Curse of the Black Avenger

My name is Ricky Bradshaw and I have epilepsy. I know what you're thinking. (Not really. That's just something people say.) I bet you're thinking I have convulsions and spasms. My epilepsy isn't like that. I suffer from what my doctor calls absence seizures. 
Most days I act and look pretty normal — or as normal as a boy can when he's in the tenth grade. But when I have an "episode" I sort of zone out. Mom tells me that when it happens I look like I'm daydreaming. Which means I don't look much different from the rest of my classmates at Quiet Cove High. School is pretty boring some days.
If you've never heard of absence seizures, that's okay. A lot of people haven't. My teachers are a lot of those people.
I needed to tell you that because at the beginning of Curse of the Black Avenger I have an episode and fall into the creek across from our apartment building — an apartment building that just happened to be on fire because I used our microwave. (Our microwave was made back when Sears still sold cars. No kidding; Sears sold cars! Google it.) Anyway, there I am lying at the bottom of the creek drowning and having an absence seizure when I am yanked up towards the great beyond by an angel (or maybe it was Oprah) who tells me I am dead and I'm like WHAT! DEAD?
I beg her to send me back and she does, but when I claw my way back up from the bottom of the creek I find myself in the middle of the Caribbean Sea being chased by pirates. 
I'm not saying it's a great story. Or even a good story. The guy who helped me write it had only written like one other novel before mine. But he did his best, which Mom says is all any of us can do.
~ Ricky Bradshaw
Moonbeam Book Award Winner & Selah Award Winner
If you drowned and the sea spit you out, thrusting you back into the golden age of piracy, buried treasure and beauty beyond belief… would you stay?
RICKY BRADSHAW has never sailed the Spanish Main, searched for buried treasure or battled pirates on the deck of a Spanish Galleon. He's never fallen through the floor of Davy Jones' locker, danced with a witch doctor or witnessed an old fisherman morph into a porpoise.
But all that changes on a snowy Christmas Eve when Ricky falls into the chilly waters of the Chesapeake Bay while trying to rescue BARNACLE, a mangy mutt with shrimp breath.
Suddenly Ricky finds himself on a raft in the middle of the Caribbean Sea where there is surprising beauty on every island, danger around every corner and great honor and glory for all who can survive the curse of the Black Avenger.
Written for the General Market (G) (I): Contains little or no; sexual dialogue or strong language. May also contain some violence (V) certain readers may deem objectionable. (It's about pirates and pirates were not nice people. :)