Getting there...

The slow progress of self-publishing my Viking novel, Fin Gall: A Novel of Viking Age Ireland goes on, in much the same manner as one of my favorite Far Side cartoons, pirated above. Cover art is done, but for some reason I can't seem to copy and paste it, but I'm sure I will be able to down the line. I'm having quite a bit of fun with this process, I have to admit.

I've been thinking a lot about the great upheavals in publishing these days. Publishers are getting cheaper and not doling out the advances like they once did, and I have to guess that has to do in part with e-books cutting into their profit margins, never great to begin with. The ease of self-publishing removes the traditional filters of agent and editor, which means anyone can get their books in print, for better or worse, but also puts more books in the marketplace, thus making it harder for any one individual to earn a living. Illegal distribution is suddenly a real problem like it never was when books were just in print format. It's like pick-up sticks, you can't move one thing without effecting everything else.

But don't get me started....

I've been talking with my old friend George Jepson about an article along these lines in his wonderful newsletter The Quarterdeck, put out by McBooks Press, and an absolute must read for anyone who loves maritime fiction. You can follow the link to subscribe.

All right, coffee break is over. Back on your heads.

So why is it...

First big snow of the Winter, 2012/2013

...the tarp that you so laboriously cover your boat with sits placidly, completely enveloping the vessel in its protective bounty until the weather turns to snow or rain, i.e. when you actually need the tarp to do something, and then it peels aside and invites all manner of precipitation aboard?

My wife points out that snow and rain storms are often accompanied by high winds that might tend to displace a tarp that was not as well lashed down as it might have been. I don't see the connection. She always takes the tarp's side.

Honestly, I don't know why Maine ever chose the Tattered Blue Tarp as the State flag.

This You Gotta See...

Okay, maybe not this... I am trying to get my books read by a better sort than those who might normally pick them up. At the St. Benedict Abbey in Massachusetts on retreat with my family. Had a wonderful time there. Here I'm giving a copy of Fire and Sword to Brother Joachim or, as the kids called him, BroJo. I am, as I mentioned before, working on a novel about Vikings and I often had an overwhelming urge to sack the place, but I resisted. I guess I'm looking a little Viking-like in this picture. And actually, I notice Brother Joachim is not looking entirely comfortable standing next to me...

Which makes a nice segue into what I really wanted to share, by far the funniest and most clever thing I have seen in a long time. How the Nativity come down today. This is very funny.

And a Merry Christmas, or whatever you may celebrate, to all!

Thanksgiving Hunter/Gatherer

 

Harking back to the old days when men went out and killed what they ate...

In this case rutabagas.

Thanksgiving morning I braved the cold and led my children out on a rutabaga hunt, manfully killed one and brought it back for my wife to cook.

Okay, strictly speaking my wife showed me where in the garden the rutabagas were, and I went out with the kids, my son dug them up while my daughter took pictures of herself and I supervised the whole operation. But you get the idea.

Something I swore I would never do...

You know, when you're young and don't have a lot of life experience you have plenty of opportunity to swear you will never do certain things and then do them anyway. Sometimes you realize you were right the first time - you should never have done that - and sometimes you wonder what took you so long to give it a try.

The older you get, the more experience you accumulate and the fewer chances you have to do that sort of thing.

But here I am, getting ready to do Something I Swore I Would Never Do - self publish a book.

I've had this novel of Vikings in Ireland in my virtual drawer for years. It never found a publisher. I always thought it was pretty good, and reading it over again, I still think it's pretty good. So, damn it, I'm going to publish it myself. It's so bloody easy these days (for better or worse).

More as I move though the process...

Work, Work, Work...

Just got back from the latest tough work assignment, two weeks as a guest lecturer aboard the cruise ship Yorktown. We sailed from Quebec to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, stopping at a number of ports on the St. Lawrence and the Canadian Maritimes. But lest anyone think this was all fun and games, I had to give four lectures over the course of two weeks!

More pictures to come, illustrating the unremitting labors of the struggling author.

Hard work in Halifax. Had dinner ashore and was forced to choke down a non-Maine lobster, but I managed. Photo courtesy of fellow passengers Lynn and Kathy Stokes

What I Did on My Summer Vacation...

Just got back from a great trip to Ireland and Scotland with my younger son, Jack. My sister lives in Ireland in the summers, so we visited her and we all went by car and ferry to Scotland. On the wrong side of both the road and the channel! (turns out they don't do the Red Right Returning thing in Europe. Or anywhere but the U.S. of A. Good thing they didn't ask me to navigate).

Here are some photos...



In the Scottish Highlands. Happily I am not wearing a kilt.

Me and Jack at Loch Ness (yes, that Loch Ness)

Jack on a boat on Loch Ness. We didn't even realize what the camera had caught in the background!

Haggis!

More Haggis!