Lance Morcan's Blog, page 9

Surprises in store below deck for young recruit aboard Captain Cook’s bark the Endeavour in new release historical adventure

When Nicholas Young was appointed Surgeon’s Boy aboard Captain Cook’s bark Endeavour in 1768 homosexuality and drunkenness below deck were among the surprises in store for him – as the following excerpt from the new release historical adventure New Zealand: A Novel shows…

The Endeavour’s surgery was one of the busiest facilities aboard ship. As surgeon’s boy, Nicholas’s shifts involved twelve-hour days every day as well as being on call to assist in the event of an emergency. The seventeen-year-old soon discovered emergencies aboard sailing ships of the day were the rule rather than the exception.

Terrifying mid-Atlantic storms had resulted in a rash of injuries, some serious, and two more lives had been lost before they’d even reached the sanctuary of Rio de Janeiro. Both unfortunates had been swept overboard in mountainous seas. Since then another had died after falling from the rigging.

Many of the mishaps could be attributed to drunkenness. So liberal were the Royal Navy’s rum rations, which were often supplemented illegally through theft and bribery, that many crew members and some officers were constantly drunk.

Nicholas had quickly discovered that alcohol and sailing were not a good mix. He was constantly helping to patch up injured seamen who had over-indulged. Other injuries resulted from fighting, which was all too often another side-effect of excessive drinking.

Brawling, drunkenness and illicit procurement of liquor were punishable by flogging. More than a dozen floggings had been administered so far on the voyage, but not even the cat-of-nine-tails was enough to deter the worst offenders. These were rough men who worked hard and played hard, and Nicholas soon learned he’d entered a world where he had to stand up for himself or risk being bullied.

He learned that homosexuality was another fact of life at sea where men were literally thrown together in the cramped quarters below deck. As the distance separating them from wives and loved-ones lengthened, bunk or hammock-sharing became quite common, and not only below deck. This problem – for that’s how the navy viewed homosexuality – was different to other problems encountered on board in that the top brass scarcely acknowledged it existed. Officially, the hierarchy took a dim view of buggery, as they called it. The offence was punishable by death – and not just in the navy: it was a capital crime in civilian life, too. Unofficially, the navy’s top brass turned a blind eye provided offenders were discreet.

Nicholas often marvelled at how easily happily married family men could turn to other men for sexual relief then just as easily return to their wives’ loving arms on returning to their home port.

Several crew members had made unwanted advances to Nicholas early on in the voyage. He’d quickly discouraged them. On the last occasion – to signal loud and clear what his preferences were – he made an example of the drunken oaf who tried to grope him in front of others in the mess. Evading the man’s clumsy advances, he promptly kicked him in the testicles. While his victim lay temporarily paralyzed on the floor, Nicholas proceeded to force-feed him pickled cabbage and other legumes from the man’s plate until his open mouth could accommodate no more of his unfinished dinner. All this to the wild cheering of some thirty admiring onlookers.

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New Zealand: A Novel is available via Waterstones UK & Europe bookstores & via Mighty Ape NZ & public libraries. Its Amazon link is:

https://www.amazon.com/New-Zealand-Novel-Lance-Morcan/dp/0473728524/

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Hawaikan island chief feels the pull of a southern land in prologue for ‘New Zealand: A Novel’

Hawaiki, the mythical homeland of the ancestors of Maori, New Zealand’s indigenous people, features in the prologue for my new release historical adventure New Zealand: A Novel.

The prologue begins:

The pull of the southern land was strong now. Stronger than ever. Almost as strong as the offshore currents that swept past Hawaiki, the South Pacific island nation hidden away in one of the world’s most isolated regions. Hotu had experienced this pull before, but never like today.

Ever since boyhood, Hotu had dreamed of the mysterious place his ancestors had discovered far to the south centuries earlier. A direct descendant of the great Polynesian explorer Kupe, Hotu shared many of his famous forefather’s traits. Like Kupe and, indeed, like most Hawaikans, he was a born sailor. He had that uncanny ability to safely cross huge tracts of ocean, using only the sun and stars as his compass. But he was something else too: he was a rangatira, or chief, and as such he was the one his people looked to in times of trouble.

