David J. Forsyth's Blog: Books, page 3

Feedback

Most authors will never see their books reviewed by the New York Times – or the Winnipeg Free Press for that matter. Many will go unpublished or resort to self-publishing in an effort to be heard, if only by a handful of readers. Fewer still will ever benefit financially from their love of writing and the countless hours of research and keyboarding essential to the craft.

There is, however, one reward that makes an author's efforts worthwhile. Sometimes, without warning, a reader will provide unsolicited feedback, and if the writer has done his or her job well, that feedback will be received with as much enthusiasm as a bi-annual royalty cheque.

I first met Chris at the Waterdown, Ontario Book Fair, where he purchased my first book, "Dafydd." The following year, he returned, told me how much he enjoyed it, and bought a copy of "Too Cold for Mermaids." A few weeks later, I received the following email through my website, www.davidjforsyth.com

"I finished your book, Too Cold for Mermaids, and wanted to let you know that I enjoyed the book very much. We met again in Waterdown and that is where I purchased your second book. We talked for a little and I am looking forward to your next book. Just wanted to send you my e-mail so when you finish your third book you can let me know."

Thank you Chris, you are the reason that I write.

Toronto International Boat Show

Hello Readers and Happy New Year,
Just a quick reminder that the Toronto International Boat Show runs from Saturday, January 13, 2018 to Sunday, January 21st.
I will be appearing in Salon 107 at 3:30 pm on Saturday January 20th to present a one-hour seminar titled "In Pursuit of a Dream." I hope to inspire those who have dreamed of sailing off to distant ports on their own boats and aren't sure what to expect. With over 6,000 nautical miles of cruising in my wake, I will be talking about cruising the North Atlantic from Florida to Labrador and inland waters between Georgian Bay and New York City, including the Saint Lawrence River and the Erie Canal. I'd love to see you at the seminar if you can come. My latest book (Too Cold for Mermaids) will be on sale there and at the Nautical Mind Bookstore booth at the show. I'll be signing books there until the show closes at 7 pm Saturday.

In Pursuit of a Dream

Are you planning to attend the Toronto International Boat Show in January 2018? It's a great 10-day event for anyone who loves boats or dreams of sailing off to distant places. If that's you, I am one of the many presenters taking part in the boat show's seminar program.

"In Pursuit of a Dream" is a one-hour presentation directed at novice sailor-adventurers who aren't sure where to begin. Through an audio-visual account of my own cruising experiences, I describe the process of acquiring essential skills, financing and selecting a suitable boat and setting out on weeks-long passages on the Great Lakes and in the North Atlantic.

Read details of this and other seminars on the boat show's website by clicking on the link below:
http://www.torontoboatshow.com/educat...

The Writing Process

I should be working on my novel today, but instead, I'm catching up on the trivial business of life that I've neglected for so long. I also want to take a minute to give my readers an insight into the complex process of writing.

The novel that I am currently writing is based on my family's history, up to and including my maternal grandmother's life. In chapter one, I established the time period (the early nineteenth-century) and the geographic location (Ireland). I also developed my first character (Peter, a linen weaver) based on a Certificate of Marriage obtained through Britain's General Register Office. The next step involves telling the story of his son's emigration to England following the initial devastation of Ireland's potato crops in 1845.

Now the real work begins. First, I must research the means of transportation available to low-income travellers at the time, and familiarize myself with the areas through which Thomas travelled. Roads were maintained by each parish through the free labour its parishioners then, and most were unsuitable for vehicles. Horse-drawn vehicles were expensive and only landowners, merchants and some clergy were likely to have access to carriages. Railways were in their infancy, but canals were being used extensively to transport goods. It appears walking was Thomas's most likely mode of transport though he might have been able to afford passage on a canal boat for part of the way.

Of course, my research involved several hours and uncovered many details not presented here. Even armed with my findings, I had still to understand what the journey entailed, so I obtained an ordinance survey map completed in 1842. With it, I plotted Thomas's likely path from his home to the port of Dublin, from which he would have to embark on a steam ferry to Holyhead, Wales, before continuing on to London.

I noted the bridges, villages, locks and loughs he would have encountered and researched those that I felt might have attracted his attention. In fact, I tried to become Thomas in my imagination and travelled with him to Dublin step by step. Now I'm wondering if I should actually go to Thomas's birthplace and undertake the journey myself in an effort to better understand his experience.

