A HUGE thanks to my many pre-release readers for taking the time to review my little rock (which has since been polished to a gem!), provide substantive feedback, help me pinpoint and correct some errors and help shape this story into the enlightening, funny, entertaining piece it is today. I couldn’t have done it without you all. Plus, it was fun to welcome you all into my world (busy, ain’t it?) and share this writing process with you. I hope to write TWO books while I’m crossing the Atlantic!
Now, for the fun TRIVIA. A free signed hard copy (proof above — I’ve got ’em in hand) goes to the first HaveWind follower to answer correctly in a comment on the blog below:
What was the dish we made during this hapless crew’s first passage together on our Niagara back in 2013 that gave our good buddy Mitch such tummy troubles?
I hope you enjoy this story. I definitely saw myself in Mitch many, many times. We’ve all been there! Boats (particularly old but new-to-you ones) can give you plenty of grief!
Enjoy the salty sequel! I now have three! How cool is that?
First he was in shock, then he was angry. Other times he denied it ever happened. But it was one hell of an entertaining journey helping deliver this Nonsuch and watch as the old gal gave our buddy Mitch (Mr. “While You’re Down There” from Salt of a Sailor) plenty of grief. This is the trailer for my new book that will be coming out this May! There will be none such like it, I promise! So, two exciting opportunities to get an early sneak peek before the BIG public launch later this month:
FIRST: Patrons get free pre-release eCopies! If you have been thinking about Becoming a Patron but have not yet, what the heck are you waiting for?!Also, there are some really cool Atlantic-crossing updates up on Patreon now listing our official crew for the passage (we are now up to FOUR), as well as a virtual tour of the boat, our planned long-shift/short shift watch schedule and, coming this week, results from our Captain’s testing of the satellite tracker while strapped in the cockpit of a jet. WHOA.
Oh, but back to the Nonsuch book (sorry, the Patreon stuff is kind of super exciting … ; )
SECOND: I will also be giving away a pre-release eCopy to the first TEN FOLKS who comment on this blog post saying “Heck yeah, send me a free early copy!”
In exchange for the free eCopy, all I ask is you read the book over the next couple of weeks and post an honest review on Amazon when she goes live later this month (likely May 25th, although that may have to wiggle around some of our Atlantic-crossing preparations). It helps with Amazon’s crazy analytics if the review comes from a “Verified Purchase,” so I will discount the book the first week (only $2.99) so you all can buy a quick $3 copy then post your review. The purchase part is not required, merely requested, to help with Amazon marketing. The book is yours for free regardless. Sound like a good deal? Alrighty then ….
Who all wants a pre-release eCopy? First TEN folks to comment below win. Ready? GO!
Hey kids! I’ve got so many exciting things going on and so much to share with you, I’m kind of stretching at the seams. Life is so full for this little sailor right now. While I do have big news I will be sharing soon, I have some almost-as-big news that I will be sharing NOW:
I’ve got my next book in the works!
It’s going to be a fun, quick read covering our colorful passage with the infamous Mr. “While You’re Down There” from Salt of a Sailor when we helped him bring his 30′ Nonsuch back home across the Gulf in June of last year. As a little treat for you all and continued thanks for your support through the blog, Amazon, YouTube and Patreon, I thought I would share with you a sneak peek of the working title, Prologue and photos I’m considering for the cover. I give you …
NONE SUCH LIKE HIM:
Mr. “While You’re Down There” Buys a Boat
Anyone else I could understand, but this was Mitch, Mr. “While You’re Down There.” There are just some people you know─and they can be very close friends, hearts of gold, good, salt of the earth people─but you just know, they should not own a boat. It’s just not a good fit.
Mitch can’t sit still for five minutes. He cannot not ask questions any time you do anything. “What’s that?” “Where does it go?” “Why are you turning it?” He’s got the best of intentions but he’s also got some sort of halo filter around his head that makes him perceive only his surroundings, only his emergencies. “Patience is a … “ you can start to say, but he’ll cut you off before you finish with a “Hang on,” a “Hold this,” or “Move.”
