Happy August everyone,
I hope this finds you all enjoying summer and the beautiful weather. I am still hard at work putting the finishing touches on my next book "Sleeping in a Life Jacket". As such, I am doing a lot of writing but nothing on the blog about Prince Edward Island so for those of you looking for more island material, you will have to wait a little longer. I am however, going to offer up some new pictures of PEI at the end of this posting for your enjoyment. I give a special acknowledgement to my friend Sabrina C who was on a cycling holiday in PEI in July and sent some great photographs for me to use.
Writing, rewriting and going through the endless editing process of a book is such a time consuming process and I feel at times like I am married to my computer and chained to my desk. I am also frustrated that I am not one of those writers who drafts perfect manuscripts on their first try and that I am constantly reworking the chapters and massaging the text so that you will finally get to enjoy a product that is entertaining and informative.
Although I enjoy writing, I love entertaining through the written word and my books are focused on reader enjoyment. I also want to ensure that my work is accurate and factual so I am constantly verifying my notes, the information given in the book and spending endless hours getting consent forms signed by those I quote in the book.
Writing about cruising has been a particular challenge since I started the book pre Covid and in the midst of writing the book, the entire cruising industry basically shut down. Continuing to write about cruising when ships were being viewed as petri dishes of infection was challenging and I confess to starting another book (which is well on its way to completion). I know that some people viewed cruising as a dying industry but knowing just how dedicated cruisers are, I was fairly sure it would make a come back and indeed it is doing so. Not only will the book be published, but we are booked on three cruises in the next five months for a total of 44 days at sea. Our house sitter is delighted.
The next twelve months will see me in 16 countries and doing everything from enjoying castles in Britain to golfing with kangaroos. But best of all, the next year should see me in book stores, signing books and meeting so many of you who have e-mailed, messaged, chatted and written me to talk about travel, and specifically, cruising. Thank you for your patience and please know the wait for my next book is almost over.