Sam Staley

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Sam Staley

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    • Home
    • Sam +
      • Podcasts
      • Selected Articles
      • Literary Awards
      • Faith & Mission
      • Bio
    • Books
      • Pirate of Panther Bay
      • Beatles & Economics
      • Film & Economics
      • St. Nic, Inc.
      • Path of the Warrior
      • Unsafe On Any Campus?
      • How to buy my books!
    • Movie Reviews
      • Current Movie Reviews
      • Movie Reviews: 2022
      • Movie Reviews: 2021
      • Movie Reviews: 2020
      • Movie Reviews: 2019
      • Movie Reviews: 2018
      • Movie Review Archive
    • Resources
      • Workshops & FSU Resources
    • Practical Self Defense
    • Women in Martial Arts
    • Staying Safe Today

  • Home
  • Sam +
    • Podcasts
    • Selected Articles
    • Literary Awards
    • Faith & Mission
    • Bio
  • Books
    • Pirate of Panther Bay
    • Beatles & Economics
    • Film & Economics
    • St. Nic, Inc.
    • Path of the Warrior
    • Unsafe On Any Campus?
    • How to buy my books!
  • Movie Reviews
    • Current Movie Reviews
    • Movie Reviews: 2022
    • Movie Reviews: 2021
    • Movie Reviews: 2020
    • Movie Reviews: 2019
    • Movie Reviews: 2018
    • Movie Review Archive
  • Resources
    • Workshops & FSU Resources
  • Practical Self Defense
  • Women in Martial Arts
  • Staying Safe Today

When Leadership and Courage is... Everything

The Pirate of Panther Bay series

A swashbuckling adventure with a splash of social justice

Born on a 18th century sugar plantation, Isabella never thought the slave rebellion that set her free would lead her to command a pirate ship. She soon finds her trusted quartermaster and his motley band of pirate brethren are more than ready to prey on the colonial merchant ships plying the waves of the Caribbean.

Click here to buy the series!

The Pirate of Panther Bay

Born in slavery, driven to be free

In 1781, Isabella and her pirates are the scourge of the Caribbean Sea. In the first book of the Pirate of Panther Bay trilogy, Isabella's plans are thrown into disarray when she captures a young Spanish army captain. She soon finds that he is a special envoy to the Spanish viceroy. But what should she do with him? His loyalty to Spain's King Charles III is unwavering... at first.


But Isabella has more to worry about than a loyal soldier. Little does she know that pirates among her covet more booty and power. Will she sacrifice her quest to destroy Spain for the plunder that will stave off mutiny? And what of the prophecy her mother had told her as a child? What is her destiny?


Isabella grapples with her own ambitions as she weighs the consequences of each decision and the first installment of her high seas adventures takes her to Puerto Rico and St. John (now U.S. Virgin Islands). 


All the while, she contends with pirate hunters, rogue pirates, and the wrath of a viceroy whose relentless pursuit gives her barely enough room to breath. 


Ready to buy the book? You have lot's of options! Click here!

The Pirate of Panther Bay

8 literary awards!

The Pirate of Panther Bay

Florida Authors and Publishers Association

The Pirate of Panther Bay

Why the award-winning Pirate of Panther Bay series should be on your young adult reading list. (Tallahassee Democrat) 

Calusa Spirits

Florida Authors and Publishers Association

The Pirate of Panther Bay

"The hero of SR Staley's Calusa Spirits gains depth and stature in the third installment of the Pirate of Panther Bay series." Southern Literary Review

Florida Authors and Publishers Association

Florida Authors and Publishers Association

Florida Authors and Publishers Association

Calusa Spirits brings home silver medals in historical fiction and young adult fiction in the 2019 President's Awards. 

Isabella's journey continues!

Isabella's journey continues!

Florida Authors and Publishers Association

Local author launches third installment of series featuring his "tough as nails" heroine and former slave. 

M.C. Simon on Tortuga Bay

Isabella's journey continues!

M.C. Simon on Tortuga Bay

"I can't lift up the author high enough for the remarkable work he has done. The reader's attention is grabbed from the first page."  Goodreads

Pirates and Privateers

Isabella's journey continues!

M.C. Simon on Tortuga Bay

Tortuga Bay is a rousing and complex pirate adventure mixed with a Romeo-and-Juliet love affair. Staley brings life into Haiti and its history...." Cindy Vallar, review in Pirates and Privateers 

Awards and Medals

The Pirate of Panther Bay books are genre-bending action adventures. They have earned top honors in

  • Historical Fiction 
  • Published Mainstream/Literary Fiction
  • Young  Adult & Coming of Age
  • New Adult
  • Women's Fiction
  • Adult Historical Fiction


 Ready to buy the books or the entire series? You have lot's of options! Click here! 