This was one of those times.

Nuku Hiva, the largest of Hawaiki’s islands, had been attacked yet again by its traditional enemies from an island nation far to the west. The Hawaikans referred to them as Dogfaces because of their penchant for wearing the pelts and sometimes the heads of the fierce hunting dogs they bred. Every few years for as long as Hotu could remember these tattooed marauders had appeared over the horizon aboard their huge double voyaging canoes. Sometimes they sailed on by if unfavourable tides or currents wouldn’t permit their craft through the dangerous tropical reef that ringed Hawaiki, protecting it from the open sea. Not on this occasion, however.

At dawn, the Dogfaces had successfully negotiated the tricky passage through the reef and had attacked in great numbers. Hotu had counted nine craft, each manned by at least fifty warriors. His people’s resistance had been ferocious, but short-lived. They’d been overwhelmed by the invaders’ superior numbers. Only a disciplined fighting retreat from the beach to the sanctuary of caves in the nearby jungle-covered hills had saved them from total annihilation.

The attack had taken a terrible toll – worse even than the oldest villager could remember. Three-quarters of Hotu’s fighting force had been destroyed, scores of wahines [women] and children slaughtered and the entire village laid to waste. The element of surprise had been complete: the enemy war canoes had arrived while the villagers still slept, and they’d speared through the narrow opening in the reef like the barracootas that abound in these tropical waters. 

Nuku Hiva village had been totally ransacked, its bures [huts] and meeting house burned to the ground. Flames still flickered in places and smoke curled into the cloudless sky, casting shadows along the entire length of the black-sand beach.

Hotu had been the first to return to the village after the Dogfaces departed. The scene awaiting him was one of total death and destruction. All around him the bodies of his kinsmen lay broken and bleeding like slaughtered pigs at some island feast. Some lay piled on top of each other in and around the smouldering remains of the bures. Others floated face-down in the nearby lagoon, their mutilated bodies already attracting the attention of blacktip reef sharks drawn by the smell of blood while the mortally wounded could only pray to their island gods that death would come quickly.

As was the custom of the day, the eyes of the dead and dying had been gouged out by the invaders. Victorious warriors prevented their enemies from making the final journey to their spiritual homeland by gouging out the victims’ eyes so their spirits couldn’t find their way home. This ensured they would never rest in peace. Some of the victims’ limbs and internal organs were missing also. Like most Islanders, the invaders resorted to cannibalism to supplement their rations on lengthy ocean voyages. Even uncooked, a human kidney or liver, or the flesh from a man’s shoulder or a wahine’s thigh was a delicacy for those who hadn’t eaten for a while.

More disturbing to Hotu was the number of wahines who were missing. A head count would later reveal that thirteen, every one young and healthy, had been taken. Relatives would mourn them as if they were dead for they knew their loved-ones faced a life of sexual slavery. That was if they survived the abuse they’d be subjected to. If their captors tired of them during the homeward voyage, they’d be killed and eaten or fed to the sharks.

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New Zealand: A Novel is available via Waterstones Bookstores and Mighty Ape NZ’s online store public libraries and via Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Zealand-Novel-Lance-Morcan/dp/0473728524/

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‘Medical Industrial Complex’ reminds us that corruption is not the sole domain of Big Pharma in the healthcare sector

There’s no doubt the alternative health sector is growing rapidly and, like the Medical Industrial Complex, is mighty profitable. Not as profitable as Big Pharma perhaps, but nevertheless highly commercial and very lucrative… And naturally, excuse the pun, with that profitability comes problems.

We, my co-author and I, address this in Medical Industrial Complex: The $ickness Industry, Big Pharma and Suppressed Cures – book three in our contentious Underground Knowledge Series.

Disclaimer: We are both keen advocates for alternative health and integrative medicine.

