Mike Jastrzebski's Blog, page 83

Good night, Irene

Hurricanes are all the talk here at Write on the Water this week. Irene is a very big storm and she has the potential to whallop a large part of the eastern seaboard.

Tonight, I am anchored in Weems Creek up the Severn River from Annapolis. I am writing this post on my iPad as it is the only Internet connection I have. Unfortunately, it means I can't upload the photo I took at sunset this evening of the eerie light here in the anchorage. I was going to caption it as the light before the storm. You'll just have to imagine it.

Tomorrow morning, I will continue on up the river and try to snug my way back into a creek. We just don't know how much wind we are going to get here, so the big question is how much do you do to prepare? Should I strip off my dodger and Bimini? Should I deflate my dinghy? Should I set one anchor or two? A hurricane is the ultimate test of one's seamanship skills and the decisions I make in the next 24 hours may determine whether or not my boat makes it through with no damage.

I should be more than 100 miles from the eye of the storm if I can believe the current forecast of the hurricane's track. However, I have seen Mike J's photos of what Katrina did to his boat and they, too were supposed to be well out of the forecast track. Try as they might, the forecasters just can't figure out where these storms are really going to go.

We should start feeling the effects of the storm Saturday night and it won't be passed until late in the day on Sunday. My dog and I will be staying aboard to ride out the storm.

I am looking forward to late Sunday when we here will be able to say good bye Irene and with the four boats I have made friends with here, I suspect we'll have a little survivors party. If i have Internet, I will try to post a note in the comments here to let you know how Chip, Talespinner and I managed in the storm. I will be honest and admit that I am nervous about this one.

Fair winds!

Christine

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Natural disasters???

C.E. Grundler

Aftermath of the 2011 New York City Earthquake

Here in the New York Metro area, people seem to feel that aside from some winter snow, we're immune from most natural disasters. This week's earthquake shook that belief and rattled people a little. I know over on the west coast they were amused by people in DC and New York racing from buildings in panic; Californians joked that they have earthquakes like that for breakfast. But in all fairness, in New York City and DC experience has taught us when the ground does shake and buildings sway, we have a genuine cause for concern. It was just an earthquake?  Oh, okay. That we can laugh off, but don't blame us for being a bit jumpy when we've been a bull's eye on the globe for years.

As I write this it is Thursday morning, and it looks as though Irene's path may have spared many of you the brunt of the storm's impact. Currently, they're bracing for the worst over in the northwest Bahamas, and from there North Carolina's outer banks and the eastern US will be facing howling winds and driving rains, as well as the storm surge intensified by a new moon, as the storm heads up the east coast. And by the predicted storm tracks, it looks as though New York City will get hit, and hit hard.

Forecasters are warning this could be one for the record books, and with already saturated soil from a summer of repeated floods, officials are urging people to prepare. I still recall the storm surge and aftermath of the 'Perfect Storm' of October 1991, which lifted docks, clear off their pilings and sent them down-river, boats and all. Boats that had already been hauled and blocked up high on shore were floated down the center of town and through restaurant and store-fronts, along with dumpsters, cars and anything else buoyant. Masts poked from the silty river at random angles, boats were found miles away. Our boat was home, safely blocked in our driveway, well above sea-level, but trees came down throughout the area, taking out power, and as I listened to the news over AM radio I heard reports of major arteries in Manhattan, the boroughs and Long Island being shut down as the rivers and ocean submerged them. Subways and rail lines flooded, cutting off those routes as well. The city and outlying areas are, after all, a collection of islands. Long Island and much of New Jersey's coastline are very low-lying and highly vulnerable to storm surge.

Flooding in the Hoboken PATH station during a 1992 nor'easter, which shut down the entire NYC subway system

Even though my boat is still high and dry, blocked up in a steel shed at the highest corner of the boatyard, I'll be anxious all the same. I think it would take epically high waters to reach my boat; I'm more concerned with that old shed. A friend had a shed collapse on his boat. He was able to restore her, but it wasn't pretty and it's something I'd rather avoid. My house, as well, is set high atop a high hill. Flooding would have to reach biblical levels to be an issue. My greatest concern is that the massive oaks surrounding my house all remain upright and well-rooted, and if any branches come down they don't do any damage. So to everyone anywhere along Irene's path, take care and be safe. In the end, the most we can do is prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and if we're all lucky this storm loses its punch, quietly fizzles out, and the worst we see is some knocked over lawn furniture.