I know all of this because Mitch was the third member of our rookie crew during the shakedown of all shakedowns, when Phillip and I sailed our recently-purchased 1985 Niagara 35 back from Punta Gorda, Florida across the Gulf of Mexico to Pensacola in 2013. I say “rookie” because there were so many things the three of us had not done, or had not done together, which would have better prepared us for the passage. I, for one, had never sailed. Aside from a one-hour romp on another boat Phillip and I had looked at before settling on the Niagara, this would be the second sail of my entire life. That meant I had no sailing experience, no offshore experience, no experience to speak of at all. Everything was new to me. Sometimes I still have to wonder why Phillip let me come along. Maybe to clean and cook?
While Mitch had some sailing experience, he had never been on an offshore passage and he and Phillip had never sailed together, nor had he sailed a boat like ours. While Phillip was the most experienced of the three of us in handling a boat like ours, he had never captained a boat on an offshore passage and had never been on a passage this long before. And, as Phillip repeatedly stressed: “Every boat is different.” Meaning, no matter how much experience you may have, each time you step aboard a boat you’ve never sailed before, there is a learning curve. So, the three of us─Phillip, Mitch and I─were sailing a boat we had never sailed before, with a crew that had never sailed together before on a passage none of us had undertaken before. Nothing could go wrong, right? Wrong.
Plenty did and, while I’m not sure I would want it to all play out the same way again, it did make for one hell of a story. And, at the beating heart of it was him: Mr. “While You’re Down There.” He was easily the most colorful character on that trip, the loudest too. And while Phillip and I both will be forever grateful for his help in bringing our boat back home in mostly one piece, to be honest, the thought of Mitch with his own boat kind of frightened us. It’s just such a huge commitment. It’s a huge money pit. Plus, it’s huge! The image of Mitch barreling up to our boat in some thirty-plus foot tank shouting and trying to raft up gave me nightmares. “Hang on!” “Hold this!” “Move!” Then I woke to the sound of crunching fiberglass.
But it did not matter how many times we tried to tell him we just didn’t think it would be the right move for him. “Try a charter for the weekend,” we told him. “Don’t jump right into this,” we warned. It did not work. Mitch set his sights on a boat down in Ft. Myers, put in an offer sight unseen, hit the road and just went ahead and bought a boat while he was down there. Only Mitch.
But Phillip and I knew we had a debt to pay. Mitch had stepped up when no one else had or could to help us bring our beautiful Niagara back from south Florida, so he knew we would step up and do the same for him when it came time to bring his own boat home across the Gulf. While I was a little worried, I was mostly intrigued, entertained by the idea of making this passage again, this time with Mitch as the Captain. I knew one thing for sure. It would probably make for one hell of a story.
How about it? You ready to turn the page? I’m excited to hear what you think!
Cover Photos: Here are the cover photos I am considering as well. I have numbered them for easy voting, so please let me know in a comment below which one you like the best! Writing books … such fun! Happy to have you all along for the ride.
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Eenie Meenie Miney Moe. Which do you like best? Let me know!
Another interview? You’d think I would have run out of things to talk about. But, Jeffrey Wettig with Shooting the Breeze Podcast by EscapePods.com definitely hit me with some very interesting questions that made me think twice. One was whether I had always had a dream to cast off and cruise or whether it was a newly-discovered desire during my adult years. I found it hard to say, really. In my childhood days in the flats of New Mexico I would have imagined myself riding off on Star Bright’s rocking rainbow pony and starting a Dude Ranch. Doesn’t quite look like cruising, but maybe there’s a common vibe there in that I was drawn toward breaking away from the norm.
Jeffrey also got me talking about what I worried about in writing Keys to the Kingdom which was an interesting conversation. I often wonder whether perhaps I’m too young and inexperienced in life to try and inspire people to consider cruising but the drive to share this lifestyle with folks always takes over and I just put it out there anyway. There will always be people who don’t like what you do no matter what you do. It has touched me to hear from even just the handful of people who have reached out to me and told me what an impact Keys had on their lives and outlook. That, in my book (no pun intended), is the ultimate measure of success, so thank you all for the continued support and encouragement.
