Spring Author Tour

It has to be done. It’s all part of the process. An author agonizes over writing every line of the book manuscript. Then he or she fusses about the editing, the formatting, the layout, the cover. When all that creative work is finally completed, the author—an introvert during this time, working in PJs—is forced to change roles and to promote his or product, first to get it published, and then to get it sold.

I’d gone through the process once, but that didn’t make it easier the second time around. Because now, with two books on the market and a third book still “in creative,” I’m expected to take on both roles, sometimes within the same day: donning my “presentation clothes” and my smiley face to promote the first two of the series, and then changing to my PJs and trying to get into my creative mode. Schizophrenic? You bet!

This spring, I presented at the Pt. Loma Optimists Club, MOAA (Military Officers Association) check exact name, Southwestern Yacht Club, Pacific Beach Library, and Upstart Crow in San Diego; and at Changing Hands bookstore in Phoenix. I exhibited at Strictly Sail Oakland (the largest sailboat convention on the West Coast), at the SCWC booth at the L.A. Festival of Books, and participated in the downtown library’s Local Author Exhibit. I gave on-line interviews and two podcasts: The Sailing Podcast by David Anderson, an Australian, and The Gathering Road on Women’s Radio, by Elaine Masters.

I breathed a sigh of relief when my last presentation on the Spring Author Tour, at West Marine on May 10^th, was over.  I can’t say I enjoyed all the organizing, setting up the displays, and hauling those heavy books (over 2 pounds each) to various venues! Always, before I speak, I worry about forgetting what I want to say. So I update my cards, tailoring them for each event. But when I begin to speak, I relate to my audience and my stage fright dissipates. I just go with the flow. I wrote this nautical series because I wanted to share. I realize that when I speak, I’m still sharing, but in another way.

Gunter also frets over whether the computer and projector will work. But at the end, he loves interacting with audiences! The Q&A afterwards is our favorite part. Why? Perhaps it’s because we haven’t lost the love for that surge of adrenalin that occurs when one is living on the edge. We never know what question will lead to yet another revelation about adventure travel.

Audience questions challenge us and perk up our lives. And many of those we meet become our readers and our friends.

Here are a few photos from my Spring Author Tour. To see more, please visit my author Facebook page.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Fan Mail: One of the Joys of the Writing Life

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”~ Ben Franklin

I am so fortunate to have followed Benjamin Franklin’s advice: My husband Günter and I have sailed around the world—that was certainly worth doing; afterwards, I wrote the first of three books about our adventures.

In these days of fast-paced communication via E-mail, Facebook, Twitter and more, it seems that snail mail is relegated to advertising, bills, and pleas for contributions.  Imagine my joy when I receive fan mail—by mail! These letters are an unexpected reward for my efforts.  Many of them are handwritten.

I gave a video/slide presentation and talk at the Pt. Loma Optimist Club last summer, where retired Navy Chaplain Jack Wartes bought my book, “In Search of Adventure and Moments of Bliss: MAIDEN VOYAGE.” At 93, Jack is the oldest member of the club.  I have received permission from him to post excerpts from his letters here:

“I have been entirely consumed and excited as I have been reading your great book…I could hardly wait to put it down.  I’m on page 132, just halfway through….I try to imagine being on Pacific Bliss with you.  Your writing and competent descriptions of your long journey are so vivid and interesting.  Now, having scanned ahead to Cabo and then to San Diego, I wonder if you are writing Vol. II that will tell ‘the rest of the story’ of your Pacific crossing and through the Suez and back to France? Our eldest son Greg hopes to buy a Cat.  He has studied them extensively and said he knew about the Catana boats.”

Of course, I wrote back and said that I am diligently working on the second of the trilogy, to be called SAILING THE SOUTH PACIFIC.   Then Jack wrote again:

“My main reaction was that it was so exciting and well written that I could not put it down until I finished the 263 pages, much while competing with the Padres game on TV…I read it in ten days…now I feel like you two are like younger siblings to me after feeling like I was a deck hand while going along with you as I read.  I WAS a deck hand, “CAPTAIN OF THE MUD SCOWS” when I was 20 years old and worked on a dredge in Puget Sound while attending the Univ. of Washington.  I have visited many cities and ports, but not near as many as you two have, but I am still curious to know if, by chance, I have been to one area of this old earth that you may have not yet been able to visit: The Arctic Ocean…Sorry I am so wordy but you have blessed me more than I can express…I believe the best evidence of our God are the splendors and details of His Creation which you have described so completely in your MAIDEN VOYAGE…”

This correspondence has resulted in an invitation to Jack’s home, where I will also meet his 90-year-old wife.  Jack says he plans to try out his umlaut on Günter.