I did some research and made a list of books that might help me fine-tune my writing senses as I spent the last couple of months putting the final polish on my YA Dream Pirate Saga Book I.

What would you add to this list?

The Hobbit — J.R.R. Tolkien The Chronicles of Prydain / The Book of Three — Lloyd Alexander

A Wizard of Earthsea — Ursula K. Le Guin The Dark Is Rising — Susan Cooper The Neverending Story — Michael Ende The Phantom Tollbooth — Norton Juster A Wrinkle in Time — Madeleine L’Engle Half Magic — Edward Eager

Howl’s Moving Castle — Diana Wynne Jones Charmed Life — Diana Wynne Jones The Wee Free Men — Terry Pratchett Artemis Fowl — Eoin Colfer The Bartimaeus Trilogy — Jonathan Stroud

The Graveyard Book — Neil Gaiman

The Starless Sea — Erin Morgenstern The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making — Catherynne M. Valente

Dream Pirates is ready to go. Well, it is as ready as I can make it.

You write a story. It’s easy at first, then about halfway through, it begins to bog down. It becomes a struggle. Especially if you are a pantser like me. I started this book with nothing more than an idea about preteen kids on their last summer break before junior high. I tried to think about what would interest me as a preteen and as a teenage reader, and put myself in their place.

The story needed magic for one thing. I remember being young and wishing desperately that magic were real. I knew it wasn’t yet, but I couldn’t help but try to make something happen with nothing more than my mind, my willpower, and perhaps the possibility that anything was possible.

Maybe that explains why I am a writer. Storytelling is a form of human magic. We create worlds where anything is possible.

Pirates were a welcome addition, but not the scurvy cutthroats of lore, something more fantastic. Flying pirate ships from another realm entirely.

That was all I had when I began writing. That turned out to be more than enough to get on with. By the end of that first draft, the story had widened to include Blackheart Jetty, the Pirate King, and Agnatha Salazar, a Lord of Terrafay.

The kids drove the action with their curiosity and refusal to give up on a world full of wonder. Britta, her younger cousin Basil, and their friends, Jamal, Dahlia, Jeremy, and Ella, soon discovered their own story. A worthy adventure for their summer vacation.

Still, the final result, the manuscript today, took years to fashion. Britta needed to emerge, and Ella, oh, Ella. You will see there is a tale here worth the telling. At its essence is the magic of story and a story of magic.

I will be seeking an agent and submitting the polished manuscript to a couple of small indie publishers this month.

Wish me luck.

Also on the horizon—I have continued to work on Keeping it Together While Falling Apart, my Medical Memoir. The GoFundMe will launch this summer to cover professional editing, cover design, and publishing costs.

My Life as a Dead Player Character: Dying to Play the Game is currently being edited, and my team (Sammy, my daughter; Terri, my wife; my beta readers; and my digital artist) is hard at work getting the book ready for release in the spring of 2027.

You can help by spreading the word, sharing my words with friends, colleagues, and strangers if you know them. Wait… You know what I mean.

Thanks for reading.