Quick announcement! Rod has two book events next week. If you happen to be in the area, stop by and say hello. We'd love to see/meet you!
Sisters, Oregon
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Bend, Oregon
Showing posts with label Married to a Writer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Married to a Writer. Show all posts
April 12, 2025
February 3, 2025
A Month in Summary - January 2025
Little Whale Cove
Depoe Bay, Oregon
January 2025
What a month. All I can say (and it sounds terribly weak and trivial) is thank goodness for the beauty of nature and books. As much as I try to stay informed, there is only so much that I can take of the current news. For many, life hasn't changed much since January 20th, but for so many others, this country is unrecognizable and a scary place to live. My heart goes out to those who are living in fear, have lost their jobs (or homes), and to those who are worried about how they will survive in this cruel new place we call The United States.
When life gets difficult, I'm so thankful for my books. I had an exceptionally good month of reading and am excited to continue my personal challenge to read all of Maggie O'Farrell and Elizabeth Strout's books this year. I'm also reading C.J. Box and William Kent Kreuger's mystery series. I'm also focusing on the books in my stacks, but wound up with quite a few that I found at the library. Definitely want to keep supporting my local library!
Books Read (click on the title for my review):
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake (5/5)
Open Season by C.J. Box (4/5)
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten (4/5)
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (4.5/5) - reread for book club
The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths (4/5)
After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell (4/5)
Naked Prey by John Sandford (4.5/5)
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout (4.5/5) - reread
James by Percival Everett (4/5)
Movies & TV Series:
Shrinking (Season 2) - I was so sad when I reached the end of this season. The Thanksgiving episode really tugged at my heartstrings.
The Diplomat (Season 2) - Wow! What a great show. The last episode is quite a cliffhanger. I hope it isn't too long before Season 3 is released.
This Is Us (Season 6) - Finally got back to this show. Yes, it's sappy but I still enjoyed it. It's probably the most non-linear show in history! The Alzheimer's storyline was hard to watch.
In other news, I've become addicted to watching All About Birds' live cam in Ontario, Canada. I started watching the Cornell Lab cam, but switched to Canada's since I'm curious about the bird activity in their colder temps.
Update: I composed this post before the horrific news of the DC plane and helicopter crash on Thursday. My heart breaks for the family and friends of those lost souls. Take care of yourselves, friends.
May 17, 2023
Wordless Wednesday
"Sailing by Starlight takes what could have easily become
one more nondescript sailing-around-the-world tale
and makes it into a thoroughly researched and well-written book
that’s as much about problem-solving and strength of character
as it is about adventure."
(Sailing Magazine)
December 6, 2022
Book Launch Party!
Last Sunday we hosted a book launch event for Rod's latest book, Sailing by Starlight. Close to 40 friends and neighbors showed up at our community rec center to hear Rod discuss the book, as well as take questions during a Q&A period, which was followed by a book signing. The party continued as we enjoyed delicious refreshments, chatting about the book and wishful thoughts of a movie deal. And, as one of the attendees remarked, "You don't need to be a sailor to enjoy this great adventure story!" If you need a Christmas gift, it's not too late to get a signed copy. Comment below and we can work out the details via email.
October 30, 2022
Sailing by Starlight
Nonfiction
2022 Sheridan House
Finished on October 24, 2022
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good!)
Publication Date: November 1, 2022
Publisher's Blurb:
Sailing by Starlight is the story of the adventure of a lifetime--in fact, of many lifetimes. In the early 1980s, retired geography professor Marvin Creamer set out to do what hadn't been done for a thousand years--if indeed it had ever been done at all: Marv and his crew boarded a 35-foot sailboat named Globe Star and set out into the frigid Atlantic, planning to sail around the world without the use of any instruments. There was no sextant aboard. No compass. No chart-plotter. No GPS. No radar. Not even a stopwatch. Creamer wanted to prove to the world that it was possible for ancient mariners to have crossed the largest seas, perhaps even sailed around the world, using only their brains, their experience, their senses, and their courage. In attempting to prove his point, Creamer would push his boat and his crew to the limit--and occasionally beyond.
Travel with Creamer as Globe Star sails around the perilous Horn, across the dangerous and tumultuous Tasman Sea, and into an active war zone. Sail around the world with a man who was taken prisoner with an idea, a man obsessed with proving a point, and a man who would let neither 40-foot waves nor fractious crewmembers deter him.
