by: Jordan S. Keller
Genre: Teen/Young Adult Fantasy
Release Date: March 9, 2026
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
A Dread Pirate’s curse. A Sea Sprite’s secrets. And one boy who dares the tides.
As the son of two washers, Jace Kit has only dreamed of adventure—until a fabled Sea Sprite washes ashore and turns his world upside down.
The Sea Sprite needs a hero to save the Ocean Queen from a ruthless pirate terrorizing the Remos Ocean. With a legendary trinket and handmade boat to his name, Jace is her only hope—even though he knows the trinket is fake.
With Jace's skilled sailing and the Sea Sprite’s magic, the pair enters a competition to win a ship capable of catching the pirate. The only thing darker than the depths are the Sea Sprite’s secrets, and Jace realizes too late his adventure might cost a price too high to pay.
Making a splash within the world of A Sea Of Ships and Souls
It was snowing when I started writing my fantastical adventure novel. Since I couldn’t trade the slushy streets and cold wind for sunshine and warm water, I decided to give it to my characters.
Creating the world of A Sea Of Ships and Souls was difficult at first. I watched numerous documentaries on the tropics, I flipped through my parents wedding album when they went to The Dominican Republic, I studied one of my favorite movies (Pirates Of The Caribbean) and tried to remember how the summer sun felt on my skin. I was caught up in average ocean temperatures, island population densities, boat mechanics when I remembered I was writing a fantasy novel with magical ocean spirits and evil dread pirates.
Easy to say the world building got a little easier after that.
I changed my focus away from the science of the world to the feeling and started dreaming of a world that fit my vision. Within the novel, the legends say the Ocean Queen filled the world with water so she could float closer to her lover, the moon. It’s a romantic story so the world needed that same romance and whimsy.
The first island I made for the archipelago was Cresent Isle, named for its crescent shape. The people there hold tight to the legends and always fill the Sea Sprite’s offering bowls to win their favor while on the waters. That was the romance. The second island was created for the whimsy. Whale Hat looks like a whale wearing a top hat and is home to taverns, magic tricks, and stories of sailors and sea monsters. The final island, Ula Zale, isn’t visited by Jace and his crew but remains a source of mystery for the young sailor.
While writing A Sea Of Ships and Souls I wanted to share my own love for the water and sunsets. Blame it on my horoscope or growing up on a lake, but I’ve always found bodies of water beautiful and full of their own kind of magic. I wanted some of the spotlight of the novel to be on the setting: between the dazzling reflection of light atop the ocean waves to the vicious-looking swirling clouds of a coming storm.
With the setting done, I could focus on what really makes a background for a novel: the other characters. Jace’s world isn’t just beaches and handmade boats after all. For me, the best way to develop side characters is by plucking them from your life. The shopkeeper in Chapter One was inspired by an old man who used to run the 7/11 by my childhood home. He had a toy robot bird behind the counter, and, when I was six, I swore it was alive.
Lastly on my to-do list was to establish the community. For me, this includes the culture and history of the world. I worked on finalizing the legends around the Ocean Queen and her evil counterpart, the Sea Witch. I needed to know how much power a Sea Sprite had and if they could truly influence the tides. I created a basic law system that all the islands in the archipelago had to follow. I made a list of holidays and celebrations and discovered the 100-year anniversary of Whale Hat that played a major role in the story.
The cove was calm when Jace arrived. The horrors carried in by the damaged ship were washed away with the tides overnight. The clear waters took Jace’s breath away, as it did every time, and for a moment, he forgot his purpose for coming. Legends told of angry Sea Sprites luring sailors into the water and returning their skulls to empty offering bowls. Their mystic lullabies compelling sailors to leap headfirst off their ships.
It wouldn’t take a magic song to lure Jace. He’d followed the stunning refraction of water and sky without question. Without hesitation. Without regret. The compass needle in his soul never wavered from the water, his true north.
Jace stepped toward the shore, his leather boots sinking into the sand and his gaze unwavering from the water. I’ll stop at the waterline, he reminded his body. His soul pouted at the refrain, and his legs stopped an inch from the foamy wave cresting the sand. As the wave pulled back into the ocean, the distance returned some sense to Jace. He couldn’t walk himself into the middle of the ocean without risking ruining his boots, which his parents worked hard to get him. Nor could he get far enough into the cove with just his legs to satisfy his hunger.
It wouldn’t take a magic song to lure Jace. He’d followed the stunning refraction of water and sky without question. Without hesitation. Without regret. The compass needle in his soul never wavered from the water, his true north.
Jace stepped toward the shore, his leather boots sinking into the sand and his gaze unwavering from the water. I’ll stop at the waterline, he reminded his body. His soul pouted at the refrain, and his legs stopped an inch from the foamy wave cresting the sand. As the wave pulled back into the ocean, the distance returned some sense to Jace. He couldn’t walk himself into the middle of the ocean without risking ruining his boots, which his parents worked hard to get him. Nor could he get far enough into the cove with just his legs to satisfy his hunger.
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