Historical Fiction Novel as of Dec 2025 approximately 70,000 words

ONE SENTENCE PITCH

My historical fiction novel, Seafood Capital of the World, tells the tale of a rumrunning incident of piracy on the Mississippi Gulf Coast during the Prohibition Era that is shrouded in mystery but this explanation includes revenge, family fights, and suspense leading the town from the heights of its seafood packing glory towards being a haven for tourists ready to try their luck at gambling all in the hot and humid beach environment of the Gulf Coast. 

ONE PARAGRAPH PITCH

My historical fiction novel, Seafood Capital of the World, tells the tale of a rumrunning incident of piracy on the Mississippi Gulf Coast during the Prohibition Era. The incident itself is shrouded in mystery and full of details are still unknown but a possible explanation including revenge, family fights, and suspense leading the town from the heights of its seafood packing glory towards being a haven for tourists ready to try their luck at gambling all in the hot and humid beach environment of the Gulf Coast.

SYNOPSIS

The book opens early in the Mississippi Prohibition Era. The State adopted Prohibition before the rest of the US and as such was a training ground for what would become rumrunning. After setting the stage for the story, it jumps into a scene from a family run business. The father, Theodore, has control of the town and what goes on but desires the love of his son, Ernest. He sends Ernest on a mission to save the illegal operations from disaster, but Ernest sees potential for more. As other characters are introduced, their motivations are revealed while the plot builds towards the first climax. 

The true story that inspired this tale was of a ship abandoned by its Captain and robbed of its contraband. The Captain disappeared, then the ship itself. Several crew members washed ashore and no one knows what happened or became of the ship, the Captain, or the cargo.

In Seafood Capital of the World we find out just how interwoven the Captain was with the pirates as well as the town. Ernest gains control of the company while losing the love of his life. Instead of continuing in the family footsteps controlling those around him, Ernest converts the business to other endeavors and allows the town to grow its own way. Meanwhile, the Chief of Police who was on Theodore’s payroll is none to happy and ready to expose the son as the mastermind of the illegal operations as the story reaches its final climax in which Ernest and his band of compatriots emerge victorious transforming the town and moving it forward in a progressive manner. Along the way we see snippets of life in a small town, stories of smuggling during Prohibition, and even include a few other small incidents of known and unknown events including how Dog Island became a gambling haven later to disappear completely below the surface of the Gulf, and how a curious set of whale bones came to hold the public’s fickle attention.