Upfront, we acknowledge that the inference that doctors are not supportive of alternative health is very much a generalization; we are aware there’s a growing number of physicians and other health providers in mainstream medicine who are very knowledgeable about nutrition and alternative health, and who incorporate this knowledge into their everyday practice. Unfortunately, they are very much in the minority.

In a chapter titled ‘The alternative health sector – warts and all’, we write as follows:

The alternative health sector is far-reaching. It encompasses dietary supplements, natural and alternative (or complementary) medicines, plus therapies and treatments ranging from well-known modalities like massage therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy and naturopathy to more exotic and lesser-known ones such as chelation therapy, ear candling and moxibustion.

It’s very evident as more and more people embrace alternative health, globally this equates to huge financial losses for the Medical Industrial Establishment. Doctors are quick to point out the dangers of some dietary supplements and alternative medicines – and with some justification. Any Joe/Jo Citizen can call him or herself an alternative health practitioner and/or open a health shop dispensing supplements to an unwary and unsuspecting public.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) addresses this very point, advising that the FDA requires zero proof that dietary supplements have been tested before they are sold even though those dispensing the supplements are allowed to make certain health claims.

Scan back issues of any metropolitan newspaper or conduct a quick search online and you’ll find numerous accounts of bogus health supplements, fake natural cures and the likes…

…There are many more examples and case studies we could cite – enough to fill this book in fact. However, the message should be clear by now. The message is that, globally, there are big profits to be made in alternative health and, as is the case in any lucrative field, where big bucks are on offer corruption and shady practices are never far away.

Equally, in the healthcare sector generally, it’s clear that corruption isn’t the sole domain of Big Pharma.

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‘Medical Industrial Complex’ is available via Amazon as a paperback and Kindle ebook.

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Japanese fighter pilot’s incredible WW2 mission revealed in book two of our contentious ‘Underground Knowledge Series’

In the Afterword of our book ANTIGRAVITY PROPULSION: Human or Alien Technologies?, leading Japanese scientist Dr. Musha Takaaki (pictured below) drops the following bombshell: “My father, Haruo, who was a military officer at the time of World War Two, told me that he was ordered to be trained in Manchukuo (wartime Japanese-occupied Manchuria in northern China) to become the pilot of a super advanced fighter plane delivered from Germany with other advanced technologies such as the atomic bomb.”

Dr. Musha, former senior research scientist at Japan’s Technical Research and Development Institute of Japan’s Ministry of Defense, continues:

“The Japanese Imperial Army had secret facilities there and developed weapons including advanced fighter planes. General Kanji Ishiwara, who established Manchukuo, had a plan to develop an advanced fighter which would be able to fly at high speed around the world without refueling. He wanted to prepare for the last war with the United States in Manchukuo.

“As a younger man, Ishiwara had studied in Germany and it is possible he connected with the Nazis at some point in his career and learnt about their antigravity technologies in active development.”

It seems there could be some kind of connecting thread between the Nazis, the Japanese and the Roswell UFO crash pertaining to antigravity propulsion.

To our way of thinking, when early-mid 20th Century science is analyzed in its totality, it will be obvious that science of that era had already evolved to the point where sophisticated antigravity UFO technologies could be built by Man. Obvious clues to support that assertion include the classified antigravity experiments conducted by the Nazis, British and Americans, and semi-secret (since classified) scientific experiments like those of Nikola Tesla’s.

Antigravity Propulsion is a far-reaching exploration into the UFO phenomenon that covers all possible scenarios and discounts nothing. It’s available via Amazon as a paperback and Kindle ebook.

https://www.amazon.com/ANTIGRAVITY-PROPULSION-Technologies-Underground-Knowledge-ebook/dp/B00RSF22SI

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Book one in ‘The Underground Knowledge Series’ explores genius intelligence and the brain’s potential

Surely there are faster and easier ways to learn and study than the modi operandi currently being taught in mainstream education institutions? Research into the world of super learning reveals some fascinating facts.

