Across a Moonlit Sea, by Marsha Canham

[Shelly]

Okay, I'm in too! I just found it on PBS, so I will not receive it for about a week probably, but I can read pretty fast, in 1-2 days, so I will just catch up when I can. I beginning to love pirate books more and more, finally finding good ones help!

[Heidi]

So when are we starting this read? I gotta buy mine still.

[Lynn]

Hey you guys I'm a New Yorker too! I work in the city on Park Ave. & 59 I thought I was the only one who can spend hours in a bookstore. Back in December we went to visit my sister in Myrtle Beach and she took me to Books A Million. Big Mistake! 2 shopping bags and 1.5 hrs (and a pissed sister). I had to USPS the books home because there was no room in my luggage.

[Melanie]

So we were planning on starting the read between Wednesday and Friday, I believe (depends on Lisa Kay).. That should give those of you who don't have the book yet to find it:-) Betterworldbooks has a used one, btw!

Shelly, let us know as soon as you get it! I enjoy good pirate books as well, but they're hard to find, lol! Have you tried The Windflower? Great book! But impossible to find!

Lynn, if Autumn and I ever do get around to going on a book-buying spree together in NYC, we'll let you know: the more, the merrier! We can make a day out of it if we're three, lol!:-D I know all about pissed sisters (she'll spend 15min max in a bookstore!) and having to pay extra to bring books home to Switzerland:-D

[Lisa Kay]

Oh, my! Things have been happening while I've been away for a few hours! How exciting! And Marsha Canham is stopping by?!! Wonderful! (Oh, dear, every sentence is ending in an exclamation mark or two! LOL!)

Okay, I'll put in everyone’s names on the first entry.

Do you all wish PM’s for the official start date notification?

[Lisa Kay]

Mshj wrote: "BTW- I am reading the second in the series at the moment. "

Mshj, I think you started all this when you said we should read something good. LOL! Didn't you? Do you want to be notified with the offical start date and chapter/reading breakdown even though you're onto the second book?

[Lisa Kay]

GR won't let me update the first entry right now; I will try again latter. (The little edit keeps going around in a circle.)

[MashJ]

Lisa Kay wrote: "Mshj wrote: "BTW- I am reading the second in the series at the moment. "

Mshj, I think you started all this when you said we should read something good. LOL! Did..."


Yes, please. I think that I should warn you guys that in the balance of the book there is more action (of the sailing variety) than romance. I hope you are ok with that. I'm enjoying the Iron Rose- in this one the girl gets to be the captain (a very competent one). I love pirate books but whilst the girl doesn't HAVE to be a pirate she needs to kick butt rather than drifting round and trying ineffectual methods of escape.

I wasn't the first to read this one on WLLK- it was maybe? DG. It was a 4* for me.

[MashJ]

Shall we put together some questions for Marsha btw?

[Melanie]

Mshj - Getting one or two questions each together for Marsha would be a great idea! Either we can work out the questions together (so we don't have doubles) or do them individually...What do you girls think?

I'm wondering when Ms Canham will be by though! I hope it'll be towards the end of our read so that we have fresh questions:-)

LK, individual PMs and a post on this thread might be a good idea to make sure everyone knows when to start:-) If you need me to do the PMs, let me know!

[Lisa Kay]

Glad you'll be joining up Mshj! Oh, questions for Ms. Canham might be nice. We definitely need to get organized on that.

Right now I’m okay with the PM’s Melanie; we’ll see how many join. Right now there are nine of us, plus Mshj, Verity & D.G..

GR still won't let me edit that first posting, so, for now, I'll put it here:

People Interested So Far (4/10/11 4:08 p.m. PST)
Melanie
Faithmarie
Lynn
Pamela(All Honey
Autumn
Heidi
Shelly
Christine S. - re-read
Lisa Kay

P.S. A few people said they'd pop in.
mshj - Reading 2nd book.
Verity
D.G.

[Marsha]

Hello *waving* and thank you for inviting me to join the discussion. Just let me know when you would like me to check in and I'll be here. I hope you all enjoy AAMS and I'm honored you've made it a buddy read *s*. If the questions are too tough, though, I may have to reread it myself LOL (I just finished rereading Iron Rose to make sure of the continuity going into The Following Sea...Gabriel Dante's story...my current WIP)

If someone wants to drop me an email letting me know when to pop in, it's marshacanham at yahoo dot com

Thank you again, see you soon *s*
Marsha

[D.G.]

Welcome Marsha!

Oh so you're writing a third book for this series? Good to know!

