Kayaking in Merepoint Bay, Maine

Maine is best seen from the water, but I've never been totally convinced about kayaks. I rowed intramural crew at college, spent a summer aboard a Zodiac photo-ID-ing dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, and have enjoyed canoeing in Maine lakes. However, none of those boats were designed to roll upside down. An emergency "wet exit" sounds too much like a watery grave. As a writer/artist, I have an over-active imagination, but I'm also drawn to the beauty of the sea.

When my son asked for an inflatable double kayak for his birthday, I offered to join him on his inaugural launch. His Sea Eagle reminded me of a Zodiac (minus a motor): stable, comfortable, and surprisingly easy to steer. The open hull is self-bailing so doesn't require a spray skirt, and best of all, this boat was designed not to flip. Since it was near low tide, we left from our town's boat launch.

The hardest part was maneuvering around the moored boats between gusty wind and rocking swells. My arms ached until my son reminded me to pull from my core and brace with my legs. The best thing about a double kayak is easy conversation. Soon enough, my body relaxed into the rhythm of paddling.

A kayak can't be beat for birdwatching. We saw an osprey defend her nest from a hungry bald eagle. The pictured hero above is the speck flying by the tallest tree; I brought an old point-and-shoot instead of my DSLR camera on this salty voyage. Even my dry bag got a bit damp.

We paddled past lobster fishermen loading traps from floating docks onto their boats. June is the start of mainland lobster season in Maine, following the annual migration from deeper waters. During the winter and spring only outer island residents and fishermen with deep sea permits can set traps.

This sustainable fishery is well regulated in my state. Multi-colored buoys (lobster pots) distinguish lines of traps and are matched to a fisherman's boat (paired photos above). The marine patrol enforces strict catch rules to protect breeding females, small young lobsters, and big lobsters. To research my YA novel about a teen lobster fisherman, I went out lobstering with a pro, joined a marine patrolman on his rounds, and spent a week in a boat house on a remote island with a one-room schoolhouse.

Despite the high risks, I understand why fishermen choose to work at sea. The view from the bow was so gorgeous that all my worries melted away. I felt carefree and gloriously alive. Photos cannot capture the pungent scent of the ocean and the sparkle of the waves. My spirit animal must be a porpoise or an osprey, but not a thieving bald eagle!

Too soon it was time to come ashore. My son's Sea Eagle weighs about 42 pounds (much less than regular double kayaks) and only took a few minutes to semi deflate. It took my son about 15 minutes to assemble and to inflate the first time.

The oars snap in half to fit beside the folded boat and its foot pump in the back of my 2002 Subaru Outback with plenty of room to spare. There was no need for a roof rack, which is a big plus for a short woman with a bad back. The biggest pain was rinsing off the seawater and finding a place for it to dry out of the sun. A regular kayak is easier to maintain but harder to store/transport.

I'm sorely tempted to buy a second Sea Eagle as an anniversary gift for my husband and me. Our son will be taking his boat, packed in a surprisingly small duffle, to University of California, Berkeley in August. I will miss him and our wilderness adventures.

Note: I was not compensated or asked to post this kayak review. Top photo of me paddling is by my son; all other photos are by me and under copyright. Thanks to his grandparents for helping us buy this birthday boat (my son paid for part too.)

Monhegan Island & New Harbor, inspirations for my novel

My love for Maine islands and harbor towns inspired me to write a contemporary young adult novel about a mainland girl and an island lobster fisherman. With my manuscript shipped out to literary agents, I'm feeling nostalgic. Two years ago, I rented a boat house apartment on Monhegan Island to gather offseason material for my work-in-progress. It's a long journey to publication, and I'm not yet anchored.

When my kids came home from college with a friend, they wanted to show her Monhegan. The ferry leaves from New Harbor, an hour drive up the coast from us. My fictional Port George was modeled on this working harbor with a bit of Port Clyde and Brunswick added to the mix. The floating dock rises and sinks with the tide, making it easier for the lobster fishermen to unload their catch.

