Lin Pardey's Blog, page 3
June 7, 2011
By: Lin Pardey
Hi Alan
Bull Canyon is the first of Taleisin's tales, telling of how she came to be. As the note says on the home page of this site, I had to get that written before I could go on with the sailing tales. Today i began making notes for those.
Thanks for your kind words and your link up.
Lin
By: Alan Oberlander
Lin, I have linked you to my site. Your life and story are amazing and a very important one to share. I look forward to reading this blog very much. I wonder if we will ever be blessed with books on your voyages with Taleisin. See you out there. Alan~Bellingham WA
April 28, 2011
Guide to Splicing Rigging Wire
Small Boat Table Solution
March 11, 2011
Choosing the Southern African Route
When we sailed down the Red Sea on Seraffyn back in 1977, we vowed never again to sail in this part of the world. Though "piracy" was low tech and low powered back [...]
February 7, 2011
February 2011 – From New Zealand
The New Zealand summer started wonderfully, with weather that lured us out sailing on many fine days. But now in the middle of what is usually the finest sailing time, a La Niña event which brings warmer ocean waters to the South Pacific, has brought a series of cyclonic lows tracking south with heavy [...]
December 9, 2010
Interview with the author
An interview with Lin Pardey, author of
Bull Canyon: A Boatbuilder, a Writer and other Wildlife
How long did it take you to write Bull Canyon? I wrote the bare bones of the first five chapters almost 20 years ago. They languished in a file folder for twelve years. A chance encounter with Maria Eugenia Bestani, a professor of English Literature from the University of Tucuman, Argentina made me reconsider those chapters. Even with her encouragement and the enthusiasm of Kathryn Mulders, a Canadian literary agent, 8 years passed before I was fully satisfied with the manuscript. That's 20 years from inception to completion—-not a record but definitely a long gestation.
Which part of the writing process did you find easiest? The story telling. Getting the individual incidents down on paper, especially those about my neighbors, the floods and all aspects of building the sheds and boat.
Which part of the writing process did you find most difficult? Eliminating over half of the stories and incidents I put down on paper. I had such a treasure trove to choose from. I knew I had to be selective so each incident paid off and helped the plot progress toward a logical conclusion.
How was the process of writing Bull Canyon different than the process of writing your previous books? The vast majority of the chapters in each of my previous ten books had started life as magazine articles, rather like a series of sailing stories. Since editors bought and paid for the stories, I had almost immediate feedback and validation of my efforts. Later, the individual articles were combined into a book with the addition of a few connecting paragraphs. Bull Canyon is, in effect, the first book length story I have written.
I also had an intimate knowledge of the people who would be reading my previous books, as those books were aimed toward other sailors, armchair or actual. At first I tried writing Bull Canyon for my regular readers. But Maria Eugenia convinced me the story would resonate with a much broader audience. This created a new challenge—being sure I didn't bore non-sailing readers, and at the same time describing how my sailing life influenced so much of what happened during the years in the canyon.
How long after you left Bull Canyon did you begin working on the manuscript? I always keep a journal, jotting short notes each day. Interestingly, I chronicled the majority of the story about the great car crash within days of it happening. It was such a bizarre event that I didn't want to forget any of the details. I didn't actually sit down to write the book until eight years after we left the canyon.
Did writing the manuscript make you homesick for Bull Canyon? If so, how? No, not homesick, but it definitely brought back a flood of memories. In fact, one of the most enjoyable parts of writing this story was reliving those years with Larry. We spent hours reminiscing, laughing over the crazy incidents, metaphorically patting ourselves on the back as we reflected on the successes we had in spite of some quite daunting roadblocks.
What was your favorite part of living in Bull Canyon? The parties! Big ones, small ones. The old stone cottage had a magical quality about it. The quiet of the canyon and the beauty of the hills around us helped our visitors slow down and relax. Almost all our friends who drove out stayed for a night or two. Then the warmth of the oil lamp light, the intimacy of the roaring fire seemed to evoke wonderfully wide-ranging conversations and music. Even better, since we had lots of room around us, it didn't matter how many people showed up for two or three times a year pot luck occasions. It is amazing how many friends trace the origins of their relationships back to those country weekends at the old stone cottage in Bull Canyon.
Least favorite? Mud and dust. I don't think either of us was prepared for this aspect of country life. Remember, we had just spent eleven years on a small sailboat anchored out in quiet lagoons, sailing across oceans. One of my favorite aspects of life afloat is, though it may sometimes be wet or windy, it is almost always clean and dust-free. Of course being allergic to the desert plants and insects was a close second.
What was the hardest part about leaving Bull Canyon? Saying good-bye to Cindy. I still miss that lovely dog and the long walks she lead me on. Right from the start leaving had been part of the plan. For a few years, while we were caught up in the California dream, we did contemplate making the old stone cottage part of our long term life. But my allergic reaction and the break down of Barbara and Jimmie's marriage changed that. So in the end the cottage had to be sold.
How did your time in Bull Canyon change you? I gained tremendous confidence in my ability to earn my living as a writer. I also felt less intimidated by the challenges I'd later face as we set off to sail around the Great Southern Capes because I realized almost anything would be easier than trying to control the forces of nature, and the inter-neighbor politics we'd seen in Bull Canyon.