Disclaimer: I was hesitant to post a review, as this book was written by my husband, but I want to share what I enjoyed about the story. I hope to minimize my personal bias.
I am not what you would call an avid sailor. My family owned a small sailboat (a Glen-L 13) when I was in elementary school, and I remember lake sailing with my parents and brothers (and our small dog) in Northern California and Southern Oregon. How we all managed to fit in that tiny sailboat is beyond me!
Photo Credit: Glen-L Boat Designs
Later, I would enjoy going out on Hobie Cats and a few 20-plus foot sailboats in San Diego, but I can count those occasions on one hand. In the late 80s, my husband and I started dreaming about buying a Catalina, but a move to Nebraska took the wind out of our sails, so to speak. Looking back, I wonder just how much I would have enjoyed spending time on a boat on the Pacific Ocean. It's huge, unpredictable and the waves are much bigger than those on the lakes of Whiskey Town and Howard Prairie. And I am prone to seasickness!
Rod has always been enthusiastic about sailing, reading numerous books on the subject (he's read Chapman: The Boater's Handbook more than once), and dreaming of one day owning a boat. Nautical books (even sailing memoirs) weren't of interest to me, but Rod had a copy of Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steve Callahan, and with all our talks about sailing, I decided to give it a read sometime in the late 80s. I don't remember much about the book, but after recently glancing at a copy, I discovered that Callahan's voyage began just shy of two years before Marv Creamer's. I wonder if they knew one another. If not personally, they certainly must have known of each other.
Rod and I never did buy a boat, but we've cruised the San Juan Islands (on a 48' Richardson cabin cruiser) with my dad and stepmom, as well as a wonderful day trip on a catamaran from St. Thomas to St. John. I've also had the pleasure of spending two weeks on a river boat, cruising the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers with my mom. But all these experiences were peaceful and calm. Well, almost all. We did experience a problem with the bilge pump on my dad's boat; for several moments I was afraid the boat might start to sink, and we would have to swim to shore in the dark! Oh, and there was also the time (actually, there were two separate instances) when a fan belt broke on one of the two engines (again in my dad's boat) and we had to limp along, in Puget Sound, on one engine to reach a marina for repairs. But none of these events were as terrifying as those that Marv Creamer and his crew faced as they sailed around the world without any instrumentation: no GPS, no compass, no sextant, not even a clock or watch. And, their amazing adventure took place on the Globe Star, a 35-foot sailboat. They experienced gales, huge seas, fog in heavily traveled shipping lanes, and the doldrums. They went for many weeks without seeing land, nor speaking to anyone but one another.
While chatting with Rod about Sailing by Starlight (from the safe perch of one of our neighborhood benches overlooking the ocean, watching the enormous waves crash against the bluff), I told him that I would have curled up in a ball in the v-berth, sobbing in terror, if I had to be on such a voyage at Creamer's. I'm sure even an experienced sailor would feel some fear and anxiety with each crashing wave, a galley fire, or a knockdown, but they would also know what to do in those situations. At least if a disaster strikes while we're traveling in our motorhome, there's very little risk of drowning!
Sailing by Starlight is a compelling read about a sixty-six-year-old retired geography professor who was able to fulfill a lifetime dream and prove that ancient peoples could sail across massive oceans (perhaps even around the world) without anything but their intellect, bravery and senses. I was pleased to discover that over the years, I've picked up a general understanding of some basic nautical terminology in my brief encounters on boats: port & starboard, cleats & fenders, fore & aft, fo'c'sle & salon, and coming-about and jibe (the latter of which I accidentally discovered off the shores of Beaufort, N.C.). So, as I began reading Rod's book, I wasn't bothered by the usage of specific vernacular known to more seasoned sailors. Initially, I thought a glossary might be useful, but flipping back and forth would only interrupt the narrative, causing a loss in momentum and tension. Any words or phrases with which I was not familiar (e.g., horse latitudes, heave-to, windlass), were easily understood in the context of the passage.
Rich in detail, with mounting tension, Sailing by Starlight is sure to appeal to a broad range of readers, avid sailors and armchair travelers not excluded. Rod sets the scenes so vividly, delivering an ultra-satisfying read for which he should be enormously proud. I know I am.
It's rare that I reread books, and even more rare that I'm tempted to re-read a book upon completion, but I felt that way about Sailing by Starlight. I'm not interested in owning a boat, but I do enjoy a thrilling nautical tale. Maybe it's time to finally give Moby Dick another chance...
