An Onguent like Honey: The Pirate Stories

An Onguent Like Honey, Lore Lippincott's first release in years, is a enticing anthology of pirates, sex and magic. The four short stories in this collection spin you through a garland of memorable characters at their most vulnerable and most changeable, from the heartfelt to the mysterious, from the irreverent to the mystical.

OUT OF THE BLUE
Captain Linder and his crew aboard the Jackadrift have captured a human-shaped weapon, and his name is Sky. For men who make their life on the open sea, weather is sometimes their only enemy. And who wouldn't like to get their hands on a magical being able to predict when a storm is brewing? For years, Linder had been looking for Sky, and Sky had been looking for Linder, for different reasons and for the same reason of their ancient love. Reunited after years, Linder finding success as a pirate, and Sky finding despair as a slave, their dynamic goes back to long gone days of youth. Now that other ships in the Caribbean will be after Sky, Linder needs to find out what Sky knows, what he's really done in his past, if they're going to be safe.

THE PICKLED PIRATE
Matthew Nix and Nathaniel Storm have been lovers since the first bloom of maturity. Now, in the late 1790s, and the glory days of piracy are on the wane, Matthew and Nathaniel have been at sea for years, and their relationship is breaking. Close quarters aboard the Fancy have caused their intimacies to fall to the wayside. Matthew's aloofness and Nathaniel's anger have created havoc where once there was intimacy. Their endearing captain, Don Pedro, has no wish but to help the talented navigator Nix and the fiery sailor Storm reconnect emotionally and, more importantly, physically. Nathaniel needs to overcome his anger and desire for revenge or he'll lose what very little he has, including Matthew.

ARTHUR NOBODY
Arthur "Nobody" Beasley is a straggly young sailor of no consequence, no talent, and not much of a future beneath Captain Bart. When his captain throws him at a port for the lone purpose of keeping it protected from smuggler Grim Ray, Arthur protests. He's a sailor, not a guard, and he will not be abandoned by the captain he adores. The louder he gets, the more his idol and crush Captain Bart takes notice. As the two banter and brawl, the more their feelings for one another rise to the surface.

THE LAST ASSASSIN
In the last days of the last great king of Egypt, Rameses III, Seth is a pirate who's beginning to seek more from life. He wants to get out of the smuggling business, and take with him his longtime lover Isidro. It isn't as easy as he thinks in a world rapidly growing, rapidly changing as wars are fought, espionage takes down kings, and countries fall. With the help of a miserly criminal lord, Panteno, Seth thinks he can make a break from the darker underworld of piracy to the legitimate career of water tradesman, and find a place where he and Isidro can be together forever.

This version includes author's notes and insights into all four stories.