Sketch by multimedia artist Marina Brown.

Sketch by multimedia artist Marina Brown.

Tortuga Bay

An high-seas epic saga continues

On the run, Viceroy Rodriguez is determined to vanquish Isabella and her pirates from the Caribbean. It's his only hope to get back to Spain and out of the treacherous and deadly backwater of Puerto Rico and its colonies. 


Isabella and Jean-Michel, her wily quartermaster, must face down relentless and clever traps set to capture her and her crew. When Rodriguez finally sets a squadron of gunboats after her, she is forced to take refuge in Port-au-Prince, Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) to hopefully wait out her adversaries. 


But, as a voodoo priestess reveals truths behind Isabella's prophecy, she must come to grips with her destiny revealed. Will she escape in time? Or will Rodriguez finally get the retribution he desires?


Tortuga Bay is the genre-bending award-winning sequel to The Pirate of Panther Bay, taking home the top prize in historical fiction (Royal Palm Literary Awards), Young Adult Fiction (Florida Authors and Publishers Association), and Coming of Age/Romance/New Adult (Florida Authors and Publishers Association. In Addition, Tortuga Bay, earned 2nd place awards in Published Mainstream/Literary Fiction (RPLA), Young Adult Fiction (RPLA), was a finalist in Women's Fiction (RPLA), and a category finalist the Eric Hoffer Book Awards.


 Ready to buy the book? You have lot's of options! Click here! 

Calusa Spirits

Pirates vs. Indians?

In this thrilling third installment in the Pirate of Panther Bay series, Isabella and Juan Carlos continue to be hunted by Viceroy Rodriguez and his fleet. After a narrow escape from a trap set off the southern shores of Cuba, they flee up the west coast of Florida. 


Desperate for supplies, Isabella leads a search for a trading post near the Caloosahatchee River (near modern-day Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and Sanibel Island). As they snake their way through the shoals and shallow rivers of Florida's gulf coast and the Everglades, they make contact with a tribe of Calusa Indians long thought to have been enslaved or banished from Florida. 


In this gripping, fast-paced story, Isabella's adventures in Florida may represent the first confrontation between native Americans and pirates in historical fiction. She must navigate linguistic and cultural differences to ensure the survival of herself and her crew. With each challenge and battle, her destiny and the truth behind her mother's prophecy is finally revealed. 


Readers get more than an adventure and swashbuckling high-seas adventure with Calusa Spirits. They will also be introduced to the proud and rich cultural history of one of Florida's most historically significant indigenous American tribes. 


Another genre-bending award winner, Calusa Spirits earned a silver medal in the category of historical fiction from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association.


 Ready to buy the book? You have lot's of options! Click here! 

A Captain's Reckoning (coming in 2024)

An epic run for freedom...

Isabella, Jean-Michel, Juan Carlos, and their fugitive pirates decide to make a dash for New Orleans and life as free men and women in A Captain's Reckoning, the fourth installment in the Pirate of Panther Bay series (SYP Publishing). 


But their dash out of St. Marks, Florida is foiled when the sails of Captain Munoz's Spanish frigate, their nemesis dispatched Captain-General of the Caribbean, appears on the horizon. Outnumbered and outgunned, Isabella and her crew devise a plan as bold as it is risky. 


In an epic high-seas battle, Isabella and her pirates come face-to-face with heart-breaking loss, unconscionable betrayal, mutiny, while probing the depths of their tenuous faith in a better future. 


A Captain's Reckoning adds yet another fast-paced, high stakes adventure to the ongoing saga of the Pirate of Panther Bay.

Calusa Spirits, book 3 in the Pirate of Panther Bay series, took home a silver medal in 2019. 

Taking home the booty and seizing the classrooms

Gold medals and first place awards in historical fiction and young adult/new adult categories.

Reviews and Awards

Pirates in the Classroom

Pirates in the Classroom

Six literary awards and counting! Check out why reviewers call the Pirate of Panther Bay series a swashbuckling tale of action, adventure, and romance.

Read the reviews

Pirates in the Classroom

Pirates in the Classroom

Pirates in the Classroom

Click here for access to Discussion Questions, a classroom guide, and virtual tours of sailing ships!

more resources

Can't wait to start reading? Click below!

My books are available through Southern Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart. Don't wait a second more to embark on this grand high-seas adventure!

Order Now

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  • Podcasts
  • Selected Articles
  • Literary Awards
  • Faith & Mission
  • Movie Reviews: 2020
  • Movie Reviews: 2019
  • Movie Reviews: 2018
  • Movie Review Archive
  • Pirates in the classroom!

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