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Interview with an Indie

It is no surprise to anyone reading this that the publishing industry is in flux. Amazon is growing stronger by the day while Borders has just sold its last book. Last year, Amazon claimed that Kindle sales of electronic books had surpassed that of physical books. Things are changing fast for writers, but it is not only authors and the publishing houses that are being affected.

Independent bookstores are disappearing at an alarming rate.  It has been happening since before the Kindle was even introduced. In the 90's, when big chain superstores soared, the smaller independents began to fall. In a recent conversation with an editor at Putnam, I was told that the biggest percentage of their books go to Walmart and Target.

How is a small niche store to survive?

When we dock in Ft. Lauderdale, my first stop is to one of the last independent bookstores in the city. Well Read Books on 17th Street has been a favorite of mine for years. I have learned more about Florida and Ft. Lauderdale from books the owner, Donna, has hand-sold me than anywhere. The shelves are packed with interesting and unusual titles, not just the Top 100 Best-Sellers, and the whole back section of the store is dedicated to local authors.  In fact, it was Donna who handed me my first Christine Kling novel and said, "You will love this."

How did she know? She spoke to me, found out I was a chef on a yacht, found out I love reading about the places we visit. She had read Surface Tension and knew what Christine's books were about. She knew this was a good fit. That introduction to a new author and personal relationship with a lover of books is what I fear I will miss if the independents are gone.

I know how I feel about this change in the marketplace but wondered how Donna, the owner of Well Read, views the changes and her role in the life of a book.

Victoria – I would venture to say that most authors begin writing because they are readers. Is it the same for opening a bookstore? Are you a reader first and foremost?

 

Donna-Yes, a lifetime reader and a browser of bookstores…

 

Victoria – Well Read is your second career. What made you pick a bookstore in Lauderdale?

 

Donna- The location makes for a wide customer demographic – that's part of the fun!

 

Victoria – I particularly like your commitment to local authors and involvement in the community. I've attended more author events at Well Read than anywhere in Lauderdale. What makes a good/successful event for you and the store?

 

Donna – A few things are critical –long term planning, coordinating publicity with the author, and creating the right type of mood for the book's target audience.

 

Victoria – I was impressed the other day when I was in the store to hear you hand-sell an author to a customer you knew. Do you find you are asked for suggestions or do people hear about a book and come and look for it specifically?

 

Donna – Both are routine.  Because of the store's location, visitors to the area frequently shop with a vacation reading wish list.  Infrequent readers are most often looking for recommendations.  We made it a habit to recommend to our regulars.

 

Victoria – Are there things that authors can do to help you sell their book?

 

Donna – I am always excited when authors make an effort to remind readers to look for their titles at indie stores.  Other things that are helpful include providing an ARC, copying the store on advertising and sales efforts, conveying order information (including return policies).

 

Victoria – Here at WriteOnTheWater, we speak a lot about writing about boats. Do you find that the location of Well Read lends itself to becoming a niche store for books set on the water?

 

Donna – Many of us choose to live in Fort Lauderdale at least in part because of the waterways so local color is an easy recommendation platform for us.  Visitors fall in love with the area and lifestyle.  They are eager to take a piece of it home in the pages of a book.

Victoria – Well Read has been in business for 9 years. You must have seen great changes to the book selling business?

 

Donna – As we begin our tenth year, some of the choices made in year one have been validated – location, stocking local authors and topics, mixing new and used books.  The changes driven by e-readers will alter our inventory choices this year.

 

Victoria- I know it is impossible to predict where publishing and bookstores are headed but do you have a vision of what the future will hold for Well Read?

 

Donna – It is my hope that WELL READ will continue to meet the needs of area authors and readers.  I want to be in a position to introduce readers to new writers for a long time!

WELL READ is an independent bookstore with a focus on Fort Lauderdale visitors. Best sellers, Florida favorites and local maps bring in tourists. Recommendations and a great selection make them regulars. Travel essay, marine topics, international authors, and foreign language titles are all in stock. Just finished a book? Bring it along for trade credit toward your next read! Special event evenings. 

Conveniently located near the Convention Center, beach, airport, Causeway hotels, Port Everglades.

Well Read Books
1374 SE 17th St.

Fort Lauderdale, FL

954-467-8878

 

Thank you, Donna. As a customer of Well Read, I look forward to cruising back into port in Lauderdale and replenishing my book supply in the near future.

