Janice S.C. Petrie's Blog, page 6

Fun Book Signing at Blue Ocean Event Center in Salisbury, Massachusetts

Had an enormously fun and successful day yesterday meeting people and signing books at the Blue Ocean Event Center in Salisbury, MA. I just loved saying hello and learning a little about everyone who stopped by. And the sea theme was a perfect setting for all of my books. I even got to check out all of the Christmas trees decorated by local businesses on the second floor.

A Scene from “Bay State Skye”

Taking a scene from “Bay State Skye,” here are a couple of photos from the great pumpkin weigh-in at the Topsfield Fair, 2018. Unlike 1990, this year served to be a record breaking year for the great pumpkin, but my opinion hasn’t changed since writing “Bay State Skye.” I still like the smaller, rounder, orange pumpkins. Size isn’t everything!

This Video Made My Day!

There’s no greater joy for me than to see a child enjoying “reading” one of my books! I’ve heard from so many families and teachers that although the books are thought to be best suited for three to ten year olds, toddlers love them too. Thanks for sharing.

Take a Close Look at Sand

Sand is made up of such an interesting collection of diverse particles from the sea. This close-up look really illustrates this point. How many different pieces can you identify and classify?

Sharks Appearing Everywhere in Massachusetts, Even at the Fair!

Had to share my favorite pumpkin decorating at the Topsfield Fair . . . with a sea theme, of course!

Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize Review is in for Bay State Skye!

We’re pretty excited to read about Publishers Weekly’s BookLife Prize assessment of our latest book, Bay State Skye. We’ve gotten wonderfully positive comments from readers, and now to hear that critics like it as well, we couldn’t ask for anything more. Below is their assessment:

Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize Review:

Inspired by true events, this well-researched intriguing novel exposes the occupational hazards embedded in the Gloucester, Mass., fish and seafood trade in 1990. Vivid, pungent, and layered in deceit, the story verges on a whistle-blowing, eye-opening look at a lucrative industry as opposed to a work of fiction.

Backed by countless interviews and the author’s firsthand knowledge and experience, the carefully-edited narrative reveals time and place through authentic descriptions and colloquialisms. The author’s tendency to hyper-focus on minute details creates an experience to be savored, rather than quickly devoured.

Illegal acts on the ocean, a popular theme in fiction, may encompass any profession, yet this memorable book stands apart—an intricately-planned historical immersion in Cape Ann that will make an indelible impression on a jaded connoisseur of adventure novels.

Candid protagonists in this character-saturated novel take the story in many directions, with shady personalities at the helm. Their development spins doubt and suspense and triggers double-takes.

Click here for link to original assessment published by Publishers Weekly’s BookLife.

Green sea turtle settles onto a sponge for a nap with a huge yawn.

Ah, a great big yawn from a green sea turtle on a lazy afternoon. This is the life!

 



 

Article: Author Janice Petrie writes tales from the sea for adults and children

Thrilled to see my interview with Wendall Waters on the front page, above the crease. What’s exceptional about this interview is that Wendall not only showcased my books, but also asked questions to discover why I’ve chosen to work on the books that I’ve published. Check it out!

 

(Click here to read article)

I’m a Thalassophile, Are You?

A new word for my vocabulary, maybe yours as well? I am very much a thalassophile!

How Do Modern Day Gloucester Lobstermen Really Feel? – Crossing the Bar Again

 

Crossing the Bar Again

– A poem written by Ken Bowker (11/30/2014). This poem beautifully characterizes the life and sentiment of a modern day Gloucester lobsterman, as is depicted in the Bay State Skye. Thank you Roy Spittle for bringing this poem to my attention.

   

In the slosh and tumble of waves, around ledges,

at the favored lobster spots close to shore, the white working boat

maneuvers about rocks, gear shift growling,

runs down on pots, the men scooping them up,

hauling traps aboard, pulling the writhing bugs out, checking length

sometimes tossing most of them back in

thinking its time to shift the pots further offshore.

It seems the hold is never quite full,

when they turn the helm to home.

It’s not all work, for there is a time for awe and wonder in going

to and fro, in foggy uncertainty, or clear air

when the horizon is crisp and stark,

or when clouds boil, flowering in blue sky,

or when the black of a coming storm menace,

or in the calm of sunrise, waters flat as can be,

never the same from day to day,

but same never-the-less. You’re on your own out there,

with faith’s wafer and wine certainty and protection

warding off threat of wave and rock

in the heave and thrust of swells

uneven footing, a dangerous winch cable

screaming on its spool.

There is a muscle taut energy

in this small 35 foot lobster boat

heir to the fast Grand Bank fishing schooners,

proud large trawlers, the great hauls.

These rock crawling scavengers

are all that’s left to harvest now, bend the muscles to.

It’s traps now, was nets then, always the haul,

the heft of the prey on the deck

in the heave and rolling wave of the sea.

The big thing to think about

what many of us do not

is who and where we are in this world.

So few know, but those whose working rhythm

is embedded in it, do.

A Saint Joseph medallion dangles from the rear view mirror

of their pickup loaded with traps and pots

and its ‘screw you’ bumper stickers.

But when some ignorant ass**** on autopilot

with cutters on his floaty yacht’s prop

tears through a line of pots all the day’s money’s gone

What’s Saint Joseph to do then

you have to keep asking.

Oh, they’re not paying what they used to, 3 buck a pound,

not worth it sometimes when they’re 10 bucks afterward.

Everyday, passing by the Dog Bar, offloading the stuff,

tired, returning to the slip, tie up, disembark

and, bone hope weary, might take to drink again.

In the coherence of this life,

(the faith and ceremonies, a cardinal’s blessing

once a year doesn’t do much)

no matter how small it seems

faith punctuates the daily chores,

but it’s the rhythm of the lobsterman’s life

out and back again, bait and reap

that sustains as it does for all working men,

the doing of it.