What inspired you to write Sea Room?

I have always had a profound admiration for what has come to be called the “greatest generation.” Like most of us, that interest in a simpler, (perhaps nobler?) era was rekindled with all the WWII anniversaries, and particularly, with the 9-11 horror. So I guess the desire to honor my parents’ generation and to try to understand what they went through (writing is always a voyage of discovery) was the main inspiration. Of course, there were other, more specific stimuli which I describe in full on the Author’s Page in the Sea Room section of this website.. 

What research was necessary and how did you do it?

There were three principal areas of research: the physical setting, the historical setting; and specialist matters such as boat building. As for the physical setting on the Blue Hill peninsula in Maine, my wife and I made many trips, usually staying at the Breezemere Farm Inn http://www.bbonline.com/me/breezemere/, which became a model for the Dupuy farm. From there, we traveled all about the peninsula, talking with people, visiting the libraries, the historical societies, the Blue Hill Fair, the Blue Hill Hospital, etc. to learn as much as possible about the place. With respect to the historical setting, that involved reading many books and spending hours in the Boston and Bangor libraries viewing microfiche archives. And, finally, in terms of boat building, that also involved a great deal of reading. In addition, however, I attended the Wooden Boat School http://www.woodenboat.com/wbschool.htm  in Brooklin, Maine to learn the craft of carving half-models. I’m proud to say that, thanks to the teaching of Eric Dow, the half models pictured elsewhere on this web site are my work.   
 

How were you able to describe boat building in such detail in Sea Room?

As I mentioned above, I attended the Wooden Boat School in Brooklin, Maine. Also, I read several books on wooden boat building and visited several places where wooden boats are still being built such as Essex, Massachusetts, the Wooden Boat School itself, and the Maine Maritime Museum.  

FAQ's for Island of First Light are in Process

What inspired you to write Island of First Light?

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What research was necessary and how did you do it?

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Is the journal of Father Dalou in Island of First Light taken from a real journal?

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How long did it take to write your novels?

That, for me, is always a difficult question to answer. The total elapsed time from the germ of the idea to the final galley corrections was about three years. However, I advanced work on several other books during that time because I find it works best to do a draft then put it aside for a while to let it sort of marinate. As a result, I usually have a couple of books going at a time until I’m ready to hammer out another draft of one of them. Then, I work intensely on the one book, often up to eight or more hours a day, until that draft is done. That’s a long way of saying that if I had worked on Sea Room or Island of First Light alone, start to finish, it would have taken me perhaps a year. But, as I said, I don’t work that way.

How long do you spend each day writing?

As far as sit-down-butt-in-the-chair writing is concerned, as little as one hour a day to as much as twelve. It all depends on whether I’m in the flush of banging out a first draft (3-4 hours / day); thinking about plot, character, revision, etc. (1-2 hours / day); or working on a complete revision (6-12 hours / day). However, writing is not a job for me, it’s a way of life. So, in that respect, I try to keep my mind open for ideas all the time to the extent that I am never without my digital voice recorder (which even sits ready on the night table when I’m asleep). So, looked at that way, I spend all my time writing since, for me, writing is being.

 

You seem to have an intimate knowledge of boats and the sea. From where does it  come?

I have sailed all of my adult life, participating in cruising, “around-the-buoys” racing, and ocean racing. To help finance my way through college, I taught sailing at Community Boating in Boston and I taught the Boston University Women’s Physical Education course in sailing. (Yes, that was one of my favorite jobs ever!) Before I quit the corporate life to write full time, Susan and I owned an ocean racing sailboat (a C&C 33, for those of you who know boats). It, indeed, was one of the many things we sacrificed so that I could write. So I’ve been in boats and on the sea most of my life.  

Is any part of the novels autobiographical?

Only in the sense that no writer can leave himself out of a book. It all comes from the soup of experience. However, that said, no event in Sea Room is based on a corresponding event in my life. My father did serve in WWII, but he went over after the war was over as part of the occupying forces. The only incident that comes from real life is the story of Emily and how her photograph was taken. That was a story told to me by my mother whose sister, Emily, was taken by my grandmother to have her picture taken only a week or so before she died in the influenza epidemic.  

Again, in Island of First Light, no event or character is based on my life. The only direct connection is that my ancestors lived in Nova Scotia and were exiled from their lands during the 17XX expulsion by the British that sparked the Jesuit priest's journey and report. Longfellow wrote of this tragedy in his poem Evangeline. Some of my ancestors were shipped away, as in Island of Firs Light, and returned to the Maritime Provinces later in the 18th century, settling in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Others hid with Indians on Prince Edward Island to escape the British purge. They eventually emigrated to the States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Are the characters based on real people?

No. Although I must admit that my maternal grandmother was named Elizabeth and everybody called her “Zabet” (see her picture on the Poutines recipe page under Sea Room). However, except for her feistiness, she bore little resemblance to Zabet Dupuy in Sea Room. Nana in many ways is a compilation of my mother and her mother. Likewise, my paternal grandfather, Joseph, was called “Pip,” but, again, he was nothing like Pip Dupuy. By the way, although I say in the book that Pip is short for Hippolyte it is also a corruption of the Acadian affectionate word for grandfather—Papé. My wife's name is Susan May.

None of the characters in Island of First Light have names that have personal references.

Do you plan to write more books with the Maine coast as a setting?

I may, for I have an abiding love for the coast of Maine. I am currently working on a novel called Ice Blink. This story takes place on the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, the French islands off the coast of Newfoundland, surrounding events that occurred during World War II. World War II, the sea and the human spirit are recurring themes in my novels. In a very different vein,  xxxxxx a saga of the South of France.

Does any particular point-of-view or philosophy inform your writing?

The composer, Gian Carlo Menotti, was asked a similar question and he replied that what went into his work were the four emotions of love, compassion, outrage, and awe. I love that answer, so I guess I’ll borrow it. At the level of day-to-day life I often find myself outraged at the cruelty and injustice that is so prevalent in the world. Violence to our environment outrages me. So does war, and un-caring, aggressive behavior, especially when it is born out of a religious fundamentalism that says “we, and only, we have the truth path to God.” My response, in addition to anger, is to feel compassion and love for those affected by such things. Also, one way I have of coping with the things that outrage me is to try to take a larger view by paying attention to our place in the vastness of the universe, a trait I tend to give to some of my characters. That’s where the awe comes in—an emotion that precludes some of my characters and me from coming to arrogant, self-assured answers about the nature of the divine.