J.M. Bardsley

'Up anchor!' he yelled, even though the boat that brought him hadn’t yet reached the Avaeste. 'Let out the sails!' he bellowed. 'Everyone on deck!'
The crew assembled, their mission was explained, they may face cannon fire soon, Ashton told them, so they must get fast underway.
'You didn’t ask to be here,' the captain said, 'so it's not lightly I take you out on this mission, and I will not expect you to stand and fight if it comes to that.'
'Oh but we will Captain,' said Phillips.
'And I second that,' added Banks, 'we’ll show them they underestimated us and the brave Avaeste.'
'Hopefully it won’t come to that,' Ashton said, 'for I have another plan.'

The Captain, the Avaeste and the King began as an experiment in curiously styled prose, but once thirty pages in the characters called for more, they would not sit still and be content with only a beginning and not and ending! And so it grew into this epic adventure.
It is the story of a boy captain, his ship the Avaeste and his irregular crew, as they journey to islands far and wide, to fair beaches, deserts, marshes and frozen wilds as they search for the elusive Carex Argentius. They encounter pirates, goblins, wolves, kings, queens, and tyrants, and are caught up in a battle on Meridian, as the crew learn more of just what it is they are really searching for, and why their young captain is so determined to find it.