Did you know there are individuals, living and dead, with IQ’s far higher than Albert Einstein’s? Geniuses share brain waves in common and there’s various ways to induce those brain waves? High profile figures including celebrities and the world’s elite employ mental techniques to help them process information while they’re asleep or in virtual worlds? Chemical substances are used the world over by students and academics to kick-start the brain into overdrive? And business tycoons and professional athletes employ cutting-edge technologies to achieve a mental edge on their competitors?

We discovered these and other revelations in the decade or so we spent researching Genius Intelligence, book one in our controversial Underground Knowledge Series.

Book explores the brain’s potential.

Perhaps the biggest revelation was that the brain’s potential is the human potential! Certainly, every human brain has enormous potential – possibly unlimited potential.

No matter the challenging circumstances – whether ADHD, dyslexia or mental illness – it makes no difference when it comes to the brain’s latent potential. The capacity for achieving genius levels of intelligence remains the same. After all, there has been many a genius with learning disabilities, hyperactivity and genetic brain disorders.

The latest scientific studies have revealed extraordinary findings. The brain is much more flexible and adaptable than previously thought. It can evolve and creatively work around limitations and nullify them. Examples of this phenomenon even include brain-damaged individuals who have been shown to be capable of achieving equal intelligence to the average person.

How or why this is possible is because of the brain’s incredible capacity to restructure itself.

This rewiring process falls under a category in neuroscience known as neuroplasticity – a broad term used to describe the brain’s ability to form new neural connections or to reorganize itself in an attempt to overcome or diminish the effects of old age, substance abuse or traumatic head injury. Neuroplasticity is scientific proof that intelligence is not something that is locked by a certain age or that cannot fluctuate or increase.

Not receiving a college degree or even a high school education doesn’t mean genius abilities are out of the question. The same applies for those who come from a background of extreme poverty. History is littered with examples of uneducated and semi-educated individuals from impoverished backgrounds who have gone on to educate themselves and deliver revolutionary breakthroughs within academic circles, the corporate world, the arts and other walks of life.

When the brain’s potential is fully unleashed, there can be few if any limitations. Anyone who tells you otherwise isn’t up to date with the latest scientific findings on the brain and is exhibiting their ignorance. For the brain’s potential is the human potential…

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Genius Intelligence: Secret Techniques and Technologies to Increase IQ is available via Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/GENIUS-INTELLIGENCE-Techniques-Technologies-Underground-ebook/dp/B00QXQQWXO

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‘A Murder of Convenience’ sure to delight followers of historical romance author Kathleen Buckley

Fans of historical romance novels – Georgian romance in particular – are in for a treat following the announcement that accomplished American author Kathleen Buckley’s latest Georgian romance novel will be released in March.

Titled A Murder of Convenience, it will be published on March 24, but the Kindle version can be pre-ordered via Amazon now for delivery on that date.

The story:

Ellen Cuthbert’s husband, Randolph, is now the Earl of Keswick’s heir. Their marriage is a sham, and Randolph’s mistress, Lydia, is present at the house party. When she is found murdered in a locked room, all the evidence seems to point to Ellen. And how could the murderer have escaped the locked room except by witchcraft?

Sir Hugh accompanies his cousin, a magistrate, to the scene of the murder. They investigate, appalled to find their childhood friend Ellen appears to be the chief suspect. Hugh’s lack of prospects years ago prevented their marriage. Now if he cannot find the real murderer, there may be only one final service he can perform for Ellen to spare her a slow death at the end of the hangman’s rope.

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Buckley is the prolific author of a virtual library of Georgian romances, including A Peculiar Enchantment, which featured in Morcan Books and Films blog earlier. Here’s the link to that post: https://morcanbooksandfilms.com/2022/12/07/a-peculiar-enchantment-the-latest-offering-from-award-winning-historical-romance-author-kathleen-buckley/  

She has loved writing ever since she learned to read. After a career which included light bookkeeping, working as a paralegal, and a stint as a security officer, she began to write as a second career, rather than as a hobby. Her first historical romance was penned (well, word processed) after re-reading Georgette Heyer’s Georgian/Regency romances and realizing that Ms. Heyer would never be able to write another, having died some forty years earlier.