There you have it – a sliver of the process by which I write. Of course, my first two books were works of first-person non-fiction, so the research was primarily to ensure accuracy, but writing authoritatively about the experiences of others requires a great deal more effort.

Adventure

Sometimes readers, even some boaters, think sailing on the Atlantic in a small sloop must be terrifying. I point out that one rarely goes to sea until they are at least comfortable in heavy weather on inland waters. It's a simple matter of incremental adjustment.

I began my affair with water by building rafts as a kid; then I bought a twelve-foot aluminum fishing boat as a young adult. By my mid-thirties I had graduated to a small runabout with a canvas dodger, so I could at least remain dry when the weather tried to chase me off of Georgian Bay (Lake Huron). By the time I turned to white-water canoeing, I was pretty comfortable with most conditions.

The transition to a seven-ton Alberg 29 was another matter altogether. Suddenly, I couldn't just fend off a dock with my hand, and the potential for damage, or injury to others, meant I had to know what I was doing. I served my internship by crewing on various vessels under experieced skippers, first in local waters, and then at sea. Finally, and only when my sloop and I were ready, I sailed through the Great Lakes and down the St. Lawrence River to Sidney, Nova Scotia.

By the time we undertook the 400-mile crossing from Halifax to Boston, during which we endured a twenty-four-hour gale in the Gulf of Maine, I had been sailing for a decade. Of course I was concerned for my vessel and my crew, but I was far from being terrified.

In fact, I enjoyed the experience, and I learned a great deal. Often, when I sign a copy of "Too Cold for Mermaids" for someone, I write, "Adventure is found not in a fair wind, but rather in a raging tempest."

A brief excerpt from Too Cold for Mermaids

Over the next few weeks I scraped, scrubbed, sanded, and sweated whenever I could find the time while the old slave-driver imparted his water-wise wisdom in bits and pieces. Between tasks, he recounted tales of serving aboard the ships of the Blue Funnel Line and described his surveying of Ontario’s lakes while in the employ of the Canadian Hydrographic Service. His incredible repertoire included passing references to a boxing career in England, service as a Labour Member in the British Parliament, and hard-hat diving in the Suez Canal in the late 1950s. How closely his fantastic stories represented truth is unimportant. They were entertaining and passed the time, and, if I listened intently, a gem of seamanship could always be found hidden somewhere within his tale. The crusty old man’s eyes sparkled with excitement as he relived his adventures; so much so that just listening to him felt like giving him a gift.

One of my favourite anecdotes was Mr Markey’s description of a northward passage from South Africa. His ship, laden with bananas, was bound for England, and as ship’s carpenter, he was responsible for maintaining conditions favourable to the preservation of the cargo. That meant controlling humidity and temperatures below decks by ensuring adequate airflow. During each watch, he made his rounds of the compartments that held the stalks of fruit, opening and closing bulkhead hatches as needed.

Sometimes, when you opened an ’atch, a rush of air would ’it you from the other side. The trouble was that the bloody banana spiders would spin a web across the ’atchway. Some of ’m were the size of dinner plates. I ’ated ’em with a passion!

It wasn’t immediately obvious to me that the old merchant seaman was teaching his pupil about ingenuity and resourcefulness, but he eventually made his point.

When we put in at Sierra Leone, I went ashore and bought a plastic water-gun on the market. I filled it with ammonia, and whenever I saw one of the little bastards, I let ’m ’ave it. We were in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of France when the skipper sent a deck ’and to fetch me. I went to the bridge and ’e said, “Chippy, come wi’ me. I want to show you some’ing.”

We went below and ’e pointed out stalks of bananas covered in little black spots. “Ever seen anything like ’at before?” ’e asked.

“No Cap’n. Never,” I said.

Mr Markey’s eyes twinkled as he chuckled boisterously, clearly pleased that the ship’s captain hadn’t connected the cargo damage to his ingenious conquest of the repulsive spiders.

Boating Season is Coming!

