The Sailor@60

First blog.

This sailor will be reborn a senior citizen on Saturday the 25th of November 2006. To check the status of my life, you can visit my website at douglasarvidson.com. There's a brief look, a peek if you will, into my world: living aboard a beautiful sailboat on the tropical island of Guam with my life's companion, a sailor, too, and brave and strong (braver than I am, at least and for certain), and our two cats.

We've been here nine years teaching, sailing, traveling around the world by planes, trains, and automobiles, making very fine friends, and racking up the years. But times will be changing; it's in the air. We may be moving on to other adventures soon. Maybe going cruising, taking the long, slow, wet way home to our house on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

But writing books has been the main occupation of our time on Guam, at least emotionally. My fantasy/adventure novel, The Eye of the Stallion--Book I: The Face in Amber, ostensibly for young adults, but appropriate for all ages, was published by a small press (Crossquarter Publishing Group) last year. This is a proposed trilogy and the second book is now with the Crossquarter folks awaiting a verdict, while the third book is on my laptop about half written. I'll be thinking about all this as I make these entries. What is it like sailing on the open ocean in a small boat? What is it like having a novel accepted for publication? The answers are amazing to me, way out of line with expectations. More on that in the next blog, things like what kind a boat do we have? Are you ever scared? Where do you sleep if you have a "marital moment" and need a break from each other? Is being a published writer as wild and crazy as it sounds?

But, now it's officially Thanksgiving vacation at this school and going to go home to the boat, pour myself a glass of good wine and begin to enjoy it.