The Real Jack Rackham

Lots of writers crank out deep thoughts about inspiration on their blogs. I'll jump in with my two cents .... sort of, in a pictorial rather than highfallutin' literary kind of way. I live in a haunted seaside town in Florida. My grandson Jack has cornered the market on cool for a kid his age. His Pop (me) has a pretty wild imagination & likes storytellin'. Mix those things together & you get Jack Rackham & a bunch of crazy adventures that turn into books. Simple enough for ya?

The first thing the kid's got goin' for him is he's not afraid of the surf, or much of anything actually. He's like his Dad & Uncle Chris.



The 2nd thing - he's just freakin' cool....



The Jack in Bad Latitude is 15 years old (16 in Reckless) but in real life just turned 6 on Wednesday. We got to celebrate.



The birthday cake is decorated to look like the deck of a pirate ship. Hmmmm...



I just put these 2 pics in cuz he liked the "little lobsters" at the seafood store. He chomped them down like a real Looweezianna Rajun' Cajun.





Now I like my share of creepy stuff. I'm tryin' to train the kids early, so, naturally, we have rather odd toys around the house. That's Isabel. She's a cutie.



Reckless has a coupla chapters in the haunted Old Jail so I took Jack on a bit of a scouting mission (so he knows how to escape in Chapter 6). The best part was the thunder & lightning. All of the other "guests" hightailed it. Chickens. We were diggin' it. Created a nice atmosphere.







This is my favorite picture. (Deb's idea)