Overall, I had a great time chatting with Jeffrey and discussing some of the more unspoken elements of my writing and lifestyle change. I hope you enjoy it. Big thanks to Jeffrey, again, for reaching out to me and putting this together!
“With a female lawyer lead, perhaps she drinks a lot and has a dark past, something like that.”
A follower recently told me this after reading Keys to the Kingdom and I had to laugh at the irony of it (and share it with you all, of course). Here’s the thing: I already have. See!
I thought I would take a moment─when I have finally found time to take a breath after completing Keys, publishing her and the epic launch─to sit down and tell you all yet another story, about the beginnings of my writing career (I feel bold enough now to call it that) and my very first book. This may surprise you, but it was not Salt of a Sailor. So, where did all of this writing mess begin? Did I spend my elementary days scribbling little stories and tidbits and telling my teachers and peers I was going to be America’s next great novelist? No. I didn’t know what the word ‘novelist’ meant in elementary. But I did scribble! Often and in excessive, erratic bouts. Seriously, I did write an awesome little five-chapter Sweet Valley High Twins-type drama when I was ten (complete with cover art) and wrote to my favorite children’s book author, Jan Brett─author of The Mitten, best children’s book EVER!─telling her how I wanted to someday become a writer!
The point is I did have the desire, when I was a child, to make a living writing stories. I recently had a podcast interviewer (shout out to Jeffrey Wettig with Shooting the Breeze Podcast) ask me a question I had yet to be asked in an interview: “Did you always have the desire to write and travel and did it just lie dormant for some time or was it a desire that was only born recently?” Particularly with the writing, my answer had to be “Yes.” I had wanted to write as a child. There’s undeniable proof in my stack of tattered scrapbooks buried in the closet. But, why exactly this desire grew dormant was hard for me to answer. As I told Jeffrey, I believe it just seemed too whimsical and silly. Growing up in our little ranch house in New Mexico, we lived paycheck to paycheck so one of my primary goals was to go to college, get a degree so I could embark on a lucrative career, make good money and live a comfortable life. It just seemed that was what you were supposed to want to do and so I did it. You can read how well that turned out for me in Keys to the Kingdom.
While the decision to implode my life as I then knew it and start anew was easy to make, what exactly I wanted to do with my new-found freedom, however, was not. My only goal was to live a life that made me happy. Meaning, whatever I did to make money needed to be something I enjoyed doing. While writing always flitted on the outskirts of my brain as a distant possibility, thinking with my frontal lawyer lobe at the time, it seemed laughable, a fool’s goal, not something I could really be successful at. I pushed the thought aside and without any other serious, more respectable prospects on the horizon, I stayed with the practice a while longer, shuffling day to day in this wasteful purgatory, knowing I didn’t like what I was doing but not knowing what else I could feasibly do to … you know … not starve. What you may know from my Salt of a Sailorand Keys that it was around this time that I met Phillip (thank the ever-loving stars above) but what you may not know is it was his idea that I should write.
As I was living in Mobile, Alabama at the time and he in Pensacola, our relationship started out a bit long-distance as we began communicating daily via email. I would usually start my stress-racked lawyer day, around 6:00 a.m. at my desk, by writing him a quick email recounting what I felt were pretty mindless, meaningless happenings─a woman I watched in the grocery check-out line the night before, an interaction with a witness I had worked with yesterday, a boy I saw standing outside my apartment. Just little things that I would tell him about, adding my own observations and insights and, after several weeks of this, Phillip said something that really surprised me.
“You should write.”
I should write … It was as if the thought struck me for the first time. As if I hadn’t spent my childhood dreaming about that very prospect. As if I hadn’t boldly written my favorite author and told her I was going to do just that! Where had I gone? Where did I stow that desire? Surely it had been here all these years? Sitting somewhere, dusty on a shelf in my mind? Those types of deep-seated aspirations don’t just disappear. But it felt as if I was considering the premise for the first time. I guess in a way I was─as an adult. I should write, I finally let the thought marinate around a bit. Write what? That was the first question that sprung to mind. I didn’t yet see any real future in it but without any other income ideas and in desperate need of a creative outlet, my only hold-up was the “what” not the “why.”