 

Victoria Allman has been following her stomach around the globe for twelve years as a yacht chef.  She writes about her floating culinary odyssey through Europe, the Caribbean, Nepal, Vietnam, Africa and the South Pacific in her first book, Sea Fare:  A Chef's Journey Across the Ocean.

SEAsoned: A Chef's Journey with Her Captain, Victoria's second book is the hilarious look at a yacht chef's first year working for her husband while they cruise from the Bahamas to Italy, France, Greece and Spain; trying to stay afloat.

Victoria has been a columnist for Dockwalk, an International magazine for crew members aboard yachts for the past three years.  Her column, Dishing It Up, is a humorous look at cooking for the rich and famous in an ever-moving galley.

She also regularly contributes tales of her tasty adventures to Marina Life, OnDeck Skipper and OceanLines.

You can read more of her food-driven escapades through her web-site, www.victoriaallman.com

 

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One of the Ultimate Liveaboard Adventurers

by Tom Tripp

Ultimately, the only tragic thing about Mike Harker's life was the young age of 64 at which he died, alone in a Caribbean anchorage, last April. The rest of his life was nothing but grand adventure, from his days as a water-skiing record-holder, to the years he spent helping to develop the sport of hang-gliding and para-gliding, to the final years of solo circumnavigation aboard his sailboats. And just to put the final touch on the grand image of this ultimate adventurer, he also happened to be a paraplegic; the result of a horrific hang-gliding crash in 1977 that broke 33 bones in his body, left him in the hospital for more than a year, and left him without the use of his legs.

I got to meet Mike Harker at the Miami boat show a couple of years ago when he returned from a 53-week solo circumnavigation aboard a production Hunter 49 sailboat, Wanderlust III. He had sailed a Hunter 466 back and forth across the Atlantic and Hunter Marine had supported him in a bid to take his new 49 on a speedy solo circumnavigation. His voyage went a long way in demonstrating the unexpected bluewater capabilities of the larger Hunter sailboats. He sailed over a thousand miles during several week-long segments, followed by a week off. Years of physical therapy had given him some minimal control over some of the smaller muscles of his inner thighs and he gained just enough mobility, as well as amazing upper body strength, to handle his boat.

Harker was a wild adventurer, but what you got from him when you met him was that what made him different from "normal" people was not his intellect, although it was strong; not his physical strength, he could barely stand; and not some special seamanship sense, although he could certainly handle a boat as well as anyone. What stood this paraplegic apart was mainly his spirit — a combination of optimism, self-confidence, and an almost limitless desire to live his life fully, without the shackles of fear, intimidation, indecision or regret.

In fact, his Facebook page had a quote attributed to Mark Twain that said, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." It may be that Twain never said that, but it doesn't really matter. For those of here at Write on The Water, it is at the least a kindred philosophy.

Mike Harker at Sea Aboard Wanderlust III

You can read all sorts of things about Harker at this Google search results page, and you can read a longer piece I wrote back in 2008 here.

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Those damn hurricanes!

Tropical storm Irene is heading our way and the forecast calls for it to become a category one hurricane by Thursday. Ft. Lauderdale is smack dab in the center of the cone, although most of the computer models show it swinging east so we may get lucky.

We've been bothered by hurricanes since we moved on board and brought the boat south. When we were in Mobile, AL, Hurricane Ivan just missed us. For Ivan we took our boat up the Mobile River to a great little hurricane hole. As you can see from the picture below, we weren't the only boat headed for the hole.

Fortunately, Ivan missed Mobile Bay and although there was enough wind to push the boat around and bury our keel in the mud a bit, a friend was able to pull us free. The worst thing about Ivan was coping with the moved and missing channel buoys on Mobile Bay.

The following year it was Katrina that provided the headaches. Katrina hit almost 200 miles away from Mobile so we decided not to go up the Mobile River, but rather to anchor up the Dog River. Big mistake. Katrina might have been a long distance away, but a twenty foot surge and winds of 95 MPH played havoc with the area. Boats that were on the hard were set loose and one of them hit Rough Draft. Our heavy duty bow roller was bent at a 45 degree angle, the main anchor was cut loose, and our boat, dragging the two smaller anchors, was set free. It ended up in someone's backyard.

