"MAKE READY WITH THE LEAD; STARBOARD THE HELM

"Helmsman, starboard rudder to the lead."

WEIGHT THE ANCHOR AND COIL THE LINES…RAISE THEM UP   

“Sí, señor, Almirante, stand clear."

RUN SAILS FULL.

 Slowly, as the sun spreads its golden rays across the great waters, three ships pull out of Palos de la Frontera. It's the morning of August 3, 1492, perhaps the most well-known year in history, and the ships — a fleet of three — are headed on a voyage to hell. Across the Western Ocean, using the trades and looking for a direct route to the West Indies: India, China, and Japan.

 The crew, never before out of sight of land and the first time sailing west, are positive they are doomed.  On the way to the Canaries, a seaman finds a young man hidden below. A stowaway who snuck aboard to steal food. It means one thing to the superstitious sailors: a Jonah, a bad omen to the fleet already en route to damnation. At the last second, as he looks down at swirling and foamy water from the end of the plank, Pedro is saved by the Admiral and becomes his cabin boy.

Thousands of miles away, amongst the islands in the sea now called the Caribbean, a population of indigenous people, the Taínos, await. The Tainos welcome the strange, clothed men in the "great wind boats," and believe they’ve come from heaven. All, that is, but a Taíno woman who is as smart and athletic as she is awe-inspiringly beautiful. Her name is Higuemota, but her people call her the Bloodwoman. On the stunning island of Haiti of white sand beaches, rainforests, and specular views, the cabin boy and the Bloodwoman fall in love. Together they convince the Taínos that the strange seamen are not from heaven and that the peaceful, weaponless Taínos are in grave danger.

With Grandmother Spider, Dancing Dog, Scream, and Thing of Death, the Taínos are hemmed in: with the Admiral and his crew on one side of Haiti and the war-like Island Caribs — reputed cannibals and headhunters — on the other. But love does wonders and Pedro and the Bloodwoman plot and plan to survive. Historical fiction told in the first person, present tense that puts readers into both history and a captivating story.