Justin Somper is an author and meditation guide; he is best known for his Vampirates series. Justin is currently based in Perth, Western Australia, where he is writing the Pirate Academy adventures – in between dips in the Indian Ocean, visits to lighthouses and long-overdue sailing lessons. Today we’re chatting about Book 1 in the Pirate Academy series, New Kid on Deck, illustrated by Teo Skaffa.
The publisher provided Alphabet Soup with a reading copy of New Kid on Deck.
From the publisher:
The year is 2507. The oceans have risen. A new dawn of piracy has begun. Jacoby Blunt and Jasmine Peacock are students at the elite Pirate Academy. This is no ordinary school. Lessons range from Knots Class and Sailing to Combat Workshop. The students hail from famous pirate families. The teachers are all legendary sea captains. The pressure is always on and friendship is everything. When a new kid – the mysterious Neo Splice – arrives, everything changes FAST.
Welcome to Pirate Academy where every day is a swashbuckling adventure!
The Pirate Academy series is set in a boarding school in the year 2507, and all the students are learning to be pirates. What brought you to set the story in a boarding school?
Very simply, students at all NINE of the Pirate Academies worldwide live as well as study on-site. It’s essential given how much training each and every day at Pirate Academy contains. Plus, living together helps the students to form really close bonds over time, which they will draw on as they become captains and deputy captains and recruit crews for their own ships and missions.
The students take classes in sailing, sword fighting and knots, among others. Did you need to research these subjects yourself to write the Pirate Academy books, or were you already an expert in these areas?
Ha, I am by no means an expert in ANY of these. I had a little instruction in sword-fighting, from a stage combat expert, some time ago and I continue to draw on this. When I was writing the first Pirate Academy book, I had recently arrived in Perth (from London) and I seized the opportunity to take sailing lessons at Royal Perth Yacht Club. These took place in all weathers and I was able to bring my newfound experience to writing sailing sequences in the books. We were schooled in nautical knots too – but, as you will see in the book, at Pirate Academy they also teach attack knots, which are my own addition/invention!
If you were at Pirate Academy, which class would be your favourite? (And which your least favourite?!)
I think I’d enjoy all the lessons – after all, I did put them in there! I’ve been writing about something called Sword Reading for Book 3, which really appeals to me – that’s a lesson I might like to TEACH! I think the class that might most challenge me would be Navigation by Map or Moon as navigation is not usually my strong point!
Do you have a tip for young writers who’d like to write their own adventure-filled tales?
Absolutely! Put your characters in a really tense situation from the get-go and keep them there, making it worse and worse and worse! You might feel mean doing this but keep going. Let’s see what your characters are really made of!
What’s next for the kids at Pirate Academy? Will there be more books in the series?
There absolutely will! The next book, Missing at Sea, is coming in February (not long to wait!) and this sees the students of Barracuda Class heading out on the all-important Oceans Bound weekend – 48 hours of sailing without any accompanying teaching captains. They’re going to have to deal with snakes, spiders, sharks and skulls … which means the League of true Pirates can’t be far away!
New Kid on Deck is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.
AWESOME EXTRAS
Read sample pages from New Kid on Deck
Check out free activities and resources at the author’s website
Download the Teachers’ Resources at the publisher’s website
Visit the author’s website for more about Justin and his books
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