We were at anchor in the Bahamas, waiting for yet another front to pass through, when the email message came in:

“Signature Editions would be delighted to publish your manuscript. Do let me know if it’s still available.”

I let out a whoop of joy and Chris dove below deck and came up with a bottle of Prosecco and two glasses. My book had finally found a publisher. It was really going to happen.

And it’s happened fast. Six months later, Sea Over Bow: A North Atlantic Crossing is at the printer, scheduled to be shipped to bookstores across the country on October 31^st.

I’ll admit that lately I’ve been googling my book each day, watching with amazement as the number of hits keeps growing. It’s on The Nautical Mind bookstore’s site, and on Chapters and Amazon. It has started popping up in other countries: in England, in Australia. Listings have begun to appear in other languages: Swedish, Italian… Chinese.

It’s described variously as a travel story, a memoir, a love story (I’m not entirely sure how it’s characterized in Chinese.) But see for yourself. I’ve added an excerpt from the book to this site.

If you like it (and of course I hope you do), please consider pre-ordering it. When you place a special order at your local bookstore, it brings the book to the attention of a real live bookseller. And I’m told that advance orders have a big impact on a book’s rating on online sites like Amazon. You may want to order extra copies for Christmas presents!

Ugh. I’m great at writing, I like to think, but very bad at this selling stuff.

Buy my book. Just buy my book. (There—how’s that? Too subtle?)