So, although I would like to be working on the rewrite of my next book I need to start working on getting the boat ready in case Irene becomes a hurricane and heads our way. In Ft. Lauderdale there is no hurricane hole. We're up the canals behind an apartment building about a mile from the ocean. If it looks like we're going to get hit we'll pull off all of the canvas, take down the headsail, and tie off the boat across the canal. It's all we can do and we'll hope for the best.

 

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Best iPad Weather Apps

 

Squall building behind Reedville fishing boat

by Christine Kling

I admit it. I am a weather wuss. These summer thunderstorms bug the heck out of me.

A couple of days ago while anchored in Deltaville, we had a squall come through with 38 knots of wind. A Swiss double-ender dragged down on a big French catamaran and hooked his anchor on the cat's chain. As the gusts roared through the anchorage, the two boat owners were running around in the driving rain trying to get fenders between the two boats that were suddenly inextricably linked. They'd made an impromptu trimaran.

I live in fear of my boat dragging and everyone in the anchorage saying, "Oh, that stupid woman can't even set her anchor."

The iPad has turned into this worry wart's best friend this summer. I take it with me wherever I go as my weather-station-on-the-go. I admit to even taking it into the shoreside shower house. I set it up on the chair just outside the splash zone and pulled aside the curtain between my shampoo and conditioner to check the radar.

When I am underway using iNavX as my chart plotter at the helm, I often just touch the home button and shift over to check the radar for squalls anywhere in the vicinity (truth be told, I sometimes make a quick check of my email, too).  When entering Reedville a couple of days ago, I was watching the sky and the screen to determine where those dark clouds were headed.  And tonight, I am anchored in Solomons, but checking the radar as I write this blog.

Because I love the weather capabilities of the iPad so much, I have collected a fair number of weather apps. Tonight, when I searched the App Store specifically for for weather iPad apps, I got seven pages with about 160 apps per page. I certainly can't claim to have sampled them all, but then I really don't think I would have much use for Italy Weather XXL or Weather South Korea with Voice HD.

So here are the weather apps I have on my iPad. I should note that I have the 3G iPad with a real GPS chip in it and I can use that to ask most apps to find the weather for my location.

NOAA Buoy and Tida Data $1.99

This app gives information from the NOAA sea buoys. You can enter your lat and long, or simply ask the GPS to find the buoys nearest you. The split screen shows Wind speed and direction, air temp and pressure and water temp. It also shows a satellite photo of the buoy location. Tapping the forecast button takes you to NOAA's page for a forecast of that buoy area.

Weather+ $.99

This app is good for using as a weather clock sitting on your desk. It has beautiful graphics and really shows off the screen on the iPad, but it doesn't do much in the way of forecasting for the mariner.

Weatherbug Free

This app is good for a quick look at what's going on. I like the weather web cam shots at the top of the screen and the Doppler radar is very easy to see — and to scare oneself with. Tap the forecast list in the upper right of the screen and the forecast opens up with a more detailed week-long forecast. I use this app daily.

WunderMap Free

This has been my every day go to weather app for over a year. It might now be as showy in terms of graphics, but it has the best quick forecast of any of the apps here. The forecasts are updated frequently, so that when you leave in the morning and it tells you that you will have 5-10 knots of wind on your beam and two hours later when you have 18 knots on the nose, and you check to see if you read it right, it then forecasts 15-20 on the nose. Accuracy, like on all weather apps is best closest to the present moment.

What I like best is the Doppler weather that can be animated so you can tell the direction the squalls are headed. Also, weather alerts are visible via the tab at the bottom of the screen and the pop up screen gives you up to a four-day forecast.

eWeather Pro HD $1.99

This app may very well become my new favorite. I just downloaded it tonight and it has beautiful graphics and 10-day forecasts, alerts and information, as well as the ability to change between two different forecast sources. The Nexrad radar is animated and you can zoom out and still get excellent radar. It's nice to have two apps that use different radar sources. Locations can be input by GPS, zip code or browsing the location list.

Marine Weatherfax Viewer HD $4.99

This app shows weather fax information from 5 different locations with Boston being the one for the North Atlantic. Like all these apps, this one will only work when I am in range of the AT&T cellular network, but since I intend to be along the eastern seabird for the next several months, I decided it was worth the higher price. I am just learning how to interpret these wind wave and surface charts, but maybe once I learn, I'll be able to do a little more of my own weather forecasting.