The only way to reach Monhegan is by boat. It's ten miles out to sea and too small for a airport. Just 42 people live year round on the island. I increased the population to 200 for my fictional island because I needed more teenage characters. The largest building is a hotel.

Tourist season starts Memorial Weekend and winds down around Columbus Day. Monhegan is a rustic place to vacation, but people like us keep returning for more. In the shoulder season, most visitors are birders tracking migrations (plus one nosy writer researching her novel).

Jamie Wyeth's house was the inspiration for my character's home; it's my dream house too.

Monhegan has 12 miles of trails, scrambling up and down the cliffs and meandering through the woods. This time I was retracing my character's footsteps, remembering lines with a satisfied smile.

It was quite a workout keeping up with my fit kids but worth it for the stunning view.

After several hours of hiking, we rewarded ourselves with homebrewed root beer for the girls, stout for my son, and Quad British style ale for me. Monhegan Brewing Co also brews an excellent ginger beer for those who feel seasick.

The co-owner of the brewery hauls lobsters too; Matt answered many questions for my novel. He was busy stacking traps in the beer garden at the close of the island lobster fishing season.


It was now time for the lobsters and us to migrate back to the mainland. On the ferry ride back, the captain pointed out a bald eagle and I spotted a pod of harbor porpoises. What a perfect day!

You can read more about my novel and Monhegan Island here:

Researching a Novel on Monhegan Island (my one-week retreat)
Sunrise on Monhegan Island (artsy photos)
Port Clyde to Monhegan Island (follow up research)
Factual Accuracy in Fiction: does it matter? (writing about Maine)
Monhegan Island, Maine (a family vacation)

Marmalade Skies in Harpswell, Maine

I took this unfiltered DSLR photograph while dining outside Estes Lobster House at sunset.

I'm taking a two week blog vacation to spend time with my family. Next post Wednesday August 26th.

Happy summer!

Factual Accuracy in Fiction: does it matter?

Monhegan Island, Maine at night from a fact gathering trip for my work-in-progress

An author needs to create a world that is believable. When I spot factual errors in a book, even if it's fiction, the reality is broken for me. I don't expect perfection, but authors writing outside their personal experiences need to be more careful with the facts. Part of the reason I rarely review Maine novels if they aren't written by locals is that most people from away lack a basic understanding of my home state. If you use summer as a verb, I'm not the right reviewer for your book.

A day out lobstering in Harpswell to research my novel

I once read a "Maine" novel in which the lobstermen were loading their traps onto pickup trucks at the end of a summer day. In the real world, lobster traps are hauled up, the catch removed and then rebaited, but the traps usually remain in the ocean until the end of the season. The same book described a family as being so poor that they couldn't afford to repair their air conditioner. Most Maine residents live without air conditioning. It rarely gets too hot, and we have other priorities like heating our homes through the long winter. Yet another error: using a cell phone to navigate a boat. Once you're offshore, there isn't much reception. More importantly, you need a depth and tide chart to avoid the rocky shoals. Using a phone to navigate the coastal seas is not just inaccurate, it's dangerous misinformation. I didn't review that otherwise well-written book.

Rocky shoals off Monhegan Island

A related problem is not fact-checking. An author may do extensive research but can still get a few facts reversed or jumbled. Here's an example: a protagonist adjusts "aperture speed." In photography you can either change the shutter speed (how long the lens is open) or adjust the aperture (the size of the lens opening). There were other errors in a darkroom scene (eg film being processed in a red lit darkroom instead of in absolute darkness). Most readers wouldn't notice the slip, but I'm a photographer who cut her teeth in a darkroom before switching to digital. It was otherwise a really good book which captured the creativity of the arts. I may review it later.

