Thank You All!

The Celebrate Gloucester event this past weekend has come and gone and I spent the better part of Memorial Day trying to recover. I’m the first to admit that I am a bit of a hermit and spending two days in public chatting and being personable is a strain. I’m not used to being friendly for that long.

But it was a wonderful event and I met some great people. First of all I am constantly amazed by how many authors there are in this area! I met three new ones at Cruiseport and it was a total pleasure.

Ron Gilson spent most of his life on the waterfront and has now written a book about that life. It is an impressive volume titled An Island No More and is filled with photographs from his life working in the fish business.

Chester Brigham, another man who spent his life on the waterfront, has written Gloucester’s Bargain with the Sea, a comprehensive study of the culture that shaped the city of Gloucester including the men who fished the sea and the artists who painted it.

Peter Prybot is well known to most of us in Gloucester for his newspaper columns. He is a popular lobsterman and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. His book Lobstering off Cape Ann is filled with lobster stories, fishing facts and also some genuinely great photographs taken by Peter himself. As an aside, I want to say that Peter has the most impressive hands I’ve seen in a very long time. If there is any doubt of what he does for a living all you have to do is look at his hands.

In addition to those authors we were joined by Cynthia Neal from New York who has written a charming young adult book about a girl from Ireland, The Irish Dresser. And my dear friend Lynn Loscutoff spent some time with us on Sunday selling her great art books. And former police woman Eileen Ford was there with her book of essays, Pumpkin and Me.

It was a great way to spend the day. Joe Orlando and Mark and I shared a table and we all sold a few books. Unfortunately my novel, The Old Mermaid’s Tale wasn’t ready in time but I sold more copies of My Last Romance and other passions than I ever have at such an event and I’m pleased to say I’ve already received a couple of phone calls from readers who wanted to talk about it. Lynn called last night and said, “Reading your book I realize there is so much about you that I don’t know!”

Ron Gilson, Chet Brigham and Peter Prybot will be adding their names to the list of GloucesterWrites authors in the near future. I look forward to having them on there.

It was a delightful experience in other ways too. Of course, as any author can tell you, having people come up to you and talk about your writing is always exciting. Several people mentioned that they are regular readers of this blog and quite a few wanted to talk about my participation on a local, notorious internet message board. That was good for me because I take a lot of criticism on that board — there is a small but committed cadre there committed to whining and complaining and against anything positive or supportive of the arts and the city. So it was good for me to hear people say, “I love the way you stand up to those people. I wish I had your nerve.” I was also told the identity of two of the nastiest of the posters — not that those names mean anything to me but it goes to prove that in a small city like Gloucester, you can’t get away with too much.

So summer has started, books are selling, and Cruiseport Gloucester is beautiful. I want to mention the monumental efforts of Peter van Ness, Sara Young, and Jeff Worthley in making this such an outstanding event. Thank you for your energy and dedication.

One final note, our dear friend Ray who often posts here lost his father this past week. He had been ill for many years but I remember him with great fondness. So my heart goes out to dear Ray. Please join me in wishing him comfort during this difficult time.

Thanks for reading.