Buckley’s earlier Georgian romance novels include: An Unsuitable Duchess, Most Secret, Captain Easterday’s Bargain, A Masked Earl, A Duke’s Daughter, Portia and the Merchant of London, A Westminster Wedding, and A Peculiar Enchantment.

Kathleen Buckley…ever the romantic.

Buckley’s bio includes the following warning: “No bodices are ripped in her romances, which might be described as “powder & patch & peril” rather than Jane Austen drawing room. They contain no explicit sex but do contain the occasional den of vice and mild bad language, as the situations in which her characters find themselves sometimes call for an oath a little stronger than “Zounds!”

“Her novel Captain Easterday’s Bargain was an Oklahoma Romance Writers of America IDA 2019 finalist, Historical Fiction category; and Most Secret was an Oklahoma Romance Writers of America IDA 2018 finalist, Historical Fiction category, and a 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist, Romance category.”

For our review of A Murder of Convenience…watch this space!

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‘New Zealand: A Novel’ available through Waterstones bookstores in UK and Europe

Waterstones customers can now buy the historical adventure paperback New Zealand: A Novel, by Lance Morcan, from Waterstones bookstores in UK and Europe.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/new-zealand/lance-morcan//9780473728526

New Zealand: A Novel spans almost 500 years and covers the respective discoveries of New Zealand by Pacific Islanders and Europeans. From the outset the two stories are interposed. It starts in the 1300’s with the departure of Islanders from Hawaiki in search of land far to the south.

This new release novel, published by Sterling Gate Books, is also available via Amazon as a hardcover and Kindle ebook. To see what reviewers are saying about this book go to: https://www.amazon.com/New-Zealand-Novel-Lance-Morcan/dp/0473728524/

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‘New Zealand: A Novel’ FREE on Kindle January 12 & 13 PST

Publisher Sterling Gate Books has announced the Kindle ebook version of my new release historical adventure ‘New Zealand: A Novel’ is free January 12 & 13 PST. [image error] https://www.amazon.com/New-Zealand-Novel-Lance-Morcan-ebook/dp/B0DPTJTDCQ

This epic tale spans almost 500 years and covers the respective discoveries of New Zealand by Pacific Islanders and Europeans. From the outset the two stories are interposed. It starts in the 1300’s with the departure of Islanders from Hawaiki in search of land far to the south.

Not for the faint-hearted, it’s a no-holds-barred, dramatised account of New Zealand’s tumultuous history.

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Marie Lavender’s romance blog reveals how to incorporate a multiracial angle in a historical romance novel

Book blogger supremo Marie Lavender highlights the multiracial romance angle in my new release historical adventure New Zealand: A Novel in her popular I Love Romance Blog at https://iloveromanceblog.wordpress.com/

Incorporating a somewhat lusty multicultural angle in my novel was always going to be a challenge – and not because I’d never faced that challenge before. I had, several times, in previously published historical adventures. I usually co-author books (fiction and non-fiction) with my son James. Together, we’ve co-written some 35 published books, including at least eight novels that feature multicultural romance.  

However, New Zealand: A Novel was my first solo-authored novel, and therein lay the challenge. Tackling the task of delivering to readers a poignant and credible romantic liaison between a 17-year-old teenage boy and a middle-aged Tahitian beauty was always going to be a challenge for this writer!

The teenager in this case is one Nicholas Young, a tall, handsome, English lad who was recruited as Surgeon’s Boy aboard Captain James Cook’s bark the Endeavour on a voyage of discovery to the South Pacific. The Tahitian beauty is Tahitian Queen Obadia who believes the blue-eyed, blond-haired Nicholas has been sent to her by the island’s gods to give her the child she has never had.

Tahiti, incidentally, was a scheduled stopover for the men aboard the Endeavour because Cook was tasked with recording the infamous Transit of Venus. For Nicholas, the lengthy stopover was a glorious introduction to manhood – thanks to the sensual Queen Obadia.

