Opening a Book Store

I've been writing more and more these past few years, working hard at making a living doing something different from the corporate race that dominated my life for 35 years. I've written more than 100 magazine
articles for Practical Sailor, Good Old Boat, and Sail. It's been a fun and educational process, researching all manner of sailing minutia I couldn't other wise have justified. I've been working with fascinating and knowledgeable people I wouldn't other wise have met. The minor rub is that magazines require a punchy style with lots of pictures, simple points, and minimal text. Many times I turned in a written a report that was as tightly edited as seemed possible, without cutting vital supporting detail or explanation, only to see it cut 75% with a broadsword. I didn't blame them or get sore about it. They had a page count to hit and a format to follow. But it's hard to communicate complex ideas that way.

Books are longer. The author has the space to express finished, complete ideas, something magazines, internet forums, and blog posts never can. If an interesting rabbit hole beckons, you go down there and don't climb out until you found the bottom and figured out what it all means. For  nearly a year I've been sifting though my old article notes, doing new research to fill the holes, and well, sailing a lot and thinking about it.

The result will be collection of books that will be dribbling out over the next few months. Most are well along, and the first new offering will be available in a few days (Singlehanded Sailing for the Coastal Sailor). Some of these will be just for Kindle, and others will be publish conventionally:

• Circumnavigating the Delmarva Peninsula--A Guide for the Shoal Draft Cruiser. has been out there for a while, available for Kindle through Amazon, 247 pages. $6.99
• Singlehanded Sailing for the Coastal Cruiser. I was tabulating seatime in my Coast Guard experience log, and it seems I sailed over 25,000 miles in short hops, most of it alone. Kindle through Amazon, 143 pages. $6.50
• Rigging Modern Anchors. I've written a lot on this and done a lot more testing that never made it to print. I believe this will make it in on paper.
• Keeping a Boat on Peanuts. If you've followed this blog you know I can spread money paper thin. But you've only see the tip of the iceberg. Kindle, about 300 pages.
• Faster Cruising. Not the racer kinda of book, talking about laminate sails and advanced electronics. The stuff you can do with no money to get more miles into a cruise. Not all of it is about speed. Kindle, about 150 pages.

The Book Store will show up as a blog post in a few days, and will then migrate to the top bar. A few sample chapters will likely be posted as each becomes available. Maybe you'll see something there worth either reading or recommending.