Where Did The Red Raven Come From?

One of the questions I’m asked most often when I’m selling books at festivals, markets, and author events is, “Where do you get your ideas?”

When it comes to The Red Raven series, the answer begins with pirates, history, and a question that wouldn’t leave me alone.

When I first moved to Pensacola, Florida, I had a feeling that sooner or later I would write a book about pirates. Living along the Gulf Coast, surrounded by water and centuries of maritime history, it seemed almost inevitable. I didn’t know what the story would be, who the characters were, or whether it would ever become more than a single novel.

So, as I often do before beginning a historical novel, I started researching.

Two of the books I read were A General History of the Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson and The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard. Both gave me a deeper look into the Golden Age of Piracy, but I was especially fascinated by Johnson’s book because it was originally published in 1724—during the same century in which many of the pirates he wrote about actually sailed.

The more I read, the more one particular story caught my attention.

Captain John “Calico Jack” Rackham sailed with two women who would become among the most famous female pirates in history: Anne Bonny and Mary Read. In 1720, they were aboard Rackham’s small sloop, the William. Both women were known to dress as men aboard ship, particularly when preparing for battle.

That fascinated me.

The world of the early eighteenth century was not one in which a woman could simply walk aboard a ship and expect to be treated as an equal member of the crew. Life at sea was overwhelmingly a man’s world. Yet here were stories of women who stepped into that world, fought alongside men, and became legends in their own right.

As a writer, I found that history raised a question for me.

What if I took the idea one step further?

What if, instead of writing about a woman who disguised herself as a man so she could serve aboard a pirate vessel, I wrote about a young woman who eventually commanded one?

What kind of woman would she have to be?

She would have to be strong, but not invincible. She would have to earn the respect of her crew rather than simply demand it. She would have to know the sea, understand ships, and be willing to stand toe-to-toe with men who might underestimate her.

And she would need a story explaining how she came to be there.

That was when Raven Ashworth began to take shape.

Raven’s story starts long before she becomes the pirate known as The Red Raven. After losing her mother at the age of twelve, she disguises herself as a boy and goes to sea with her father, John Ashworth. Calling herself Richard Ashworth, she learns the life of a sailor from the deck up. She learns to handle a ship, face storms, fight when necessary, and survive in a world where revealing who she really is could change everything.

But Raven was never meant to remain hidden forever.

Eventually, the girl pretending to be a boy becomes the woman standing at the wheel of her own ship.

And Raven Ashworth becomes The Red Raven.

What began as an idea inspired by the real-life stories of Anne Bonny and Mary Read grew far beyond the single pirate novel I originally imagined. Raven gathered a crew. She found friends and enemies. She sailed into storms, battles, mysteries, legends, and places I hadn't imagined when I first began writing her story.

Before long, one book had become a series.

That is one of the things I love most about writing historical fiction. History gives us the facts—the names, dates, ships, places, battles, and people who actually lived. But sometimes, hidden between those facts, there is a question.

What if?

For me, Anne Bonny and Mary Read provided the history.

That simple question provided the fiction.

And somewhere between the two, a red-haired young woman stepped aboard a ship, took hold of the wheel, and became Raven “The Red Raven” Ashworth.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Or perhaps I should say…

Historical Fiction.