The first idea that popped into my head? A legal fiction, with a female lead who perhaps drinks a lot and has a dark past, something like that. Now you see the irony! Whoever “they” are, they say it: You have to write what you know. This is true because a) it’s just easier, if you know it, it pours out of you; but also b) if you don’t know it, it shows. So, what did I know? I knew legal battles, courtroom drama, the day-to-day struggles of a female associate in a male-dominated firm. I was going to be the next John Grisham! No one had ever written a book with a female lawyer lead and a juicy love plot. EVER! I was delusional. But I was also motivated. I was inspired and invigorated by this new prospect. And, so I did it. I started writing, again in excessive, erratic doses and I felt so young again. It was the first time in my adult life that my creative side was finally, once again, truly awakened. Any spare time I had at work, I would shut my door and write. I wrote in the mornings, on my lunch break, sometimes over the course of the entire evening and two bottles of wine.
Phillip got me a book around that time that I devoured in one day and that I highly recommend to any budding author out there: No Plot, No Problem. It is the book that began the now widely-acclaimed annual publishing contest, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The premise of the book? Just write. Let it pour out. Let it be crap. Let it embarrass you how bad it is. That’s fine! Just get it out. That book unlocked me and I shocked both myself, Phillip and several of my closest friends by writing an entire novel over the course of about one month. Was it the best book I will ever write? Probably not. But, was it crap? Surprisingly no. Far from it. It was just grossly unedited. But, had I done it? Written a serious, 90,000 word novel with actual characters who went places and did and felt things and who interacted and created a plot with a legitimate beginning, middle and climactic end? Yeah, I had. I really had. I give you … (drumroll please) … A CIVIL AFFAIR.
I knew then and there, when I had completed her that Phillip was (well almost) right. It wasn’t that I should write. I must!
With this simple goal now in mind and an over-zealous confidence in my ability to write books that would actually sell, I finally made the decision to leave the practice and take the first big steps toward this new lofty writer/world-traveler goal. So, what happened with that earth-shattering masterpiece that was going to turn the literary world on its head? Surely A Civil Affair was picked up by an agent, published in fourteen countries, translated into two languages with movie rights in the works. Yeah, that’s what happened. Except that it didn’t. I simply must say, in my humble experience, which may differ greatly from that of the truly talented scribes out there, if you want to make it as a writer (and, I mean, really make it), there is one word you have to get extremely used to. That word is “NO.” Because you’re going to hear it. A lot. Especially in the beginning. I sent many queries off for my novel. If you’re not familiar with those, they’re basically a little three-paragraph preview (think a trailer for a movie) of your novel and why you think it’s the next great thing, and why you’re going to be the next great literary all-star. You email that little blurb to literary agents, and if they like your “book trailer,” they may ask to see a couple chapters of the book, and then perhaps the whole thing, and then perhaps they’ll sign you up and try to get you published.
After I completed the novel and felt like it was sufficiently edited, (which meant I read through it a couple of times but which I now know requires approximately 28 read-throughs, 2 backwards and THEN still a final read-through and thorough edit by a paid editor) I sent dozens of queries off. In batches of ten at first, then batches of twenty. As I sit here writing this blog post today, I believe I have sent over two hundred queries total for A Civil Affair. Which doesn’t mean I received two hundred no’s. One of the more excruciating aspects of the query regimen is that most agents don’t have time, even, to tell you no. If they’re not smitten with your eQuery, they simply delete it. No response. So, you, the nail-biting, budding author, have to simply make a chart of the queries you’ve sent out and after a certain period of silence, assume those that did not respond, aren’t interested. Sounds heartless, but it’s really not. As some of these agents’ websites advise, they often receive hundreds of queries a week, if not a day. It seems lots of people out there think they’re good at this writing thing and all eighty million of them are sending in queries just like you. The agencies simply don’t have the manpower to respond. So, I get that. And, that’s fine. I spent months and months, which eventually added up to two years’ time, sending in queries. And, while I had a few agents bite and three agents ask to read my complete manuscript, the final answer was, “You’re a strong writer with a unique voice, but it’s just not the right fit for me.” Pish tosh.
