Back again with a new #GuestDayTuesday. Today’s special guest is Tony Riches, here to talk about his latest release, Drake – Tudor Corsair. 

Tony has visited us several times in the past, and I know you’ll join me in giving him another warm welcome to The Write Stuff.  The floor’s all yours, Tony. Take it away!

Drake and the Golden Hinde, by Tony Riches, author of Drake – Tudor Corsair

I’d been planning an Elizabethan series for some time, as my aim is to tell the stories of the Tudors from Owen Tudor’s first meeting with Queen Catherine of Valois through to the death of Queen Elizabeth.

I decided to show the fascinating world of the Elizabethan court through the eyes of the queen’s favourite courtiers, starting with Francis Drake. I’ve enjoyed tracking down primary sources to uncover the truth of Drake’s story – and discovering the complex man behind the myths.

The scale of his achievement was brought into focus for me when I visited the replica of the Golden Hinde – Drake’s flagship, in London. Made to the same measurements as the original, the replica is only 121 ft 4 in long, and must have seemed vulnerable in the many storms Drake encountered.

Originally named the Pelican, Drake’s flagship was ahead of its time, and included everything he’d learnt from sailing ships of all shapes and sizes. Sleek and fast, she was renamed the Golden Hinde during his circumnavigation, after the hind emblem of his sponsor, Sir Christopher Hatton.

The only ship of his fleet to survive the voyage, the Golden Hinde was nearly wrecked on a coral reef, but Drake returned on the 26 September 1580, laden with enough gold, silver and jewels to make him one of the richest men in the country.

An appreciative queen ordered the Golden Hinde to be put on public display in a dry dock at Deptford on the south bank of the Thames in London. It was there that she had Drake knighted by the Ambassador of France – and a party of dignitaries fell into the dry dock when the walkway collapsed.

Francis Drake was a self-made man, who built his fortune by discovering the routes used by the Spanish to transport vast quantities of gold and silver. He had a special relationship with Queen Elizabeth, and they spent long hours in private meetings, yet was looked down on by the nobility even after he was knighted. His story is one of the great adventures of Tudor history.

Buy Drake – Tudor Corsair HERE:
Amazon US  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FCTYQF4
Amazon UK  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08FCTYQF4
Amazon CA  https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08FCTYQF4
Amazon AU https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08FCTYQF4

Author Tony Riches

Author Links:
Website: https://www.tonyriches.com
Writing blog: https://tonyriches.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonyriches
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonyriches.author
Podcasts: https://tonyriches.podbean.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5604088.Tony_Riches

Not actually a meme, but still a great laugh!

Enjoy!

Bar jokes for English majors

• A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.
• A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
• An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
• Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”
• A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
• Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
• A question mark walks into a bar?
• A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.
• Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a war. The bartender says, “Get out — we don’t serve your type.”
• A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
• A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
• Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
• A synonym strolls into a tavern.
• At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar — fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
• A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
• Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.
• A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
• An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
• The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
• A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned by a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
• The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
• A dyslexic walks into a bra.
• A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines. 
• An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars.
• A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
• A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
• A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony. 

It’s Saturday again, and time for another Weekly Round Up post from Sally Cronin on her Smorgasbord blog. This one is a humdinger and not just because her fabulous review of A Boy Named Rabbit is part of it. Rather, it’s because it was a week jam-packed with goodies and good folks. And then there are the videos! They’re especially wonderful this time around, and for a real feel-good moment, don’t miss the one of a baby’s reaction to someone singing a lovely song. It’s too sweet for words! Enjoy! And pass it along, if you would, so others can enjoy as well. Thanks, and as always, thanks to Sally for her support of the writing community, and her generous friendship to all. ❤ ❤ ❤

Once again, Sally’s wonderful Smorgasbord Weekly RoundUp post is filled with goodies of all kinds. A little bit of this and a little bit of that, and all entertaining or educational. Check it out! And then, if you would, please consider passing it along so others can check it out as well. Thanks, and thanks for another great post, Sally. As always, you ROCK! 🙂