This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment to win Lights of Love, the first book in my Dickens Hanukkah Romance trilogy, and Hanukkah swag, including chocolate gelt, dreidel, and stickers. And a surprise. US only, please.
A Pirate Menorah! by Morgan Malone
I love Pirates. I have ever since I watched Captain Bloodstarring Errol Flynn decades ago with my mom. Even more after reading The Golden Hawk, one of her romance novels, by Frank Yerby, when I was barely out of Middle School. And then the irrepressible Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, stole my heart!
Once I began writing my own romance novels fifteen years ago, I dreamed about and talked about writing my own pirate romance. I researched for years and the idea grew from one novel to a trilogy. I dragged friends and readers along the way with me, discussing ideas, telling them snippets of what I had written, and even dragging them to interesting (to me) pirate sites along the East Coast.
It was no surprise, then, when gifts for birthdays and Hanukkah took on the pirate theme. Pictured here is perhaps my favorite Hanukkah gift so far, from a dear friend and avid reader: a Pirate Menorah!
It has become a family favorite, especially with my grandsons who are vastly amused by Bubbe’s fascination with pirates. When they, or my daughter, join me on one of the eight nights of Hanukkah, it is the Pirate Menorah that must be adorned with pink candles and lighted to celebrate our holiday.
And because I am a writer, certain things from my life find their way into my books, though none of the characters in my Pirates of the Eastern Shore series have yet celebrated Hanukkah.
But, Saul, the hero of my first Dickens Hanukkah Romance, Lights of Love, is a retired Naval officer. His lady love, Judy, while shopping for Hanukkah gifts, comes across a pirate menorah, which she buys as a gift for him. It becomes a turning point in the story.
Now, two years later, as I wrote my third book in the series, Latkes of Love, it was no surprise to me that the pirate menorah makes another, brief appearance at Saul and Judy’s Hanukkah celebration attended by the hero of the book, Morty, also a retired Naval officer. I imagine that the now famous pirate menorah will become part of another book in my future.
Best wishes to all for a happy and peaceful Holiday Season.
Morgan Malone
This will never work. He is a long-time widower, immersed in the family business, devoted to his son, daughter-in-law and grandsons. A long-time pillar of the community. And he thinks she is a busybody, a yenta, always with an opinion, always a little brash, a little too bold.
There is no way this could work. She is a divorcee, the survivor of betrayal at the deepest level by a controlling husband. But she prevailed in the messy divorce and now lives comfortably in a rambling Victorian, shared with her widowed best friend. She keeps busy, at the synagogue, playing mah jongg and minding everyone’s business. She thinks he is a bit too straitlaced, old-fashioned and tied to his past.
How could this work? Neither is looking for a happy ever after. But as the candles of Hanukkah cast their miraculous glow, love grows. Is it just the holiday or is it time for Morty and Margot to fall in love for the last time in their lives?
Morgan Malone has been reading romance since the age of twelve, when she first snuck her mother’s copy of The Saracen Blade under the covers to read by flashlight. An award-winning published author of fiction by the age of eight, Morgan waited fifty years, including thirty as an Administrative Law Judge for a small New York State agency, to pen her next work of fiction. Now retired from her legal career, Morgan lives near Saratoga Springs, N.Y., waiting to find her next rescue dog. When not writing later-in-life romance about men and women who fall in love for the last, or maybe the first, time in their lives, Morgan is penning romantic memoirs or painting watercolors. She travels frequently with her wonderful daughter, a Clinical Psychologist, and spends time with her awesome son-a realtor, amazing daughter-in-law-a nurse, and two delightful grandsons who live nearby.
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It sounds like a really interesting book. Thank you for sharing.