I had a lot of friends tell me then, “Well, they say the lady that wrote The Help was turned down like a hundred times before she got published.” And, that was encouraging, until my “turn-down” number approached one hundred and sailed right on by it. Each time, it was no, no, no. It definitely gave me a nice humble base to work from when I read another one of my favorite books about writing─Stephen King’s On Writing─an exceptionally motivating tool for any other budding authors out there. This is like writing advice in the form of your best friend telling you you’ve put on some unsightly pounds and you need to get your fat ass off the couch and go jogging. You know it already. You don’t want to hear it, but you know you need to heed the advice. And, once you get up and start jogging and looking better, you’re infinitely grateful for the kick in the ass. King’s premise: Writing is hard. There is no shortcut. It takes a ton of time and patience and a hundred rewrites. If you’re not up for that, sit back down on the couch.
But what Stephen King said about his experience with the no’s really grabbed me. He used to keep every rejection letter he received for short stories he submitted, mostly to sci-fi magazines and other similar publications, and punch them onto a nail in the wall next to the desk where he wrote. He received so many rejection letters, King finally had to upgrade to a railroad spike which he hammered into the wall where the nail once stood and started pressing the letters onto it. Now, if that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is. I kept picturing King hammering away on that spike, the sound of the hammer hitting the head, over and over, splintering through his attic, thinking Jesus! This man believed so completely in himself and his talents that he was practically building a shrine to the idiots out there who were telling him no. And, that worked for me. Screw those fools! Where’s my hammer?
Unfortunately, all of the no’s I received were via email, so they didn’t make quite the visual appearance as King’s physical letters jammed on the spike, but my own teetering eStack was at least a sign of my continued attempts and the agents’ continued idiocy (or their mere personal, and likely well-founded, dislike of my first attempt at a novel─po-tay-to, po-tah-to). I finally decided, whether I’m good enough to make a living out of writing is not what I needed to focus on. I knew I enjoyed doing it, good or not, so I was going to continue to do it, agent or not. I had been writing this blog for about six months at that time and felt I had finally found my voice. While fiction can be fun, I believe my talent is in telling my real-life stories in my natural voice, as if I were speaking to a friend over some rum drinks, with all of the necessary curse words and Annie-isms. Frankly, when I began writing initially, I just didn’t know you could do that. Write just like you talk. Apparently you can. Apparently you can write however the hell you want. Who knew? But if you want the book to actually sell, you have to be smart about the marketing. With the blog stroking my mojo, I decided to shelf A Civil Affair for a while so I could write a non-fiction humorous sailing book and─Voila!─Salt of a Sailor was born.
Rather than beat my head against the wall of two hundred no’s this time, with Phillip’s continued encouragement and creative business perspective, I decided to self-publish. Free from any restrictions, contractual obligations, complicated licensing grants or deadlines, I simply put my work out there, when I want to and in the manner I want to, for the masses to enjoy. If some folks buy it, read and enjoy it, great. If not, c’est la vie. It’s like throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks. Highly liberating if you ask me. And, once I did it with Salt, I knew I wanted to dust off my first book─my initial writing warrior─edit her the right way and put her out there as well, whether she sold or not, simply because I was proud of her. You never forget your first, right? Who says that?Is it those annoying “they” people again? How do they know so much?
See! She goes with me to all the book signings!
I tell all of you this because I have so many followers reach out to me and say they, too, want to write a book and I always tell them─”Awesome. I can’t wait to read it.” Because I can’t. I think anyone who feels so inclined should write their own book. Everyone has a story to tell but not everyone wants to make a living out of story-telling. Why? Because the writing is easy. It’s the other 90%─the marketing─that’s the real bear. I often refer these budding authors to an article I wrote recently for a fellow blogger: Market First, Write Second. If my two-hundred no’s and lackluster launch of Salt of a Sailor have taught me anything, it’s that. The marketing is 90% of it. While I do not plan to ever put together a big marketing launch for A Civil Affair, I am always proud to talk about her, my first book, my first attempt and my first big lesson in writing.
