What I Read on my Summer Vacation

Okay, I'm back from three weeks of sailing, a vacation for the most part taken up with research on the Island Mystery Series Book #3, editing of the upcoming Reese's Leap, and lots of reading. We sailed hundreds of miles and had far too much fun--well, except for the part where I broke my nose (whole other story).

This time out I read mostly mysteries as that's what I'm writing just now, though I also picked up Mark Wisniewski's Show up, Look Good--the story of a twenty-something girl from the Midwest who relocates to Manhattan on a whim after breaking up with a fiance who prefers sex with power tools. Chapter One begins "I know of a secret murder and I've loved a speechless man...," and if that doesn't get your attention, I don't know what will.

Next on the list was Broken Harbor by Tana French, an excellent writer with a terrific series based in Dublin whose protagonist, Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, is the brash, love'm/hate'm cop from her bestselling Faithful Place.

And right now I'm about halfway through the British author Elizabeth George's Believing the Lie--the latest in her Detective Inspector Lynley mystery series. I love this author and these characters, never mind this is #17 in the series. Very much worth a try if you're not familiar with her.

Next up will be Jen Blood's Sins of the Father, the 2nd in her Erin Soloman series, and look for a review on this blog soon. I loved the first book, All the Blue-Eyed Angels, so am really looking forward to this!

Lots of Writing and a Little Sailing Trip

We dropped the mooring last weekend and took an eight-hour sail up to Casco Bay, ME, trying to wash off some of the green growth and sea critters that had grown on the bottom thanks to our staying put for so long. I spent a few hours in my aft cabin/writing room organizing yet more of the Reese's Leap editing while the skipper remained at the helm plied with sandwiches, fruit and chocolate.


First stop was Yarmouth Island, the remote island where Reese's Leap takes place and a place I've gone for many retreats. Very cool to be there again, to wander the fragrant trails through 200 acres of deeply silent woods, reconnecting with the physical setting of the new book, due out next spring.
                                  
We spent that night just a few miles upriver in Quahog Bay, working out plot elements for the third and final book in the series. Have a lot of editing to do on number two, first. Planning to hunker down this weekend at the Isles of Shoals. Look for more photos to come!

Babies and Books

This past weekend my on-board writing room (a.k.a., the aft cabin) was taken over by two little boys—14-months and and 3 years old, to be exact—grandchildren of happy demeanor and angelic smiles who conspired to keep me from the writing I was supposed to be doing. So I settled for reading. Not the current book that I, myself, am addicted to (Gillian Flynn's wonderful new release, Gone Girl), but the classics. As in Good Night Moon, The Tawny Scrawny Lion, Harold and the Purple Crayon. Children's literature teaches succinctness and brevity. These, apparently, were meant as my lessons for the day. The universe is an amazing thing!


Apropos to the writing life, over the same two days I received several great "fan" emails and a number of web orders for the softcover edition of Matinicus. Unfortunately, the grandsons weren't impressed and pushed for a return to the reading.

Despite these adorable distractions, I'm now back at work and have managed some of the easy bits of the Reese's Leap editing along with a slew of marketing around the release of Matinicus.

This coming Saturday (June 30), and after a four-hour reading/signing stint at the South Berwick Library's Summer Book Bash, we'll be dropping the mooring and sailing off to Cape Porpoise, Maine—a five-hour run that will leave plenty of time for some serious editing while underway.

Anchors away!

Back in Business

So, I've just finished transferring the bits of my writing room from home to the aft (rear) cabin of our boat. And this is what it looks like. Kinda small, but I'll get used to it. After all, most of my first book, Margel's Madness, was written in here.

I'm starting with the easiest of the line edits, collating the bits and pieces from my various readers and plan to have that part done by this weekend. Then it's on to the real work!

I've decided to throw the occasional book review into this blog and in my last post,  promised one of Jen Blood's All the Blue-Eyed Angels. I’m a sucker for this type of mystery: a smart, wounded, tough-as-nails yet emotionally vulnerable protagonist, dead-on dialogue, terrific sexual tension, and a man-I-never-saw-that-one-coming ending that leaves me thinking about the book for days.

The protagonist in All the Blue-Eyed Angels is the plucky, thirty-something female journalist, Erin Solomon, who’s come home after many years to the small, coastal town of Littlehope, Maine in hopes of uncovering the real story behind a fire that killed an entire religious cult living on a local island when she was a child—the same island where her father later committed suicide.

Unfortunately, very few of Littlehope’s residents are happy to see her—understandable considering she’s hell bent on writing a book about a past they seem determined to keep under wraps. The notable exceptions to this less than enthusiastic reception are her sexy ex-lover and his equally sexy roomie—an FBI agent with a steamy libido and his own mysterious agenda.  As for the rest of Littlehope, someone is permanently hushing up any resident Erin suspects has a promising lead, this as her list of suspects continues to grow—a list that comes to include her estranged mother who’s carrying far too many secrets of her own, and who may or may not be at the center of a longstanding cover up.

