What makes Isabella so different? Q&A with S.R. Staley
This entry was posted on 9/24/2007 10:32 AM and is filed under S.R. Staley.
SR Staley: I think Isabella is like many young people (including myself when I was a teen) who don’t really know who they are and what their place in the world is. She’s sorting all that out, and we get to watch that unfold through this book and the next in the series. I think this is very normal, but it’s different for every person. This certainly was my experience growing up, although, fortunately, I didn’t have to learn it on a pirate ship!
The big difference is Isabella has responsibility. Real responsibility. People can live or die based on her decisions. She is commanding a ship of several hundred men. This was rare, even for men, but not unheard of. Horatio Nelson, for example, took command of his first ship in the Royal Navy when he was twenty years old in 1779. While I didn’t know it when I was writing The Pirate of Panther Bay, Nelson took command of his first ship (actually, the sloop HMS Badger) in the Caribbean.
