Literary Las Vegas: Stephanie Marie Harrold

Victoria Smith aches for adventure and dreams of sailing away just as her mother did. But her mother is gone now, and her heart still hurts when she tries to remember her "sweet face and snatches of a song that drifted in and out of her consciousness; 'The eye of the pirate and the riches he bears. The fortune is plenty. The treasure is there. And the sea will never tell. And the sea will never tell.' "

Stephanie Marie Harrold spins a tale of swashbuckling mystery and romance in her young adult novel "The Pirate's Eye." The Las Vegas-born writer is also the author of "Sin City Witch and The Black Cat Covenant."

Harrold plans to speak about her pirate book during a free program at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Aliante Library, 2400 W. Deer Springs Way. For more information, visit stephaniemarie harrold.tateauthor.com.

Excerpt from "The Pirate's Eye"

"Do you think she regretted it?" Victoria asked.

"Regretted what? Who?" Mr. Smith put his empty glass on the table, reached for a loaf of bread, and tore it in two.

"Mother. If she had known that she would never make it home, do you think she would have left on an adventure? Was it worth that much to her?" Victoria stared off into the shadows.

It was her father's turn to ignore his food. "I don't know, Victoria," he said after a time. "Sometimes, the things we think we want turn out to be ... not what we expected."

Mr. Smith put down the bread and put his hands down in his lap. "Your mother was a smart, beautiful woman who wanted nothing more than to see the world. And I wanted nothing more than to make her happy. But I never should have agreed to take her on a business trip with me. She should have stayed home with you, and then perhaps she'd be sitting here with us now instead of lying in a grave at the bottom of the sea, put there by pirates." He sighed again.