In All the Blue-Eyed Angels, Blood has given us a powerful, emotionally complex story peopled with fully-realized characters and terrific, well-honed prose.  Thankfully, this is but the first in the Erin Solomon mystery series.  I’m very much looking forward to the others!

The day before launch, May 2012

I spend a lot of my writing time on our sailboat, which is also our home for much of the year. And as we finally moved aboard this past weekend--till late fall, anyway--I've decided to incorporate observations about the sailing life in these posts, especially as they parallel my writing process and current work on Reese's Leap, the follow-up to Matinicus. So grab your life jacket and join me. Promise we won't tip (much, anyway), and we'll even do all the cooking!

Welcome aboard!

Of Books and Blueberries

To me, vacations mean lots of time for reading, and I sure do a lot of it when we sail. The last few weeks, for example. So here's what I'm into these days. Lots of Charlie Huston--really loved the three books in his Hank Thompson series. Last week I read The Mystic Arts of Erasing all Signs of Death--his dark, quirky book about a twenty-something guy who takes a job with a company that cleans up after people die violent deaths. Why he chooses to do this has a lot to do with a traumatic event he lived through a while back--something that's slowly and rather deliciously revealed near the end of the book. Despite the subject matter, or maybe because of it, it's one of the funniest books I've ever read.

I'm also a big Dennis Lehane fan and just finished reading Coronado--a book of short stories he published a while back. The book is named for one of the stories therein and what I found really interesting (besides his just plain excellent writing) is that he also includes a short play that's an expanded version of that story. The juxtaposition allows for a revealing window into the mind of this amazing writer.

I also plowed through all three books of the Stieg Larsson trilogy this summer--loving all but the last one which I felt suffered for the absence of its heroine's antics until the very end of the novel. Finally, a lovely surprise was found in Julia Glass's story of two sisters, "I See you Everywhere." I've been a big fan since reading her debut novel, Three Junes (which won the National Book Award). Amazing writing. Puts the rest of us to shame...

But hey, lest you think I did nothing more than bury myself in the pages of novels for two weeks, here's a shot of me cleaning the blueberries I'd just picked from a huge field in Bucks Harbor Maine!

A Toast to Vacations

Back at work since Monday and it feels good. More than good. You might have noticed the total lack of anything resembling "writing talk" in my vacation entries. Frankly, with all that was going on I had little time to contemplate much of anything in that regard. Didn't worry about it too much, though. I had the sense it was a good thing; that somewhere beneath all that fun the story wheels were turning, moving me toward a number of plot decisions I've been struggling with lately. Sure enough, after taking Monday to get caught up with 3-weeks worth of domestics and other pressing matters in our land-based world, I was back at it and quickly realized I knew exactly how to proceed. The way seemed utterly clear. Just proves the old adage that much of a writer's work is done away from the computer. Trust is called for, and patience a-plenty. Ideas are spun of gossamer, after all. They need time to churn and settle before finding their way to the page. So here's to vacations, where much of the hardest work is done!

Home Again, Home Again, Tickety-Boo

Our 9:30 a.m. departure Friday morning from Dipper Harbor was the start of a L-O-N-G overnight passage, one that didn't see us dropping the hook until 6 p.m. the next day. I have to say I really don't like overnights; they always kind of freak me out. We do it in two hour shifts, one of us always up, alert, and in the cockpit--tweaking sail trim and keeping an eye out for other ships. Cleave was on from 10 - 12; I took the 12 - 2 shift; he was on from 2 - 4; then I had the dawn watch. I gave him some extra time in the bunk then woke him with coffee and a hot breakfast.

Besides the loss of sleep (which leaves me feeling logy all the next day), I hate the reduced visibility at night--floating out there in total darkness with 300-400 feet of ocean beneath our 40 foot piece of fiberglass. But sometimes it's unavoidable.

Anyway, it was quite the relief to finally pull into Cape Porpoise, shrouded in fog as you can see, and drop the hook for supper and a good night sleep before continuing on the final 25 miles the next day. Couldn't leave the boat though, as we hadn't checked in with US Customs, which we did Sunday afternoon in Portsmouth.

Well, hope you enjoyed coming along on our sailing adventure; we sure enjoyed your company!

Of Casting Off and Little Girls

Vacation begins!! Saturday afternoon, July 3, our erstwhile crew of ten-year-old girls dropped the mooring and we trading the near hundred degree temps of Kittery, Maine for a stunning, if roly, four hour sail to Cape Porpoise, Maine. Lacey and Tori escaped most of the heat by riding behind in the cooler, though bouncy dingy. Next day, July 4th, dawned just as sunny and hot but with little wind, so we motor-sailed the 6 hours (hear refrains of "Are we there yet?)" to Quahog Bay and spent much of the late afternoon swimming. A BBQ dinner complete with deviled eggs (thanks to the girls' efforts) and a dinghy explore with Cleave completed our day. It was early to bed that night as all were exhausted, but Lacey woke me about ten to see three different towns' fireworks exploding in different parts of the night sky. Very cool!