Jack, Book Two, is an intense high seas adventure for young adults ages 15 to adult readers of all ages. Book Two transitions from the main characters' youth to early adulthood as Jack Book One ends with Jack's and Jeremy's teacher, Schoolmaster Jerome Whittemore, quitting teaching after a devastating classroom humiliation at the hands of the petulant, scheming Jack. The now repentant schoolmaster who had tried to corrupt his students with his grandiose slavery lessons and secessionist propaganda, decides he must return to the sea to make amends as he realizes he had been unfair not only to his students but to a whole race of people. Jeremy and Jack believe that their former teacher is now reckless and bent on a suicide mission. Jack - who had hated him throughout book one - has a change of heart, and follows him to sea while recruiting his reluctant best friend. They sign for the same sea voyage, unaware that the Helena is a 'devil slave ship'. Whittemore is appalled to see his students on deck on that first night after the ship is well beyond the northern-flowing Gulf Stream. There is no turning back. Whittemore fears for his students' lives but will not abandon his plan to incite a revolt. The master plans to incite rebellion in his first sermon since glorifying the southern white plantation slavery system on the same ship three years past. He refuses to listen to Jeremy and Jack who beg him not to go through with his 'crazy' plan. Intrigue, espionage, conspiracies, mutiny and a hurricane plague the ship's voyage afterwards during its several-month cruise through the Caribbean Sea to the islands of Jamaica and Cuba and to the African coastal islands as Jack, Jeremy, America and Mauricia - the latter who become their Jamaican girlfriends - conspire to take the ship to free the 130 slaves expected to board in Cuba. Book 2 opens with the schoolmaster's sermon - long diatribe against the slave trade and against Captain Pendleton and his enablers who are the crew of the Helena. While in the US Navy, I spent many weeks at sea, and on one Caribbean cruise without seeing land for more than 20 days. One of the warships to which I later was assigned negotiated a hurricane in the North Atlantic above England and that experience inspired some events in the book.
About the Author: I have authored several books and taught English, Journalism and History in Manhattan high schools over 13 years. I wrote thousands of court news stories before that for over 40 news organizations in the Boston area before I moved to New York City in 2000. I retired from teaching in NYC in 2013. From 1988 to 2000, I owned and operated a landmark retail shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, called the Bow Street Candle & Mug. Currently, I live with my wife and our three dogs in Rawai Beach, Phuket, Thailand, where my life as a writer is at least as busy as it had been in Manhattan in the teaching world. I have traveled to many of the Caribbean Islands including Cuba, and several times to Jamaica, both of which are involved in the Jack story. While in the US Navy, I went to many of the Caribbean islands and was at sea once for some 20 days without seeing land. I also was a sailor on a warship that negotiated a hurricane at night in the North Sea above the UK. Those experiences inspired some of the events in the Jack Trilogy. I led a fast-paced life in Manhattan and, after my high school closed in 2011, spent the last two years teaching in some 80 Manhattan high schools. The latter provided me with an even richer New York City teaching experience. In the last two years before my school closed, I was part of a group of administrators and teachers who conferred once per month to study best teaching practices and to share the learning in professional development sessions at my school. Sometime before the start of 2018, I plan to offer a free 20-lesson teaching unit PDF on the Jack Trilogy to teachers and college instructors. My contact details appear in all of the Jack Trilogy books. There are a few points in the Jack Trilogy where the drive toward realism involved some strong language. I am planning a second full trilogy edition that would accommodate teachers who might opt for a more traditional approach to literature, so that such vocabulary would be edited out.