[Melanie]

Bienvenue Marsha!
We're honored to have you dropping into our buddy read, and will definitely let you know when we're ready with our questions! Thank you so much for taking the time!:-)

[Lisa Kay]

Marsha, Thanks for checking in. Welcome!

[MashJ]

Marsha wrote: "Hello *waving* and thank you for inviting me to join the discussion. Just let me know when you would like me to check in and I'll be here. I hope you all enjoy AAMS and I'm honored you've made it..."

oooh. I'm just reading the Iron Rose and Gabriel definitely has some potential. I love your feisty heroines Marsha.

[SmittenKitten]

I just finished Across a Moonlit Sea yesterday for a buddy read in the Pirate Romance group and really enjoyed it. I also read Bound by the Heart last month... and The Wind and the Sea is my all time favorite pirate romance. :D

I'll pop back in once every one starts reading! Enjoy!

[Jennifer]

I am so in for this - yay! this will be my third Marsha Canham in two weeks. lol.

[Jennifer]

Oh, and I am a crazy fast reader, so just tell me how slow I need to go. I'll try to behave!

[Lisa Kay]

Jennifer, Great! Ahrrrr, matey. (Couldn't resist!) So wonderful you can make it. I'm hoping my book will make it here today or tonight. So far it looks like we will be doing four chapters a night. I already posted your name and will send out official PM's to everyone.

[Christine (Cagnes)]

Welcome Marsha, thanks for stopping by!

I reloaded the book to my Kindle, all ready to... just lmk when we start! :)

[Lisa Kay]

I checked the tracking for my book and it says they "moved the delivery forward a day" and it should be here tomorrow, Thursday, in the morning instead of Friday evening. I find this interesting, since at first they said Tuesday or Wednesday.

If everything is falling into place, it looks like we will begin discussing on Friday or Saturday. I already have the posting with the dates/chapter breakdown ready to insert!

Things I Need To Know:

I sent e-mails to Shell's Bells and Heidi asking if they have received their books yet.

Are all the chapters about the same size?

There isn't an epilog is there?

[Shelly]

I am ready whenever you want to start, I ordered from Paperback Swap, and that can take some time.

However, I just got a Nook last night!!! Finally broke down and got one, early anniversary present!!! So if it doesn't get here in time to start, I can just start whenever!!

[Melanie]

Lisa Kay:

Yep, there is an epilogue & 27 chapters, so 4 chapters a day (including the epilogue as a chapter) will come down to 7 days to read the book. Oh, wait.. there's a prologue too, so the first day we could read 5 chapters (or the last day). 388 p total, on average 55.5p/day: Here're the page counts for all the chapters and how I propose we split them:

Prologue: 12 p
Ch. 1: 10 p
Ch. 2: 15 p
Ch. 3: 18 p
Total: 55 pages

Ch. 4: 10 p
Ch. 5: 8 p
Ch. 6: 19 p
Ch. 7: 10 p
Total: 47 p

Ch. 8: 17 p
Ch. 9: 17 p
Ch. 10: 14 p
Ch. 11: 9 p
Total: 57 p

Ch. 12: 13 p
Ch. 13: 19 p
Ch. 14: 17 p
Ch. 15: 10 p
Total: 59 p

Ch. 16: 18 p
Ch. 17: 11 p
Ch. 18: 15 p
Ch. 19: 9 p
Total: 53 p

Ch. 20: 18 p
Ch. 21: 12 p
Ch. 22: 12 p
Ch. 23: 12 p
Total: 54 p

Ch. 24: 12 p
Ch. 25: 7 p
Ch. 26: 13 p
Ch. 27: 12 p
Epilogue: 9 p
Total: 53 p

Seems like it'll come down to 5 chapters a day except the last.. Will that work?:-)

[Jennifer]

sounds great!

[Lisa Kay]

Thanks for doing that, Melanie! Sounds perfect to me. Now where is my book? I already checked the porch. I say, though I haven't heard from Heidi, that we start posting tomorrow afternoon, as in 4 p.m. PST. That will give people a chance to read tonight or tomorrow morning.

I'll post Melanie's breakdown now on the first thread's posting and send out PM's by noon today, unless I hear something from someone.

[Lisa Kay]

PM's and/or notices all sent.

[Christine (Cagnes)]

Lisa Kay wrote: "PM's and/or notices all sent."

Thanks Lisa Kay! I'll get my homework done tonight! ;)

[Lisa Kay]

Great Christine S.! Could you please notify Ms. Canham? Also, we need to decide when to notify her. I think when we are done or almost done. How about you?

