THE BITTER END

Judy and I started singing sea songs and chanteys way back in the late seventies. We called ourselves the Bitter End. In the eighties we started singing for others and hoped to make enough money to purchase amplification equipment. We sang monthly at Canetti’s Restaurant in San Pedro, California. We became more known and we able to sing at the LA Maritime Museum, Yacht Clubs, and a concert series in Anaheim. As we traveled around the country we sang in Florida, Maryland (for the Governor’s party), through out the Caribbean, Venezuela, Trinidad, and Columbia, SA. I am telling you all this because after a three year hiatus, we played last Saturday at the Granby Library. There between twenty and thirty people there. All of us had a lot of fun, but we did not sing (or play) as well as we used to. So, back to practice. After the concert we were bushed and it took me two days to recuperate. At least that is my excuse for not posting on Monday as I had promised. I will do better in the future.

WE HAVE BEEN VISITING

We missed the last two weeks of blogging because we went to Maine to visit with Jim and Judy Stephenson, our cruising friends (See Between the Devil and the Deep… now on sale at Xlibris.com). We laughed and the fun we had in the Virgin Islands, and we almost cried because we missed the cruising life. We spent one afternoon singing (Jim and Judy have great voices and musicianship). I attempted to get them to come to Granby, CT., to sing with us this coming Saturday at the Library, which is celebrating Mariners Month during October. They would have been a great addition to the Bitter End, our sea chantey group. This reminds me. I have a lot to do before Saturday. The library is going to display my sailboat models so I must leave this blog and start getting them ready. Next week I’ll tell you how the concert went.

TOO TIRED

I am so tired of all the hoopla in the papers, radio and TV about the president daring to talk to school children. I’m sure it is a very sinister plan to get kids to stay in school and become good citizens. I can not believe that parents would keep their children from listening to our president. I just read in the newspapers that parents don’t let their children sleepover anymore. I don’t know what our country is coming to these days. Perhaps I am just too old to understand.

THE LAST DAY OF THE MONTH

Why is the last day of the month so hectic? I seem to be running all day. One of the reasons I’m running is preparing for the Maritime Month at Granby Library. The library is going to display my models of sailing ships and exhibit books about the see – fiction and non-fiction. Judy and I are going to unearth THE BITTEREND for a concert on Saturday, October 3, at 2 p.m. Come a join us.

BE CAREFUL OF AGENTS, SOME ARE WOLVES IN AGENT CLOTHING.

(Did you know that if you put your curser in the fish tank on the right it will draw the fish toward it? Good luck fishing!) A week has past and I am no longer frustrated, but I still have a warning for writers. Be very careful when you are looking for agents. I was “taken” only two (almost three) times by agents who directed me to editors who never finished the work and both agent and editor disappeared after getting their pay. I had an agent “just north of New York City” with a huge mailroom so I had to mark my manuscript “requested by _______” in order to have the agent receive it in a timely manner. Turned out that she was about 200 miles north and the mailroom was a mailbox in front of her house. She was a piano teacher who would receive a batch of manuscripts and send them to publishers five at a time. I suppose she would get one published every so often. The word is research, research, and more research. It is so tempting for a new author to grab at anyone who might get his or her book published. I know. I was one of them!

FRUSTRATIONS OF AN AUTHOR

The hard thing about writing is not the composition of a book. It is the getting the book published. When I write, I write to express something of myself and what I think in the art of words. The job is only half way done when I’m finished. The communication of my ideas to others is my goal. What would we have lost if Picasso and Monet, or any other artist had not been able to sell their paintings? Not that I’m in their league. Painting is only half the work, the other half is communication the painting to others. When I finish a book I try to sell it to an agent. But agents don’t really want to see books from unpublished writers. One book of mine received more than two hundred rejections before I gave up. Was the book that bad? I don’t think so, but then I’m prejudiced. It had won first place in two writing contests. Oh well. You can see that I would get excited when a “publisher” e-mailed me wanting to print a book I had written for juveniles. I sent him the manuscript. The letter came back that the work had merit, but since it would take three years to recoup their expenses, I would need to share the cost to the tune of $895! No deal!! More of this next time.

FIRST CRUISE

The house is very quiet now that the grandchildren are gone. I think that I have been missing them. However, there are many things to do. I bought a plastic model kit (never done one of these before) of the SS President Cleveland. I was on this ship with my family back in the early ‘50’s. I think I spent more time with the crew than with the rest of my family. The cruise , which was six weeks long, took us to Los Angeles, Hawaii, Yokohama, Japan; Manila, Philippians; Hong Kong, Kobe, and again Yokohama, Japan; and finally to Hawaii and San Francisco. Although I had wanted to be a sailor for a few years before this, the trip solidified my yearnings to be a seafarer and visit distant lands and people. The story of this cruise will be found in my book, Between the Devil and the Deep… which will be out soon. A few years later, I decided to try to get a position on the Cleveland, as a Steward (Bell Hop). I checked with the union to see how should go about this. They said I first had to take a two week course at the Maritime Academy in Vallejo, CA. In this course, they taught how to use three types of lifeboats (oars, Push-pull and engine), how to use and help passengers dawn a life jacket, first aid and many other things. I got in trouble during a loading of the lifeboats exercise. The order over the loud speaker came: “Man the lifeboats.” Everyone was at their station trying to get “passengers” into lifeboats. I was yelling “Women the life boats!” The trainer told me “the order was to man the lifeboats.” I replied, “You fill your life boats your way, and I’ll fill mine my way!” I do not think I will ever build an other plastic model kit. They are really bad...or maybe I am not so good.