Annette Oppenlander
Well, I wish I could say I've got lots of ideas. But after thinking about it for a while, I'm not coming up with much.
However, I did experience some pretty exciting episodes. One was a sailing trip on a 40-foot yacht in the mid 1980s. We were eight students - none of us knew each other very long - and only two knew how to sail this vessel. Our plan: sail around the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean.
We took off with great expectations, but soon found that a wind from the African coast was pushing waves extremely high. We had to crisscross for hours and each time, the boat was on top of a wave, the propeller was in the air. We took all sails down and hooked ourselves to the ship because the wind continued to increase. The western coast of Corsica is pretty rocky and offers few opportunities to get away from the wind.
To make a story short, this was the day I thought I'd die. When you're 24 years old, that's pretty sobering. I realized I was at the mercy of two young men who I hardly knew. And as you can see, we didn't die. We made it back after eight hours of sailing and I haven't been on a sail boat since.
I hope this little episode makes up for the lack of mystery ideas. :)
However, I did experience some pretty exciting episodes. One was a sailing trip on a 40-foot yacht in the mid 1980s. We were eight students - none of us knew each other very long - and only two knew how to sail this vessel. Our plan: sail around the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean.
We took off with great expectations, but soon found that a wind from the African coast was pushing waves extremely high. We had to crisscross for hours and each time, the boat was on top of a wave, the propeller was in the air. We took all sails down and hooked ourselves to the ship because the wind continued to increase. The western coast of Corsica is pretty rocky and offers few opportunities to get away from the wind.
To make a story short, this was the day I thought I'd die. When you're 24 years old, that's pretty sobering. I realized I was at the mercy of two young men who I hardly knew. And as you can see, we didn't die. We made it back after eight hours of sailing and I haven't been on a sail boat since.
I hope this little episode makes up for the lack of mystery ideas. :)
More Answered Questions
Goodreads
asked
Annette Oppenlander:
If you could travel to any fictional book world, where would you go and what would you do there?
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more