The flipside of the factual coin is info dumping. Some books, especially historical fiction, are factually accurate to the point where the novel reads like a sixth grade Social Studies textbook. For example: I use my bone-handled knife to skin the seal in the manner that my grandmother once taught me. Nope. The native narrator wouldn't be consciously thinking about something she does everyday. If explanation is necessary for context, have an outsider ask questions. An author needs to be well informed to write believably, but that doesn't mean that the reader needs to be taught everything the author knows. Info dumping breaks the flow of a story and makes me quit reading. Keep your research file separate or consider switching to nonfiction.

Monhegan Harbor in fog

Finding factual errors in published books motivated me to be more careful with my own work-in-progress. Last month I interviewed a police officer for a drunk-driving arrest scene. After I wrote the scene, the officer fact-checked the pages and flagged a handful of errors, which I will correct. For drama, I might allow some flexibility with normal police procedure, but this will be a conscious choice, not a careless accident. My goal is to minimize factual errors to foster reality. (Thank you, Officer Dan Sylvain!)

Monhegan Harbor later the same day

The bottom line: write what you know or ask someone who knows to fact-check.

Researching a Novel on Monhegan Island

Earlier this month, I spent a week on Monhegan Island researching my novel. Off season the mail boat goes only a few times a week from Port Clyde. It was a rough one hour ride in eight-foot seas and pouring rain. Even one of the crew got sick, but my husband was in his element. Henry's father, a former merchant navy captain, once told him that the best cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree. Henry (in orange topside) had come for the weekend to help me settle into my solitary retreat.

The only other visitors to the island were migrating birds (loads of warblers!) and intrepid birders. Their accommodations were unheated and unpowered. The tourist season starts Memorial Day Weekend and runs through September. The rest of the year is lobster season.

I rented an attic apartment in a former boat house, which had propane, electricity and even wifi. My landlady, who lives below, runs the only grocery store and is the sternwoman on a lobster boat. Most of the 40 or so year-round residents work two jobs. Lisa answered many of my questions about island life.

Other answers came from watching the harbor out my window. I'd wondered how trucks got to the island since only passenger ferries service the island, docking at the wharf. This truck ferry unloads onto Fish Beach. It idles until the truck is ready to leave. Good thing I packed ear plugs!

I watched the lobstermen without leaving my desk. One of my characters works the stern in his dad's lobster boat. He lives on an island that resembles Monhegan but with a larger population. I needed more teen characters in a young adult novel!

I'd wondered about the one-room school house on other visits to the island. This time I wanted to peek inside, but I'd had no luck tracking down the teacher online.

After my husband left the island, I hiked up the cliff to paint...

... the beautiful landscape?

Feeling discouraged, I decided to check out the new Monhegan Brewing Company. The delicious beer was served in seven ounce tasters as well as in pints. It was full bodied and smooth. My favorite was the Trap Stacker Special Ale with a hint of molasses. By happy coincidence, I ran into an author friend Paul Doiron and met his wife Kristen Lindquist, an avid birder and talented poet-blogger. The whole state of Maine sometimes feels like a small town.

Mary and Matt Weber of Monhegan Brewing Company

The proprietors shared their romantic story. Mary had moved to Monhegan after falling in love with Matt Weber, an island lobsterman. They'd opened the brewery last summer, offering tastings on weekends. On weekdays Mary teaches at the one-room school house while her husband is hauling lobsters. I'd found my elusive school teacher! It's Mary's last year teaching since she needs more time for the brewery. Matt answered my questions about island lobstering.

Mary invited me inside the one-room school house. It was bright, sunny and surprisingly up to date. All students have laptop computers supplied by the state. The video screen allowed the kids to collaborate with students at other island schools and for teachers to conference with one another. There's a stage with a piano and the kids' performances draw in all the islanders. The school currently has two half day preschoolers and one full day third grader. In past years, there were more kids, and the island would love to have more families.

Island educators Mary Weber and Jessie Campbell

Mary introduced me to Jessie Campbell, who used to teach at Monhegan and is now the coordinator for the Outer Islands Teaching and Learning Collaborative. Jessie shared her insights about island schools. Frenchboro and Isle au Haut have generations of lobstermen families, more like my imaginary island community. The lucky island kids gather to go on fieldtrips to the state capital, to the mountains, to Boston and even to Quebec. Educators visit the islands too. The kids go off-island for high school, like my narrative.

