Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Tag: creative writing

Three Years after Publishing “Plunge” – Where Am I with My Book?

It’s been a while since I posted an update about the life and sales of my first – and so far, only – travel memoir, Plunge. That post appeared in June 2023; you can read it here.

The idea was to share a bit more news three years in, but I have been extremely busy with our traveling lifestyle and other blog posts, so this one is a few months late. I published Plunge on November 28th, 2020 (on my 45th birthday and in the midst of the Covid pandemic), which is now three years and three months ago.

As you can imagine, not much exciting is happening this far into the shelf life of my (or any) book. Sales are close to non-existent, reviews have pretty much come to a halt, and I am not putting any effort in promotion and marketing anymore. Not because I’m not motivated, but because I have limited time to work and that time is better spent making “real” money.

In July of 2023, the wonderfully supportive and encouraging author Sally Cronin published an excerpt of Plunge on her website Smorgasbord, which gained some traction. I answered the comments and sold a few books as a result.

The biggest and most powerful event in 2023 also took place in July of that year. A CNN article about us, written by Francesca Street for the Chance Encounters series, became very popular and successful. Some of you might have read it – or stumbled upon it – before. You can read that “love story” here. As it was big news at the time, I mentioned the article and reactions previously on my blog here.

Upon my request, Francesca included a link to our blog and – more importantly – my memoir, which jumped off the charts as a result.

Continue reading

IWSG Monthly Writing Update – A Short One!

Every first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) encourages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement or anything really about their writing.  Since August, the IWSG would like to see a particular question answered in each blog post. This month that question is “How do you know your story is ready?”

This IWSG post will be one of the shortest I have ever written, for a very simple reason: I have not worked on my book at all during the month of September. Not a word written, not a page edited, not an exercise practiced. Nada. Nothing! The good thing is that I do not feel bad or guilty about it. Mark and I knew September would be a crazy month, what with moving out of the last house where we took care of Jenny, the dog, and the maple farm for five months, our five-day vacation in Acadia, spending some quality time at our home base in Newburyport seeing friends and family, running errands and going to doctor appointments, and an unexpected week-long house sit on Cape Cod. That concluded September!

Even writing a blog has not always been easy in September!

Even writing a blog has not always been easy in September!

Continue reading

IWSG Monthly Writing Update – Lots of Time, but Little Progress

Every first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) encourages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement or anything really about their writing.  Since August, the IWSG would like to see a particular question answered in each blog post. This month that question is “How do you find the time to write in your busy day?”

When Mark and I were cruising full-time on our sailing catamaran Irie for eight years, there was not much time (or electricity or internet availability) to write. I focused mainly on cranking out a sailing article once in a while, making notes about our travels and experiences, and creating about one blog a week on It’s Irie. One of the main reasons we left that boating lifestyle was to focus on our “careers”. The extra time, comfort and amenities a more settled life offers would certainly help with that. Continue reading

Recap of My Book Writing

Every first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) encourages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement or anything really about their writing. Starting this month, they have added a question as a prompt to get the juices flowing: “What’s the best thing someone has ever said about your writing?” It has been a while since my last “book update”, so today is a good day for some insights and an answer to that question.

The Background

As some of you know, my biggest passion is traveling. Since graduating at 22, I have been on the road or on the water full-time for 14 out of the 18 years. I’m not sure whether to count our current lifestyle of house and pet sitting as traveling, since we are semi-settled “abroad” (for me anyway), but still explore different parts of the country while at it.

The other thing I have been doing most of my life is write. I have always enjoyed writing and have been pretty engrossed by it since I started my first diary at the age of 10. Continue reading

The Idea of a Book

DSC03792I have always – jokingly – said “One day, I will write a book”. When people suggested “You should write a book,” I laughed it off with a “suuuure!”  People say a lot of things. Everyone who travels frequently or extensively has friends suggesting the book idea. And, a lot of people do write books! If you want to dive into a book project, you have to at least like to write, and, ideally, you are good at it as well… Continue reading

© 2024 Roaming About

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