Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
In 1973 after thirteen years in theatre I took a hiatus to do historical research in the Bahamas. I had no idea I would be writing books and plays based on that study. A famous novelist once said about life experiences, "It's all material."
Armed with a BA in Theatre from Barry University, I began as a drama teacher and play director. After three summers of study I earned a MA in Theatre from the University of Michigan in 1963. I directed professionally at the Barn Theatre and the Gaslight Theatre, in Miami, Florida.
In Japan I taught drama and directed plays at the Camp Zama Base Theatre for one year. Upon my return, I accepted a position as Historical Researcher for a land company on San Salvador Island, Bahamas, the place Columbus made landfall in 1492. I set out in pursuit of Columbus, pirates, and American Loyalists exiled to the Bahamas after the Revolutionary War. The Recession ended my job, but I remained hooked on the history of the Bahamas Islands. For ten years I chased those pirates and exiled Loyalists all over the East Coast of America, the Bahamas and England. I was intrigued by the Lucayan Taino people who settled the Bahamas long before Columbus.
In 1980, I met Bahamian Artist, Alton Lowe, at his museum in Green Turtle Cay, Abaco. I wrote the "Story of the American Loyalists" for a bronze plaque in his Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden and with his encouragement wrote Homeward Bound: A History of the Bahamas to 1850. In 1986 I went back to San Salvador with Alton to scout locations for his paintings. In 1991, MacMillan Caribbean published the result of our collaboration--my novella, The Lucayans, featuring Alton Lowe's postage-stamp paintings of the first people of the Bahamas, for the Columbus Quincentennial.
About this same time, Coral Gables High added to my teaching schedule an International Baccalaureate Theatre Arts Class. Coincidentally (or not) Alton decided to offer plays at Green Turtle Cay. The Crystal Parrot Players, a group I helped found in 1996, began to perform plays at Green Turtle Cay. Alton suggested that I write an original solo drama based on an island woman. Miss Ruby premiered at GTC in 2001. I wrote and produced two more solo plays and in 2010 published them as Bahamas Trilogy.
The pirate research found its way into two novels: Sisters of the Sea: Anne Bonny and Mary Read, Pirates of the Caribbean. Sometimes Towards Eden, a sequel to Sisters, follows Anne Bonny to Jamaica.
The experiences of my year in Japan simmered for thirty years, then in 2010 after five more years The Hour of the Tiger emerged from development hell onto the professional stage for its World Premiere at New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida (one block away from Gables High).
I live in Miami with Peggy C. Hall, a gifted poet and a teddy bear named Gus, who appears in Peggy's book In Case Of Bears. Gus also acted in the Crystal Parrot Players stage productions of Peggy's performance poetry, published in 2010 as Techno Poetry. Gus had told the story of his early years in The Greenbear Chronicles. He is now working on his second book. He keeps Riley Hall publications very busy. It is a wonder we get any other creative work done.
Armed with a BA in Theatre from Barry University, I began as a drama teacher and play director. After three summers of study I earned a MA in Theatre from the University of Michigan in 1963. I directed professionally at the Barn Theatre and the Gaslight Theatre, in Miami, Florida.
In Japan I taught drama and directed plays at the Camp Zama Base Theatre for one year. Upon my return, I accepted a position as Historical Researcher for a land company on San Salvador Island, Bahamas, the place Columbus made landfall in 1492. I set out in pursuit of Columbus, pirates, and American Loyalists exiled to the Bahamas after the Revolutionary War. The Recession ended my job, but I remained hooked on the history of the Bahamas Islands. For ten years I chased those pirates and exiled Loyalists all over the East Coast of America, the Bahamas and England. I was intrigued by the Lucayan Taino people who settled the Bahamas long before Columbus.
In 1980, I met Bahamian Artist, Alton Lowe, at his museum in Green Turtle Cay, Abaco. I wrote the "Story of the American Loyalists" for a bronze plaque in his Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden and with his encouragement wrote Homeward Bound: A History of the Bahamas to 1850. In 1986 I went back to San Salvador with Alton to scout locations for his paintings. In 1991, MacMillan Caribbean published the result of our collaboration--my novella, The Lucayans, featuring Alton Lowe's postage-stamp paintings of the first people of the Bahamas, for the Columbus Quincentennial.