At Lobster Cove I photographed the house that was the inspiration for my character's home, although his is more modest. It's my dream house too. Can you see why this island inspires me?

Back "home," I watched storm clouds ripple the sea. The weather wasn't the best for painting watercolors, but I took many photos. I'll share the artsy ones in another post. I miss the island already.

Sunset at Middle Bay, Maine

Happy Holidays! 

I'll be back to blogging in the New Year.

Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord: review and interview

Cynthia Lord

At the heart of Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord is a moral dilemma. A small island community decides to take on several foster children to prevent the closure of their one-room schoolhouse. Is it right to use children as means to a good end?

Eleven-year-old Tess does not want to move to the mainland if her mother loses her teaching job. She dreams of growing up to be a lobsterman like her father. After reading Anne of Green Gables, Tess hopes that her foster brother will be her new buddy. Thirteen-year-old Aaron would rather be back on the mainland playing his trumpet in a jazz band. He's no grateful orphan but a sullen teenager who wants to live with his mother. She lost custody of him due to her substance abuse. The modern problems update the old fashioned story.

Like Rules, Cindy’s debut children's book, Touch Blue is destined to be a modern classic. Her descriptions engage all the senses without bogging down the narrative. The characters are so real that they breathe from the page. The writing never falters down to the perfect last sentence. This excerpt is from the opening:

“I glance to the boat crossing the bay now. ‘All right. I’m coming!’ Running over the clam flats, my feet slap the muck. Broken mussel shells jab my feet, and my toes clench from the cold water, but I run faster with each smacking step. It might be June, but it’ll be weeks before the flats feel warm under my feet.”

What I enjoyed the most about Touch Blue was the island setting and the care that Cindy took in getting the details right. I know because I did similar research about lobstering for my adult novel S.A.D. The amusing bantering on the shipboard VHF radio was pitch perfect. The beautiful landscape was recognizable and totally captured summer in coastal Maine.

Touch Blue would be a perfect bedtime story or read aloud book in the classroom. Cindy makes novel writing look deceptively easy, but having read an early draft of the first chapter and synopsis, I know how much hard work and critical thought went into refining this literary gem.

Interview of Cynthia Lord

Cindy is my neighbor, and we became friends after I interviewed her for Rules. It was the first book review/interview I posted on my blog. Last week, we met in my backyard (above) and drove down to Harpswell to talk about writing.

Sarah: Did winning a Newbery Honor for your debut novel, Rules, make it easier or harder to write a second novel?

Cindy: It was much easier to sell my second novel because of the Newbery Honor, but it was harder to write. Events for Rules kept me very busy, and at every event, people would ask me about my next book. So I couldn't hold Touch Blue close in the same way I was able to do for Rules. I had to change the way I wrote for Touch Blue.

Can you tell us the story of the real Maine island that was the inspiration for Touch Blue? Did their scheme work? 

Touch Blue was inspired by several things. Before I had my own children, I was a teacher on a small island in Casco Bay. I took the ferry out and back from work every day, and it was one of my favorite teaching experiences. I've set Touch Blue in that bay, and I've used many details from my own experiences there.

One challenge for all remote island schools is staying open. Over the years, Maine islanders have done some remarkable things to keep their schools from closing. Any small, rural place needs families with children to stay viable. If you can't attract families with young children to settle there, your population gradually grows older, and on an island, it often results in losing your year-round community. Islanders are very conscious that losing their school is the first step to losing everything.

In the 1960's there was a small island in Downeast Maine that was down to two children in their school. The State of Maine was ready to cut off the school's funding, which would have effectively closed that school. So the islanders got together and came up with a plan. Their school needed children, and there were children in Maine who needed good homes. So several of the island families adopted foster children. That decision kept their school open, and that school is still open today.

Do you think the islanders' actions were justified?