Do any readers out there have favorite iOS weather apps?  I'm always looking to add more to my list.  Let me know about your fans in the comments.

Fair winds!

Christine

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In Doldrums…

C.E. Grundler

I've never been there, not yet at least, but when I was young I read about a region of calm winds, centered slightly north of the equator, known as the Doldrums, where the two belts of trade winds meet and neutralize one another. And while the Hudson River is nowhere near the equator, when I was ten years old and heading out to circle the globe in my eleven foot Snark, (at that age, everything is to scale, including ambition,) the Hudson Doldrums could put a halt to my voyage as effectively as my parents confiscating my centerboard, (their odd but highly effective way of 'grounding' me during the summer.) There I'd sit, glued to the glassy water, set in my fate as surely as the Ancient Mariner.

All in a hot and copper sky,

The bloody Sun, at noon,

Right up above the mast did stand,

No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

With no wind, my little boat might be trapped for days or weeks under the merciless July sun without making advance. I could run out of RC Cola and Cheez Doodles before ever reaching land-fall, especially if I kept sharing my lunch with the local albatross, (for good luck, of course,) though ultimately if I was adrift for too long or it was getting close to dinner, my parents would send my brother motoring over in the dinghy to tow me in. I don't think they ever realized that I wasn't really looking to be rescued.

For the next twenty years I continued to sail boats that lacked any form of mechanical propulsion. Even when I finally sailed a boat with an outboard on the stern, when the wind left me with an empty sail and no headway, firing up the motor was my absolute last resort. So long as time and safety permitted I'd simply sit, dead in the water. I'd grab a book from the cabin, put my feet up and kick back with that ultimate excuse to relax and go nowhere, my only motion a lazy roll as I drifted with the tide. It was also one of the reasons I preferred to sail alone; if I had any company aboard I'd be met with dismay, frustration or sarcasm.

"This is sailing?"

Actually, yes it is, in the truest sense. To sail is to move in harmony with the waves and the water. Sailing is to take the wind as it comes, to adjust our sails or to simply stare up at them as they hang limp and useless. Sitting in Doldrums, surrounded by that all encompassing stillness, drifting with the flow, lying back and gazing out at the water, scanning for any hint of a breeze stirring the surface… that is, indeed, sailing. Sails may be slack, but winds will return. They always do, and with sailing is an acceptance that there are forces beyond our control.

 

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Pirates in New England

The upside down flag is an internationally recognized sign of distress, a fact known particularly well to mariners. Imagine, then, the alarm caused by the sight of the skull and crossbones flying – and upside down at that – from the mast of this proper little New England yacht club.

A raid by Somalian pirates? While that might be your first thought, in this day of Google News and live Twitter reports word would have already spread on the news cycle, so that can't be it. A terrorist cell of pirates holed up on the coast of Rhode Island, too deep into their Captain Morgan to realize that the old Jolly Roger is flipped bottom-up? No, that's not it either, although Rhode Island has had its share of pirates (yeah, the hedge fund types, but real pirates, too). Thomas Tew? That pirate of record called Newport home. Captain William Kidd? Newport was a nice summertime pirate haven for him, as well.

But getting back to the upside down Jolly Roger – Not to worry, it was nothing other than a signal that the summer pirate race was cancelled due to weather.

The Pirate Race tradition in these parts is a fun way to get families, and kids in particular, on the water. Each year, a fleet of small boats departs and sails in a cluster close by a vessel that has been anointed as the pirate boat. In this case, the thunder of the pirates' cannons comes in the form of tennis balls that are cast from the pirate boat onto the sails and decks of other boats in the fleet. When those green fur balls marked Penn, Wilson, and Dunlap land in a boat's cockpit, that vessel becomes conscripted into the pirate navy and they proceed to launch tennis balls at the rest of the fleet until only one boat remains. The pirate race is nothing but fun and it's a great way to give young skippers a chance to exercise small boat handling. It's also a game of technique and strategy, just ask the kids that set out with tennis racquets and trash can covers in hand, ready to use their defensive tools to fending off incoming projectiles.

To the uninitiated this may all seem a bit unusual. But you are now fore-warned for the day when you see the pirate flag waving from the club, an eye-patched captain and his mates chucking tennis balls at a fleet zig-zagging little boats.

Pass-along if you will, but keep your distance lest you fall victim should you find a furry little ball in your cockpit.

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Backup and then backup again and . . .

