Cabin Girl Launch Tour: Author Interview with E.G. Bella

Hello, everyone! Cabin Girl is a historical fiction about a girl disguised as a boy who gets kidnapped by pirates, by author E.G. Bella. It came just yesterday, on the 18th, so I’m interviewing E.G. on the blog today!

First a quick look at Cabin Girl.

Eight years ago, young Éirinn O’Connell’s papa disappeared at sea.

Many sleepless nights later, in the rolling hills of 1600’s Ireland, Éirinn has given up on his return – while her mama continues to watch the horizon, her grasp of reality slipping. Desperate to provide for her and her sister, Éirinn learns all she can of medicine and spends her days struggling to assist villagers who shun her for her crooked back.

Then in one brutal night, Barbary pirates raid her village, and Éirinn is dragged from her family and the only home she’s ever known.

Set on a course to Morocco, and amidst a crew as turbulent as the ocean around her, Éirinn is forced to tend to the sick quartermaster. In addition, she must serve as cabin girl to the infamous Captain Gills, a hard-hearted man bent on thwarting her every attempt to return home…to the family she prays still lives.

As Éirinn searches for a way home, she soon finds that all is not what it seems aboard The Lonely Eye. Unrest brews and mutiny whispers. Allies appear in unexpected places. A cunning enemy plots. Who can she trust? Will her God carry her through the storms? And how can she survive the Captain’s constant torment?

The answers are unlike anything she expects.

Now, let’s ask E.G. Bella some questions! It is a pleasure to have you here, Bella.

What inspired the character of a hunchback kidnapped by pirates?

Good question! Éirinn’s character developed in a few stages. She didn’t start off with a hunched back, but I knew from the start that I wanted her to have some physical ailment, to help with some of the spiritual themes I planned to explore. The hunched back came about naturally as I began to write the story and discovered more of her past.

The pirate element was actually just a random stroke of inspiration that I latched onto. I didn’t want to do a stereotypical “finding treasure” kind of plot for this book, so I did a bunch of research about pirates in the 1600’s and discovered the Barbary pirates. Although I took a few liberties with the pirates in my book and they aren’t perfect carbon copies of historical Barbary pirates, they are similar, and the rest of the story fell into place through what I learned about them. That includes the kidnapping!

Cool! I don’t read a lot of historical pirate fiction, but I thought Cabin Girl had a very unique touch, and it’s so nice when things fall into place like that!

What was the funnest thing you learned researching for this story?

Okay, I really enjoyed the research for this book, since there is so much discussion and vague-ness surrounding pirates. We just don’t know exactly how each ship operated! That led to some pretty interesting facts and/or educated guesses about pirates and their systems.

One thing I learned that was fascinating and funny was that – contrary to popular portrayal – pirates didn’t wear eye patches to cover injured eyes very often. In fact, covering up your scar or dead eye was usually seen as both an irritant and a waste of an opportunity to show your crew and peers how tough you were.

And if they did wear eye patches, it was often when they actually had two working eyes. One eye would then always be adjusted to the dark. This allowed them to switch the eye patch to the other side very quickly and avoid stumbling when traveling into the dark decks below, something that was very useful in high-pressure situations like battles. I guess they didn’t value depth perception as much!

From what I gather, the shame around displaying injuries and scars is … well, a lot less universal than it’s sometimes portrayed to be. That’s all fun to know!

What was something that turned out to be really boring that you spent a lot of time researching?

I’d say that would be the ship layouts themselves. It wasn’t as interesting to me as a lot of the other pirate-y aspects of the story, but it’s so important. And every ship being different (and the fact that pirates tended to use random ships they got their hands on) meant it took a lot of time for me to figure out what The Lonely Eye would look like inside. Several years into writing Cabin Girl, I finally drew a diagram to refer to and that helped so much. I should have done it sooner!

But first you have to know what the diagram should look like, and they’re a pain to draw themselves!

What’s something you feel you learned through writing these characters?

Writing-wise, I think I learned a lot about how to craft better character backstories and how to convey their thoughts and emotions in a more subtle way. Writing characters has always come more easily to me, but through wrestling with these specific characters for about five years now, I have so much more experience with making them realistic.

And otherwise writing these characters has both brought me closer to God and helped me to remember to consider other people’s stories. Through writing Éirinn’s journey of learning to trust God through the dark moments of her life, I’ve found myself being quicker to trust God with my own hardships. And through writing characters like Captain Gills, I’ve been continually reminded that everyone has a story and is deserving of grace and compassion. It’s been an unexpected blessing of the process.

Spending a lot of time with a few characters can really bring them out in some interesting ways! And I love it when they can help us with our own lives 😀

Did you find it difficult to write about people from a different time period, with different cultural influences? I mean – 1600s Ireland isn’t that far away, as far as it could be, but it’s still a different world! Was it fun to explore?

Yes, it’s been very fun! I’ve always loved historical fiction, especially anything having to do with Ireland, so I felt right at home writing Cabin Girl. Admittedly though, it was difficult at first because I didn’t spend much time researching before I wrote the first draft. I mostly just relied on the stereotypes I’d read regarding Ireland and pirates back then, and it wasn’t until some early readers commented on how my story didn’t make much sense that I actually went back, researched, and overhauled the entire book. The core plot has stayed the same, but the more I learned about the people from that time and culture, the easier it became to immerse myself in the fascinating details and write.

I can see that! I do it more fantasy so I make up the culture, but those details, and that understanding for how other people think, really makes a story come alive!

What themes or elements – or combinations thereof, of course! – do you think make this story stand out? What are some of your favorite things about Cabin Girl?

Hmm, I would say that Cabin Girl stands out from a lot of the popular pirate books right now simply because it doesn’t use many of the expected tropes and elements. The pirates aren’t treasure-hunting, they’re Barbary pirates (slave traders). There isn’t any romance. There are direct Christian elements. And although there is action, a huge part of the story is more introspective and focused on the tension and mystery of the characters onboard the ship. I’ve heard it’s surprised some readers, but in a good way, thankfully!

And as far as my favorite things about Cabin Girl, I have to take the easy way out and say that the characters are my favorite. That’s usually the case in any story I read, but I just love these ones so much. From Murphy the loyal companion, to Captain Gills and all of his colorful personality elements, to even some of the smaller characters that end up playing big roles, I’ve enjoyed writing and reading about them (a must when you spend so much time writing their stories). Other than that, I also love the settings, as pirates were a big part of my childhood, and I’ve always wanted to go to both Ireland and Africa.

Hehe, the characters always are the best! And I really liked the internal, introspective elements!

(On that note, if you want to read my review for Cabin Girl, it’s right over here.)

E. G. Bella is a bookworm-turned-author with a passion for cheesy puns, colorful characters, and contagious faith. She writes stories infused with adventure, hope, and just enough humor, and strives to craft memorable and page-turning tales the whole family can enjoy.

When she’s not writing, thinking about writing, or gushing about her stories to her patient husband, Bella can be found sipping warm coffee, reading, and harmonizing with the radio. Sometimes all at once. You can visit her at www.egbella.com, where she blogs regularly about life, writing, and what she’s learning about both.

You can also sign up to her newsletter, check out Cabin Girl on Goodreads – or enter a Giveaway.