Were their actions justified? It's a complex question and one I have thought about often. Does the fact that the islanders got something from the foster children negate or cheapen what the children received from them? Would it really have been better for those children not to have come? At one point in the book, the main character says,

“Everybody gets something for the things they do. Even when people seem like they’re only thinking of others, maybe it’s because doing good makes them feel nice inside. Did you ever think of that? Those people are still getting something in return.”

It's not a simple answer. And that makes for a good discussion, I think.

What surprised you the most about the system of foster care? How do you think it could be improved?

I was surprised how difficult the system makes it for foster children. Simple things like wanting to take driver's education or stay overnight at a friends' house can be a huge challenge. In some states for a foster child to attend a sleepover means everyone at the friends' house has to agree to a background check.

Ultimately, I was left feeling hopeful, though. I met some amazing, committed, open-hearted foster parents while I was researching this book. I wish every foster child could have the opportunity to belong to those families.

Was the Maine island school where you taught similar to the one room schoolhouse in your novel?

Yes, it was similar to the school I created for my novel.

How was teaching on an island different from teaching on the mainland?

Teaching in a tiny school on an island is very different from teaching on the mainland. On the island I taught a wide range of ages at once, and I had siblings in my class, which adds a different dynamic. Also, I had to do lots of jobs. If the phone rang, I had to answer it. I picked up the mail. I was the nurse if a child received a minor injury. In the middle of a lesson, I might get asked to sign for a package.

An island teacher has to be more flexible, and yet, I loved the freedom of letting a project go a little longer if the kids were really into it (there were no bells to tell me to stop), and I could be creative in different ways. The kids were wonderful and there was a lot of parental and community support.

How did you research the lobstering parts of your novel?

I've lived around lobster fishermen and their families for 20+ years now. I've even had kids in my classes who had their lobstering licenses and their own traps. Several lobstermen and their families graciously answered questions and they took me out on the boat with them to get the details and the timing right. One summer, my car smelled like bait every time it rained--which is not a very nice smell. My husband was constantly saying, "Um, honey. Let's take MY car."

When Touch Blue was nearly done, I asked a lobsterman and a friend whose husband and three sons are lobstermen to read the book and comment. Fishing practices vary a bit from region-to-region, so I wanted to make sure Touch Blue was accurate for the area of Maine where it is set.

Can you share something about your next novel?

My third novel is at a very early stage, so I'm still discovering what it's about. I do know that it will be set in New Hampshire. I love dramatic settings, and I grew up in New Hampshire. My parents sold their house there last summer. It's a complicated thing to leave behind and let go of a childhood home. At night, I often find myself dreaming about that house. I think dealing with those feelings through a new book will be good for me--and for the book.

Do you have a photo of you at the same age as the protagonist?

The snapshot (at right) is of me on my first day of 6th grade and newly 12. It was the closest I could find to Tess's age of 11. Yikes. It was the 70s: the age of short skirts and knee socks. :-)

What’s the best writing advice you received?

"Find the story only you can tell and tell it in a way that only you can tell it." We all have powerful experiences inside us, and when we tap into those unique stories and perspectives, it makes for a great book.

Thank you, Cindy, and good luck with your third novel! 
Touch Blue was released on August 1, 2010 in the USA. 

Photos and More Info: Cindy blogged about our time together with her photos and links to other interviews. I shot the first photo of Cindy and the wildflowers at Lookout Point, Harpswell. I took the lobster photo out on the marine patrol and the lobsterman out lobstering, while researching my novel S.A.D. (not published yet.) More photos of Bailey Island in Fog here (that's my daughter in the fog.) My husband, Henry Laurence, took the photo of Cindy and me in our backyard. The photo of Cindy at age 12 was reproduced by permission.

Reviewer’s Disclaimer:  I requested a Touch Blue ARC. When I returned the ARC, Cindy gave me a published copy as a gift (the first copy she signed!) As a friend, Cindy gave me invaluable feedback on my young adult manuscript, as u like it.

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