[Autumn]

okie, so i will wait for the green light! :)

thanks so much Melanie, Lisa and the awesome girls here!! (((((((huuggs)))))))))))

[Melanie]

Lisa Kay wrote: "Great Christine S.! Could you please notify Ms. Canham? Also, we need to decide when to notify her. I think when we are done or almost done. How about you?"

LK - Do you need me to notify Ms Canham? I think we should plan for her to drop in when we're done, no? that way we can maybe have time to get questions together while we read!

Autumn, we're glad to have you here:-) (((hugs back)))

[Lisa Kay]

Melanie, Sure if you want. That would be great. I posted my question to Christine S. just minutes after she posted, but I guess she is off-line now.

Thanks for checking in Autumn! (((hugs)))

[Lisa Kay]

Thanks for checking in Jennifer!

[Melanie]

Lisa Kay wrote: "Melanie, Sure if you want. That would be great. I posted my question to Christine S. just minutes after she posted, but I guess she is off-line now.

Thanks for checking in Autumn! (((hugs)))"

I'll let Ms Canham know as soon as we're up and running (after the first part)!

[Christine (Cagnes)]

Melanie - That will be great if you can contact Marsha for us!

I also think we should wait until we are done or almost done & have our questions ready. Since she was gracious enough to join us, I'd hate to trouble her too much.

[Lisa Kay]

Thanks Christine & Melanie. I concur.

[Autumn]

i swear my life will be so much easier if i had the efficiency to procure this kind of meetings, in such an orderly matter!.

great job girls!

[Shelly]

I just got it in the mail today! Can't wait to start! Just in time!

[Lisa Kay]

I finally received mine late this evening. Whew!

[Lisa Kay]

Heidi checked in with me via PM. She hasn't received her book yet; however, she will jump in when she does.

[Heidi]

Hopefully soon ladies! I was hoping for today to no avail! Damn it! Oh well!

[Lisa Kay]

Just a little something to keep in mind, or get things started, from Book-Clubs-Resource

Discussion Questions for Fiction

The following general questions can be applied to any novel, and they provide a good starting point for creating your own discussion questions for a given work.

• What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?

• What specific themes did the author emphasize throughout the novel? What do you think he or she is trying to get across to the reader?

• Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?

• How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes?

• In what ways do the events in the books reveal evidence of the author's world view?

• Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?

[MashJ]

Can we reply in pirate me heartie?

[Lisa Kay]

Sure, but remember: "Dead men tell no tales."

[Lisa Kay]

Let's begin!

Discussions for Prologue through Chapter 3

"There were six of them strung out along the horizon. Six India guards in full suits of sail, riding easy on a south-southwest wind that was a least twenty knots in strength—a square-rigger’s wind and one that would push them straight past the small crust of an island that was, at the moment, shielding the two English sea hawks from sight."

Man-oh-man, do I love this book! I was right there on the Virago in the Prologue. Just the vernacular is great. Ms. Canham seems to have the seafaring lingo down, but not in an overbearing or intrusive way. I’ve only had to look one word up (larboard) to make sure it meant what I thought it did.

[Christine (Cagnes)]

The prologue was great, Ms. Canham does know how to write a thrilling fight on the high seas!

My favorite scene so far is when Beau & Simon Dante first meet... (view spoiler)[1st he thinks she's a boy & nearly strangles her & then you have him holding a pistol at her temple, her holding a knife at is crotch... love it! (hide spoiler)]

[Lisa Kay]

I wasn’t too pleased with Simon Dante (view spoiler)[chocking (hide spoiler)] our dear heroine, Beau, but I put down to an electrolyte imbalance and forgave his this once; though I don't think Beau has! LOL! Plus, Beau got her own back with (view spoiler)[her little knife. (hide spoiler)]

[Shelly]

I'm already behind, fell asleep reading it last night! Not that it was boring, just looong day! Will make it up tomorrow!

[Lisa Kay]

I can't remember the last time I read a book set in the Tudor period, Elizabethan era (1558 – 1603), to be more exact. I received one free on my Kindle PC, I think, but I just read a few chapters. I can totally picture the era.

[Melanie]

I loved the prologue! I usually tend to skim the pages during a fight scene, but this one was gripping. As for the first meeting, I was a also a little disappointed in Simon, but I kinda felt it was refreshing to not have a hero find the heroine irresistible in the first 5 minutes (or vice-versa, btw):-)

I was totally into the story. As a matter of fact (confession time), I totally forgot to stop at chapter 4:-( ***wails pitifully*** I'm sorry! I'm not used to interrupting a good book, and I just sailed through it without realizing! Well, I'm still doing the buddy read if no one throws me out, and I can keep to the chapters for the discussions:-)