In 1996, I moved for Los Angeles to Key West. My dog Phouka (pooka) in the front seat of my Chevy Celebrity and everything else I owned in the backseat, the trunk or on the roof. We didn't have flash drives or external hard drives then.  On my computer were two completed Mick Murphy Mysteries – REVENGE and Tijuana Weekend – and a half-finished story, unnamed and my attempt at thriller writing.

In September 1998, Hurricane Georges blew through the Keys and took my floating home with it, while Phouka and I evacuated Naples, Florida, something I haven't done since. I lost most everything, my personal library, my computer and most everything I owned. Gone were my novels. One of them, my thriller, There Are No Good Guys Only Terrorists, was told in the third person and dealt with renegade Israeli Mossad officers, posing as Arabs, arranging the training of Palestinians for attacks on hotels in Las Vegas. The Mossad officers believed if the US had a taste of what the people of Israel were going through the American government would let them fight the terrorists the way they wanted.

I recalled all this at Key West Island Books last Friday night at a book signing I called "The Lost Manuscripts." I have put both books on Kindle and Nook and on Amazon as trade paperbacks. Today, I have two external hard drives and a few flash drives as backups and thought I was safe from ever losing a manuscript again.

Ah, but few of us are as smart as we think! Mid-week I finished a few new chapters on Car Wash Blues, and was ready to put them into my "one document" copy that I consider my finished chapters – ready for a long read and rewrite.

Imagine my surprise when I opened chapter 48 and it was chapter 52. I somehow saved chapter 52 to ALL my backup copies. I couldn't even remember what the chapter was about, I was long past it. I read 47 and 49 and drew a blank. I went into my Norton back up program but it only had copies from the last back up date and by then chapter 48 had the chapter 52 document in it!

Well, it was a hair puller. I tried and tried, but kept coming up with chapter 52. I cussed myself like a drunken sailor for being so stupid as not to look at where I was saving my current work. Too late, to do any good and it didn't make me feel better.

What I eventually thought of doing was restore my computer to an earlier date. I found out I could do that to a document and not my whole C drive. I went back about two weeks and found chapter 48. I wanted to kiss the computer, I was so happy.

However, that didn't mean I wouldn't do something stupid again and all the backups in the world weren't gonna do me any good if they held the wrong document. I have promised myself to look at where I was saving my documents. Have you ever lied to yourself? Yeah, me too.

I have decided the only safe was is to make a hard copy and, if necessary, I can scan it in later.

So, what have I learned for this? Well, yeah, that I can be stupid, but I knew that long before this. I think I'd say I'd learned that you can never be safe enough in saving and protecting your writing. As of right now, the hard copy is my last defense.

If you have a secret that would help me, let me know and I won't tell a soul, promise.

Oh yeah, if I had "lost manuscripts" how'd I publish the books. Well somehow, God takes care of drunks, fools and Irishmen and I'm batting a thousand. Before leaving for Key West, I gave my sister a floppy disc, just in case I got in an accident in my drive across country. Of course, There Are No Good Guys . . . wasn't one of the stories on the floppy. But, I had three of the four, a moment of sanity in another wise insane life when I made that floppy copy! And, I am thankful that I have a sister that keeps the things I leave behind.

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Wes Darling is back!

It's time for a little self-promotion today. My new book, Dog River Blues (A Wes Darling Mystery), is now available. Dog River Blues is the sequel to Key Lime Blues (A Wes Darling Mystery).

If you read Key Lime Blues (A Wes Darling Mystery), or The Storm Killer, I hope you'll give Dog River Blues (A Wes Darling Mystery) a try.

If you haven't tried one of my books, here's what you'll find in Dog River Blues (A Wes Darling Mystery):

A sexy relative who wants to teach Wes Darling the meaning of kissin' cousins, a priceless centuries old manuscript, a three hundred pound redneck, and an ex-spy who thinks murder is a justifiable means of support are just a few of the things awaiting Wes when he sails into the Dog River in search of answers about the father he never knew.

Dog River Blues blends the mystique of the liveaboard boating lifestyle and the colorful

characters and vagabonds who live, work, and sometimes commit murder on our nation's

waterways. This is one voyage to Mobile, Alabama you don't want to miss.

Also available at Barnes and Noble. Click Link to purchase: Dog River Blues for the nook.

Click link, Dog River Blues, to purchase at Smashwords for Sony, Kobo, or Ipad.

 

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