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Between the Devil and the Deep is an old sailor's saying indicating the space between the bulwork and outswide of the hull. One had to hang over to tar and caulk it. Today its like being between a rock and a hard place.



Between the Devil and the Deep...: Memoirs of a Maverick Priest is my new book which now out. You buy it at amazon.com, barnsandnobel.com or by sending me a check for $18.00 plus $3.50 US and I'll send you a signed copy. address is 41 Whitman Dr., Granby, CT, 06035.

Monday, October 19, 2009

WHAT IS MY PLATFORM?an essay

Last Saturday (Oct.17, 2009) I attended the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association (CAPA) and listened to Adele Annesi explain the meaning of “Platform” and ask what our personal platform is. A platform is a short summary of what you stand for. The life position you want to be found in your writing. A short tag line that explains you and your substance (I know I am not quoting her correctly, but that was the gist of it). I started to think about my own life and what I stand for. It is easy to say I stand for Jesus since I am an Episcopal priest, although I am a bit of a maverick. But within this framework, I am many other realities. My life seems to take a shotgun approach to the world. I am a writer and I love to communicate. I also love to adventure and see new places. I am a sailor, and even though I can no longer sail and cruise the seas, this is also part of who I am. I make scale models of old sailing ships and workboats. I used to be an artist and would like to paint again, but all these other things get in my way. I am a romantic and would like everyone to know about the trials and songs of the old sailorman under sail. This is why I love to sing and play these old songs with my wife. Over all of this, and perhaps the most important, I am a family man, and love my family and would like everyone to have the support and love I feel from my wife and daughters. They have a lot of patience with my activities even though I have dragged them all over Central America. So what is my platform, my tag line? I want the “real thing” like Coca Cola but I am not sure what that is. I seem to want to share who I am, which is why I wrote Between the Devil and the Deep... I also am writing a book fictionalizing two years of my life in a ghetto. Down Island, another of my books is about sailing in the Caribbean. You can read it on my blog site (http://swartsfager-books.blogspot.com). Tenderfoot Dude, a pre-teen book about my adventures as a cowboy is written, but not published. Could it be, as Popeye says, “I yam who I yam?” I do not know as yet. But I am working on focusing and discovering what it really is. What an adventure!

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