I’m pleased to see one Amazon reviewer (Kotuku) was impressed by my handling of the novel’s romantic subplots. He writes, “The sex scenes were tastefully done as well!!”

Marie Lavender’s highlighting of the novel’s romance themes in her exquisite I Love Romance Blog will appeal to lovers of historical romance… and to lovers full stop! Check it out at:

https://iloveromanceblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/06/how-to-incorporate-a-multicultural-angle-in-a-historical-romance-novel-a-guest-post-by-lance-morcan/

Readers & Bookworms can visit Marie’s other websites at:

marielavender.com/  

and

writinginthemodernage.weebly.com/  

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Maoris’ ancestors depart Hawaiki for land far to the south in this excerpt from ‘New Zealand: A Novel’ – a new release, historical adventure

It is generally agreed the Polynesian explorer Kupe discovered New Zealand between 750 AD and 950 AD, and the so-called Great Fleet of seven canoes landed around 1350 AD. Those canoes each had landing points and arrival dates that did not suit my story, hence my deviation from the popular historical account in my new release, historical adventure New Zealand: A Novel.

*** To clarify, in the following excerpt from the novel, the great Hawaikan voyaging canoes I named Ronui and Tautira never existed:

The morning after the big feast in Hotu’s village, Ronui led Tautira toward the narrow gap in the reef that separated them from the open sea. Around eighty people – passengers and crew – occupied almost every bit of available space on the decks of each canoe.

First places aboard the craft had been allocated to the rangatiras and their extended families. These included Hotu’s wives and their young children aboard Ronui, and Ra’s wives and even younger children aboard Tautira. Some of the children were only babies.

The rangatiras’ extended families accounted for about twenty people on each vessel. Other places had gone to a cross-section of villagers with special skills. High on the list were navigators, sailors, fishermen and boat-builders. Most were fighting men as well. Last but not least were their womenfolk. In some cases children had had to stay behind. They’d be looked after by grandparents and other close relatives.

Hotu hadn’t even considered taking his own ageing parents, so frail were they. Besides, they considered themselves too much a permanent part of Hawaiki to consider leaving. Saying goodbye to them proved an unbearable sadness for the rangatira.

Many of those departing wailed mournfully as they sailed away from their beautiful island. Men chanted to their island gods while their wahines cried out despairingly. Oblivious to their sadness, naked children scampered over the decks. Behind them, Hawaiki’s palm trees swayed in the balmy breeze and the jungle-covered peaks were framed by a tropical blue sky.

On the black sand beach, villagers looked on forlornly as their loved ones sailed away even though many of them were hoping to depart soon aboard the other seven canoes. Those vessels were now within ten days of completion.

Crewmembers aboard the departing craft were too busy to look back. They worked frantically adjusting the triangular sails in readiness for the open sea beyond the reef. The cries of those ashore faded amidst the constant boom of waves crashing on the reef. Ronui led Tautira through the small gap. In the space of a few heartbeats, they were into the open sea.

In the weeks ahead, the crews of the two craft would strive to maintain this formation through torrential rain and high winds and every other challenge the sea could throw at them.

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Spring gave way to summer and the voyagers found themselves at the point of no return – the point reached in every ocean voyage where to continue and not find land meant certain death. Hotu and Ra instinctively knew they had reached that point.

It had been four weeks since they’d set sail for Kupe’s land aboard Ronui and Tautira. In that time, the giant craft had been battered by almost everything except a tidal wave or full-blown cyclone. Still they’d never been more than fifty yards apart, secured to each other by a length of platted twine fashioned from strong jungle vines. Without it they would have been separated very early on in the voyage.

The canoes were barely recognisable as the proud craft they’d once been, such was the terrible hammering they’d received from the elements. Their crews and passengers looked even more pathetic. They were in the early stages of starvation; the signs of malnutrition could already be seen in the children. All on board were cold, wet and tired, and many had developed hacking coughs. The coughing sickness they called it.

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New Zealand: A Novel is available via Amazon as a hardcover, paperback and Kindle ebook.

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