Coming Soon: Pirate Emojis

Pirate fans rejoice! It’s tough out there, what with no good pirate movies on the horizon, Black Sails done and done, and half the country awash in sub-zero temps. But on the bright side, the new Emoji’s have just been announced, and two of them are quite piratey:

Three, if you’re generous:

So yes, you can now text your mates with a little extra swagger, wrapping up your threats or drunken ravings with a jolly roger, parrot or—er, bone—to show them you mean business. So that’s something.

Bestselling author Keith Thomson is looking for a few good pirates, artists preferred.

Just sharing a press release/opportunity for any fellow pirates/artists! ~Bilge

The author of the New York Times bestseller Once A Spy, is asking readers to submit their original photographs, paintings and drawings for a chance to be featured as the cover image for the digital edition of his modern-day pirate adventure Pirates of Pensacola.

How to enter: If you haven’t already read the book, you can sample the first fifty pages for free at http://www.scribd.com/doc/133700015/Pirates-of-Pensacola-by-Keith-Thomson-Excerpt and http://www.KeithThomsonBooks.com. Next, send your original artwork in high resolution jpeg to PiratesofPensacola@gmail.com by May 24. Full cover designs using original artwork will be accepted. Keith and crew will review the entries and choose three images that best capture the spirit of the book. These three finalists’ work will be showcased at http://www.KeithThomsonBooks.com and on the Official Keith Thomson Author Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/KeithThomsonAuthor) during the week of May 27th. With the help of his pirate fans Keith will then choose the grand-prize-winner whose artwork will be used as the cover image. The grand prize winner and first runner-up will each receive a genuine piece-of-eight coin and the second runner-up will receive a signed first edition of Keith’s next novel, 7 grams of lead.

Keith hopes that his fellow pirate fans will enjoy contributing their swashbuckling images and that the contest will give readers a way to join the pirate adventure and possibly find some treasure along the way.

Keith created the current cover image for Pirates of Pensacola. It was used for the digital edition that Thomson donated to the Worldreader organization, a U.S. and European nonprofit that makes digital books available to children and their families in the developing world. Keith subsequently published the e-book on Amazon and Kobobooks.

Contest details and a complete list of the official contest rules are available at  http://www.keiththomsonbooks.com.

Black Sails Trailer

I’ll just come out and say it – when it comes to pirates, Disney has run its course. They kicked serious ass with Curse of the Black Pearl, but it’s been in decline ever since (first gradual, and then with On Stranger Tides damn near freefall.) If pirates are going to level-up in the near future, it’s going to be up to someone other than the mouse. And this new trailer for Black Sails… I’d say we have a contender in the running.

Hoist a Grog to Guybrush and Gang…

So Lucasarts is shutting down. The same gang that brought us LeChuck, Guybrush Threepwood, Elaine Marley, Murray, Herman Toothrot, Stan, Kate Capsize, the Cannibals, a three headed monkey, that Scottish barber guy, Fester Shinetop, Meathook, Walley, the sword master, the guy that taught you how to fight the sword master, and the pirates you fought to learn your insults before you could fight the sword master. And that’s all just off the top of my head.

So long, Lucasarts – you done good!