About this same time, Coral Gables High added to my teaching schedule an International Baccalaureate Theatre Arts Class. Coincidentally (or not) Alton decided to offer plays at Green Turtle Cay. The Crystal Parrot Players, a group I helped found in 1996, began to perform plays at Green Turtle Cay. Alton suggested that I write an original solo drama based on an island woman. Miss Ruby premiered at GTC in 2001. I wrote and produced two more solo plays and in 2010 published them as Bahamas Trilogy.
The pirate research found its way into two novels: Sisters of the Sea: Anne Bonny and Mary Read, Pirates of the Caribbean. Sometimes Towards Eden, a sequel to Sisters, follows Anne Bonny to Jamaica.
The experiences of my year in Japan simmered for thirty years, then in 2010 after five more years The Hour of the Tiger emerged from development hell onto the professional stage for its World Premiere at New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida (one block away from Gables High).
I live in Miami with Peggy C. Hall, a gifted poet and a teddy bear named Gus, who appears in Peggy's book In Case Of Bears. Gus also acted in the Crystal Parrot Players stage productions of Peggy's performance poetry, published in 2010 as Techno Poetry. Gus had told the story of his early years in The Greenbear Chronicles. He is now working on his second book. He keeps Riley Hall publications very busy. It is a wonder we get any other creative work done.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SISTERS ARE DOIN IT FOR THEMSELVES,
By Amy Goings (Miam, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sisters of the Sea: Anne Bonny & Mary Read, Pirates of the Caribbean (Paperback)
As a child, I had always heard of pirates as savage, brutal, crude and cruel, especially the women pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Riley's story brings these two to life like I had never imagined. The book is filled with action and as well details character stories as well, to the point where I was gripped with sympathy for them both. Riley doesn't spare any of the gritty details of the sex or violence, instead she's written a realistic tale that seems both well researched and well crafted. Many points during the book I was overwhelmed with the intensity of the storytelling... the imagery lingers long after I finished.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The thrill is lacking,
By
This review is from: Sisters of the Sea: Anne Bonny & Mary Read, Pirates of the Caribbean (Paperback)
The saga of 18th-century pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read is worthy of a big-budget film boasting an A-list cast and top-of-the-line special effects. However, if Sandra Riley's novel were used as the basis of a screenplay, we'd be looking at a B-movie treatment for which the majority of the buzz would undoubtedly focus on which hopeful starlet would be baring all as Bonny.This is a pirate story, and thus above all else we have a right to expect plenty of cutlass-and-cannon action at sea. But Riley somehow managed to pen a tale in which most of the action passes by unnoticed. Instead, we get lots of stilted period speech and a great deal of grubby sex, including a voyeuristic peek at each girl's sexual awakening. Riley certainly does a lot of character development in the novel, and she created elaborate backstories for her main characters. That much is to her credit. However, it's a shame she sacrificed the meat of the story: the excitement of piracy itself. Riley doesn't seem sure if she wanted to craft a romance or a pirate adventure, something she probably should have sorted out before she completed the text. by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(net) editor
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid history, fun writing,
By Raven (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sisters of the Sea: Anne Bonny & Mary Read, Pirates of the Caribbean (Paperback)
This was my favorite fictionalized account of Anne Bonney and Mary Reade ever. The author manages to do Johnny-Depp-style pirate humor, while not ignoring the actual history or the gruesome realities of pirates at the time. There are graphic and brutal depictions of slavery, poignant descriptions of interracial love, and hilarious pirate anecdotes. I fell in love with her Anne Bonney. I wanted to be her Mary Reade. She does take one historical liberty, relocating the career of a notorious pirate captain by 10 years. However, I forgive her that for her inclusion of almost every bit of the Bonney/Read legend, right down to pleading their bellies for a stay of execution and the final bitter words of Bonney to Jack Rackham, after he left her and Read to defend the ship alone. ("If you had fought like a man, you would not now hang like a dog." Brrr.) So, though I must add the obligatory caution about "historical fiction != history", the book really is rather good, and I will be chasing down some of Riley's other books.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