The same is true about sailing. It’s all about trying. The only way to learn what works (and, more importantly, what does not) is to try your hand at it, make some mistakes and learn from them. I sure learned a lot from my first book. There she stands, high and mighty, right next to my two bestsellers, not nearly as well-read, but with her chest puffed out just the same.
Is she a good read? Absolutely. Is she comparable to a John Grisham thriller? I’ve been told so. Now, do I plan to write more fiction? Probably some day. Unless I’m untimely plucked from this grand earth, I’ve got decades of writing days ahead of me, so why not? Although it will be some time as I have already begun my third sailing book in the same voice and tone as Salt and Keys─more on that to come!! But, maybe I should ask that question of you. As is the case with any of my books, shoot me an email asking for a free copy and she’s yours. Feel free to give A Civil Affair a FREE READ and let me know if you agree:
Should I write fiction?
Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.
Merry Christmas kids! As thanks for your support and encouragement this year … a FREE eCopy of (the still #1 bestseller) Keys to the Kingdom. Shoot me an email between now an NYE and she’s yours! — anniedike@gmail.com.
Also, enjoy this fun outtakes reel over the holiday. Roll that Video Annie footage!
Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.
This is it … the BIG launch. I’ve never launched a book before. I was worried I was going to hit the wrong button! Thankfully, I didn’t and she’s now LIVE on Amazon and Kindle just waiting for you to pick her up on discount this week — only $2.99 on Kindle. I put a lot of sweat and soul into this one. It will knock your boots off, I promise. Hurry, GO!
I can’t wait to hear what you think. Please leave an Amazon review when you finish!
And, in honor of this momentous occasion, a special video treat for you. Some very rare footage kids … from my last legal battle. Duh, duh, duuuhhhnnn. Enjoy!
A thousand thanks to my Patrons who have made this entire career/life/attitude change possible and have helped me inspire more people. Get inspired. Get on board.
Ever dream about quitting the corporate life? Lose the lock by finding the key. Learn how I escaped in my new book — Keys to the Kingdom — coming December 2015. Sign up to follow for pre-release updates and giveaways.
Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.
Hello followers. This is the first time I’m sending a mass email (via the blog and MailChimp) and I’m kind of nervous, excited, anxious, but I just had to do it! I can’t keep this bottled up anymore. I’ve finished my new book and I want (nay, need!) to share. My gift to you for following and your continued support: a free preview (the first four chapters) of Keys to the Kingdom.
Drop everything right now and read it! Or, wait until you’ve at least pulled over, shut your office door, or whatever you have to do, but then read it! I can’t wait to hear what you think! Enjoy!
Be sure to check out these other freebies too:
1. Sign up at HaveWindWillTravel.com to get a free preview of the prequel to Keys to the Kingdom, my #1 Amazon bestseller in sailing books: Salt of a Sailor.
2. So you can be caught up on the salty chronicle by the time the new book releases, jump on Amazon November 25, 2015 and get a FREE Kindle copy of Salt of a Sailor. That’s a whole day of free-ness. Get on it people! Happy Thanksgiving!
3. “Signed copies make great Christmas gifts!” says the author. Put in your pre-release hard copy orders of Keys to the Kingdom–only $20 and I will cover the shipping (anywhere in the U.S.). Email me the mailing address and any inscription you would like: anniedike@gmail.com.
Next week, I’ll pick back up with the Nonsuch saga. In blog time, Mitch, Phillip and I have brought the boat all the way up from Ft. Myers to Clearwater and we’re about to make the BIG jump across the Gulf to Apalachicola. Click HERE if you would like to read the Nonsuch saga from the beginning.
Thanks to my Patrons who help me share the journey. Get inspired. Get on board.