out how they did it.

In my book, Serpent's Curse, the story begins with the sacrifice of a young prince. The boy is revered by his people, and is celebrated as a savior before his tragic end. He and the Golden Serpent are cast into a seemingly bottomless well after the ceremony, only to be discovered by Spanish treasure seekers hundreds of years later.

And so begins the Curse! Please take a FREE look at the first seven chapters at the link below:

           https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2

For information on my book, "Serpent's Curse," please follow the link:

http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury/  

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!


Mark