It’s March, and the days are getting longer. Over the next few weeks, eager boating enthusiasts will be trickling into the boatyards with lists of pre-launch tasks tucked into their pockets. Some will clamber up ladders and burrow under tarpaulins even before the last snow melts. In an attempt to get an early start, they will reconnect batteries, clean cabins and install new interior fittings by the light of a single bulb at the end of an extension cord.

Then, one by one, the shrink-wrap and tarpaulins will disappear, and the boatyard will come alive with the sounds of power tools, neighbourly greetings and perhaps the occasional clinking of beer bottles. Boaters, like hibernating grizzlies, come alive in the spring as sure as a dandelion blooms. If you’ve dreamed of being part of the sailing community and never acted on that dream, perhaps it’s time to take the first step. Find out how to join in the fun; how to convert your dream into reality.

My latest book, Too Cold for Mermaids, describes how I turned my long neglected fantasy of sailing to far off ports into reality. The initial chapters are almost a ‘how to’ guide; and then the fun begins. My first-person, non-fiction narrative takes readers on a series of five passages, describing the daily life and adventures of a cruising sailor. You’ll weather a gale, approach a glittering iceberg, visit coastal settlements and view the world from the top of a mast, all the while learning what to expect, what must be endured and how to equip a vessel for the open sea.

On the other hand, perhaps you get seasick every time you step onto a dock, in which case you may just enjoy a good read. Sometimes it’s fun just to hear about someone else’s adventure from the comfort of a hammock or a lounge chair on the patio.

Too Cold for Mermaids is available from on-line retailers and the publisher at www.rocksmillspress.com

Remember, Research, Write & Re-write

Whether you’re a fan of history or a mere nostalgia buff, an adventure seeker or a boating enthusiast, you may be interested in the books I write, or perhaps it’s time you thought about writing something yourself. I began writing because I wanted my grandchildren to know something about the way I grew up. When they were little, I used to lie down beside them at bedtime and recount stories of my 1950s childhood. Eventually, it became difficult to come up with new material on short notice, so I began writing down detailed accounts of events that seemed worthy of retelling. I never intended to publish a book–just pass on a few anecdotes about my youth.

I published my first book in January of 2014. It’s a first-person, non-fiction memoir titled "Dafydd," featuring more than ninety anecdotes and a handful of vintage photographs of an era known only to those of us who are likely to die in a decade or two.

You’re going to die too, so you might want to think about writing down your memories for your descendants. When I speak to a group about my books, I try to impress on them how important it is to pass on our memories before they are lost forever. Even a few sheets of hand-written notes will be cherished some day by someone–I promise! People want to know what life was like before they were born.

So begin by simply remembering. Then, record those memories, and if necessary check them against the recollections of others. We don’t always share precisely the same memory of an event, so do a little research if you feel it’s needed, or perhaps use your findings to fill in more detail. Finally, read your accounts of the past and don’t be surprised if you remember even more details. I re-wrote my first book several times before I decided it was ready to be read by others.

I prefer to write about what I know, so when I decided to write my second book it was only logical that the subject would be sailing–not sailing within sight of a marina for a couple of hours on a sunny summer day, but cruising; living on a boat for weeks at a time, exploring previously unseen coasts and bodies of water.

For fifteen years, I wrote home to family and friends from coastal communities, and kept ship’s logs and journals of daily events. It took a couple of years to convert these documents into a manuscript worthy of publishing, and to my surprise, Rock’s Mill Press agreed to publish "Too Cold for Mermaids."

Now I’m working on my first novel, not that I feel the need to write fiction. On the contrary, I prefer to write non-fiction, but my narrative is about my grandmother’s life, and there’s just too little detail available about some periods of her life to call it non-fiction. Subsequently, I’m weaving what I know about her life into a story supplemented with probable feelings, experiences and behaviours. It will be a challenge to retain as much fact as I possibly can, but I expect "Alice" will be completed sometime in 2018.

If you’d like to know more, visit my website at www.davidjforsyth.com where you can buy "Dafydd" or check out my publisher’s website at www.rocksmillspress.com where you can purchase "Too Cold for Mermaids." It’s also available at:
• www.barnesandnoble.com
• www.amazon.com
• www.amazon.ca
and you might find it in your local bookstore soon, or even on the bookshelves of your local chandlery or marina.

If you have any questions or would like to comment on any of my books, you can contact me at author@davidjforsyth.com.