How did your time in Bull Canyon shape and influence your work as a writer? I never had formal training as a writer; numbers, math and engineering were what I was attracted to as a youngster. Until we moved to Bull Canyon, the few things I'd learned about my craft came about from reviewing stories after editors had massaged them (or hacked them up to gain space for advertising) into magazine articles, and by dissecting why particular articles were purchased quickly, why others were rejected. Once telephones arrived in Bull Canyon, I found myself working directly with Patience Wales, an editor at Sail magazine who had a successful background in short fiction. She gave me dozens of hours of one-on-one editorial training and plot-shaping advice. From her I learned the difference between a vignette and a story and, hopefully, used this lesson well.
If you had to pick the "best" lesson Bull Canyon taught you, what would it be? I have always prided myself in being a highly organized person. But living in the canyon taught me to be far more flexible about changes to what Larry called my "tidy little plans." I also learned going right to the top is often the only way to muddle through a bureaucratic situation.
It is fascinating to watch the progress of Taleisin through the pictures in Bull Canyon What was it like to see Taleisin taking shape before your eyes? Was it bittersweet in any way in that it represented a time when you would leave Bull Canyon? The only thing I like better than watching things being built is being part of that process. Watching Taleisin take shape was utterly fulfilling. Each new piece of timber that was fitted then varnished felt like a reason to celebrate. At first, I didn't want the construction to go too quickly as I was enjoying the adventure of being on shore, savoring canyon life. I came to love our daily routines, my writing time (and wonderful office,) contact with my family. But as the frames slowly began to look more like a boat that would carry us onto new adventures, I began feeling ever more restless. Looking back, I feel blessed that the project and our time in Bull Canyon lasted just long enough.
Did the two of you ever drive each other crazy? Although we worked together on the whole project, we both had our own jobs to do. When we weren't working separately we were scheming and planning and wishing there was more time to spend with each other. Then I tended to be away on my own for twice a month shopping expeditions. Twice during the four years, I was off for 3 week long special events. Thus when readers envision us being constantly together 24/7 they are getting the wrong picture. On the other hand, we and others like us who share careers find it hard to imagine what it is like sharing their partner with jobs that fill the best hours of the day. Soon after we began building our first boat, 18 years before our Bull Canyon project, Larry asked me to quit my day job and work with him. His reason, "You wake up rushed and in a hurry to go off for 10 hours to work for someone else. Then you come home tired and often grumpy to spend the evening with me. Some employer gets all the best hours of you for money and I get the little that is left over for love." In Bull Canyon we definitely shared the best hours. But as you'll learn in this book, tensions do occasionally rise so we have come up with rules for handling them.
What do you hope readers take away from Bull Canyon? The most important aspect of our Bull Canyon life was the growth it created in my marriage. By working as a true team Larry and I built something far more successful than either of us could have conceived of doing by ourselves. If this book inspires even one reader to work in true partnership with their spouse, then it will not only have been an enjoyable project but an emotionally rewarding accomplishment.
Did you ever envision writing a memoir? What finally convinced you to take the plunge, so to speak? I never considered writing a memoir. I have written many tales about my sailing adventures but in those I rarely discussed the emotional aspects of my life. This book did not start out to be a memoir. But as it came together, it took on a life of its own. At first it was my mother wiggling her way into the manuscript. I had to examine my relationship with her. Then it was having to explain how I related to my canyon neighbors. Only when I accepted that this was a memoir did I figure out how to draw the story together.
What is the best piece of writing advice you've ever received? Just when I decided to write my first magazine article in Cartegena, Columbia, Larry and I were invited to dinner by the owner of a local restaurant. He introduced us to his wife, Penny Lernoux, a professional journalist and at the time, head of the South American International Press Bureau (see Penny Lernoux-Wikipedia for more). She generously invited me to spend the next morning at her home. When I arrived she handed me a note book and said "write about something that happened at dinner last night." She left the room without giving me any further instructions nor time for questions. So I sat and pondered then wrote. Two hours later she came back in, stood at the door about 15 feet away from me and said, "Show me what you've written." I held up the notebook and fanned out the pages. She tossed me red pencil and said, "Get rid of half of it." Then Penny turned and walked away. An hour later she came back and quickly thumbed through my heavily red penciled pages without reading them. "I've taught you all you need to know; one—there is a story in everything you see or do, and two—half of what you wrote doesn't have to be there." After she made up a tray of coffee and sandwiches Penny did sit down and skim through my words and add, "Learn those lessons and you've got a good chance since you obviously know how to string words together."
What is the worst piece of writing advice you've ever received? Soon after I started writing sailing stories almost 35 years ago, a magazine editor took me to meet a quite famous London literary agent. "Haven't been attacked by any sharks? Haven't been eaten by a whale? Forget it, no one will read a book that doesn't have a really dramatic story." It was about three years later that our first sailing book was published. It told about life on a small boat and the interesting encounters we had with people along our sailing route. There are no big dramas, only a few days of stormy weather and lots of fine sailing tales. Cruising in Seraffyn has now sold over 50,000 copies and is still in print and available as an eBook, and people still write to tell me they how much they enjoyed the story.
What's next for Lin Pardey book-wise? Do you have other books in the works? I have already begun work on a book about the adventures we had on the boat we built in Bull Canyon. I also have notes for a second book I want to call The Compelling Power of Adventure.
