A new Broadway musical sexes up the life of Grace O'Malley. - By Barbara Sjoholm - Slate Magazine

I know many of you have a pirate thing. And either a) are women or b) have a thing for women.

A new Broadway musical sexes up the life of Grace O'Malley. - By Barbara Sjoholm - Slate Magazine: "Piracy on the High C'sA new Broadway musical sexes up the life of Grace O'Malley.
By Barbara Sjoholm
Updated Friday, May 11, 2007, at 7:16 AM ET

The Pirate Queen.About a minute after my travel book, The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O'Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea, hit bookstores three years ago, I began to get mail from swashbuckling readers craving more about pirates.

I'd written about my travels around the North Atlantic looking for stories of women and the sea. Although there were several chapters about 16th-century sea captain Grace O'Malley, there were also less-glamorous stories of Orkney herring lassies and Icelandic fishers. My publishers and I had changed the title to pump up the sales reps: 'Everybody loves the idea of women pirates,' said marketing. But I also felt that Grace O'Malley was a wonderful role model for any woman who's ever dreamed of running away to sea."