Note to reader: I rarely read an author's footnotes, whether included on the appropriate page or in a collection at the back of the book. I encourage you to read Sailing by Starlight "Notes," which provide additional information that would otherwise have detracted from the flow of the narrative.
Click here to view videos and images from Sailing by Starlight.
October 18, 2022
Sailing by Starlight
This arrived last night!
In two weeks, Rod's latest book will be released! I am so proud of him, and very excited about this new book, which is available for pre-order here and here.
Publisher's Blurb:
Sailing by Starlight is the story of the adventure of a lifetime—in fact, of many lifetimes. In the early 1980s, retired geography professor Marvin Creamer set out to do what hadn’t been done for a thousand years—if indeed it had ever been done at all: Marv and his crew boarded a 35’ sailboat named Globe Star and set out into the frigid Atlantic, planning to sail around the world without the use of any instruments. There was no sextant aboard. No compass. No chart-plotter. No GPS. No radar. Not even a stopwatch. Creamer wanted to prove to the world that it was possible for ancient mariners to have crossed the largest seas, perhaps even sailed around the world, using only their brains, their experience, their sense, and their courage. In attempting to prove his point, Creamer would push his boat and his crew to the limit—and occasionally beyond.
Travel with Creamer as Globe Star sails around the perilous Horn, across the dangerous and tumultuous Tasman Sea, and into an active war zone. Sail around the world with a man who was taken prisoner by an idea, a man obsessed with proving a point, and who would let neither 40-foot waves nor fractious crewmembers deter him.
January 18, 2022
Sailing by Starlight
Publisher's Blurb:
In 1982, a hobby sailor and retired geography professor named Marvin Creamer embarked on a very special circumnavigation: On his 36' steel ketch, Globe Star, Creamer and his crew ventured out into the Atlantic a few days before Christmas on the first leg of the voyage, bound for Africa. On board they carried absolutely no navigation instruments of any kind: no LORAN, no GPS or AIS (civilian versions of which did not, in any case, exist in 1982), no sextant or astrolabe, no radar . . . nothing. They didn't even have a clock on board. They had some rudimentary charts and maps of the trade winds and that was it. What they did carry with them was Marv's blue-water sailing experience and his knowledge of the Earth, the stars, and of the winds and waves. Eighteen months later, Creamer returned, having shown the world--or as much of it as was paying any attention--that one could sail around the globe without using any instruments. Creamer's intent was to prove that such a voyage could be successful, showing that ancient peoples--e.g., the Norse, the South Pacific Islanders, and possibly others--could well have traveled the world's oceans using only their brains, their five senses, and the experience of multiple generations of their seafaring ancestors. The trip was ultimately successful, but Creamer was beset by almost-constant problems. That makes for an exciting tale, and provides some exceptional examples of seafaring ingenuity and sheer determination on the part of Creamer. The author was given exclusive access to Creamer's diaries, photos, and other memorabilia by Creamer's family.
July 2, 2021
A Month in Summary - June 2021
Boulder Creek RV Park
Lone Pine, California
June 15, 2021
Well, this may be the first month in a very long time that I didn't finish a single book! I knew my numbers would be low, since we've been on a road trip for over four weeks, but I thought I'd at least finish the two books that I had started back in May. Vacations have never been my best time for reading.
As with other long road trips, I plan to blog about this vacation, both for your enjoyment as well my personal record (so I can refresh my memory for future trips). We traveled to a lot of familiar locations that we visited in the fall of 2019, but we also found a couple of new gems, which was nice. We spent time with friends and family, which was pretty much the highlight of this trip as everywhere outside of Oregon was too hot to do much in the way of exploring.
Books Read (click on the title for my review):
None!
Abandoned:
The Overstory by Richard Powers - Gave up after reading 150 pages. I only read that far because it's a book club selection and I wanted to give it my best effort.
In Other Bookish News:
My ever-so-brilliant husband has signed a contract with his publisher for a new book!
"In the mid-1980s, Marv Creamer, a geography professor from a small-time college in New Jersey, did a crazy thing: He climbed aboard his 35' steel sailboat and sailed around the world. Without instruments. No compass, no radar, no charting programs, no sextant. Not even a wristwatch. Now, almost 40 years later, I'm about to do an equally crazy thing: I'm writing a book about Marv and his remarkable voyage. (Pix of contract and celebratory bourbon above.) The book is called Sailing by Starlight, and it will be published in the spring of 2022 by Sheridan House Publishers." (Rod Scher)
September 28, 2016
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