Tag: We Ran Away to Sea

Return to Tucson

I think it’s been thirteen years since I’ve returned to Tucson to visit friends I made there in the 1970s and friends I’ve met since. So, this week, we made a whirlwind trip, driving about seven hours each way to spend two and a half days in Tucson. We weren’t able to see everyone, and I forgot to take pictures of some, but I remembered how much I loved the Sonoran Desert, even though the city has grown immensely in fifty years. 

I’d hoped for warm weather, but cold rain from California swept in putting snow on the mountains, which made the desert even more beautiful. It was wonderful to connect with those we did see, including Kent’s son Jake and his friend Hayley. Mary Lyday and I had so much to talk about, we forgot to take pictures.

Finger Rock Trail
See the finger between outcrops on top?
A Saguaro Cacuts forest!
Pipe Organ, St. Philip in the Hills
St. Philip is the Hills
Cousin Joyce Leissring
Chris Wallace and I hadn’t seen each other in nearly 40 years!
We finally tracked down the unstoppable Ed Curley!

Finally, here’s a push for Kent’s book and a wish for a Happy Valentine’s Day! I realized that We Ran Away to Sea is also a love story! Treasure those you love. We’re not here forever.

From the Arctic (Update from email sent on December 8, 2023, so you don’t have to click on the link to view)

http://eepurl.com/iFJzzEEmail sent from Jacana Press from the Arctic December 8, 2023



The Polar Night
W

We crossed the Arctic Circle at 8:05 am, entering the Polar Night.  Kent and Pam never got here in Jacana or Coot, but we took the opportunity to celebrate We Ran Away to Sea.  The polar mark was lit up as we passed.
We told one of our dining partners about the book, and she whipped out her phone and ordered a copy on the spot!   We hope some of you will do the same!

Yesterday’s polar night was more like sunrise and sunset compressed into a few hours, with no actual day in between.  As a photographer it was like having the blue hour for two or three hours, not just 20 minutes.
In a few hours we will tie up in Tromsø, the gateway to the polar regions. We’ll be in this darkness and semi-dark for several more days.  I’m glad we’re not sailing in Coot!  My fingers would be too cold to write!










Svolvaer.  It’s definitely polar night.


Polarnight daytime, l’heure bleue.

Another short video:  Christmas on a sailboat is different. In 1994, Pam and Kent celebrated at Exuma National Park in the Bahamas. Read about it on page 126 (Chapter 12 Going Foreign) in We Ran Away to Sea. Sail with Pam and Kent on  YouTube, Instagram and TikTok!

We need more reviews!  Please share your thoughts about the book if you liked it (and even if you didn’t). Every review helps. It doesn’t have to more than a heading and a few words.

We Ran Away to Sea is now available at The Treasure House, Organic Books, Books on the Bosque, Bookworks, and Page One in Albuquerque. NM; The Travel Bug and Collected Works in Santa Fe, NM; Calamity Books and Sheridan Stationery and Books in Sheridan, WY; Two Dog Market in Leadville, Colorado; and at Books by the Bay in Sausalito, CA, as well as on Amazon in both paperback and ebook.Upcoming Event: Kent will be presenting at Oasis in Albuquerque on January 19, 10:30-12, 2024. If you’d like him to give a presentation somewhere near you, please let us know. Have book, will travel!

Can Reading Help Us Save the World?

Elder Activist Readers (EAR): re-written August 10, 2023

Who are we?

We are a small group who began reading books on climate change and the environment in the fall of 2020, spurred by Esther Jantzen (author of Walk: Jamie Bacon’s Secret Mission on the Camino de Santiago) who introduced us to All We Can Save, the first book we all read together. Over the past couple of years, we have read many books, all of which have shaped my perceptions and stirred me to action, although what I’ve done is very little. I am still a long way from living a simple life. However, I’ve gone from ignoring climate change and thinking, “What can I do?” to realizing that learning about the issues and doing what I can is at least a start. We have read of many instances when one person’s actions have inspired others, often resulting in making an important difference. This summer’s heat and the disasters including forest fires (even in Hawaii!), flooding, failed crops, and the deaths of humans and animals have driven home the importance of changing our ways..

This morning we drove around Denver, that jewel of the Rockies, from south to north, facing bumper-to-bumper traffic and slow-downs in all directions. The mountains with remains of the winter’s snow were hazy in the distance. Where there was once farmland or grazing land where the buffalo roamed were now acres of new houses. As we poked along in halting traffic, our vehicle also contributed to the pollution, congestion and wasteful use of fossil fuels. I thought, “Look what progress has brought!” We were trapped in an unpleasant, unhealthy, unsustainable environment created in the past one-hundred years by our love for and reliance on the automobile. I’m as guilty as anyone. I love my car and my comfortable life, and I’m taking a non-essential trip for pleasure in my air-conditioned car, while people are lying on sidewalks, dying in the heat. That’s not fair, is it?

There are currently five of us who read one book every two or three months and meet via Zoom to discuss our reading. We also send each other links to articles, websites, books, films, speakers, and petitions to sign. We choose the books together and take turns leading the discussions. We have had other readers participate occasionally, and we welcome new readers, or I urge you to form your own reading group. All We Can Save, includes suggestions and guidelines

We five are all retired teachers who have lived in other countries. We include former Peace Corps volunteers, a Vista worker, and three pilgrims who have walked the Camino de Santiago more than once. Esther divides her time between Albuquerque and Mérida in Mexico when she is not traveling elsewhere; Marty Corley, Kent Kedl (author of We Ran Away to Sea, which was inspired partly by his Peace Corps experiences and Small is Beautiful), and I all live in Albuquerque. Anne Roberts faithfully joins us from her home in Longboat Key, Florida. Our current book is U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s Poet Warrier: A Memoir which we will discuss on August 16.

Have any of you read books that you’d like to recommend? Books that have changed your life or your thinking?

Complete book list in order of reading:

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkerson (eds). All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, 2020 (read Jan 2021)

Shalanda H. Baker. Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Guide to the Energy Transition, 2021 (read Mar-Apr 2021)

Arlie Hochschild. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, 2016 (read June 2021)

Kate Haworth. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist, pub 2017 (read Jul/Aug 2021)

Lydia Millet. A Children’s Bible (a novel), 2020 (read Jan 2022)

Paul Hawken. Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, 2021 (read Feb/Mar 2022)

Kristen Olsen. The Soil Will Save Us, 2014 (read Apr/May 2022)

Robin Wall Kimmerer. Braiding Sweetgrass, 2013 (read June 2022)

Plus, we watched: Kiss the Ground (video)

 Imbolo Mbue. How Beautiful We Were: A Novel, 2021 (read August 2022)

Vanessa Machado de Oliveira. Hospicing Modernity Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism, 2021. (read September-October 2022)

E. F. Schumacher. Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered, 1973 (read December 2022)

Amitai Ghosh. The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Plant in Crisis, 2021 (read March 2023)

Sarah Augustine: The Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discover, 2021 (read June 2023

Joy Harjo. Poet Warrior: A Memoir, 2021 (reading August 2023)

We Ran Away to Sea

May 12, 2023

It was a big day today. We got the book loaded onto IngramSpark and ordered the first paperback copy that should arrive in about a week. Publication date is set for June 27, but that could change. A PDF of the book has also been loaded onto NetGalley, so we are hoping for some reviews. We are still finding some typos and small errors (oh no!) and expect to find even more when we actually hold the paperback in our hands. It’s been a long journey so far, and there’s even more to come.

We know we didn’t choose the cover most of you preferred. We’ll see how it goes! But we have the photo of Kent and Pam on the back, if that will make you happier.

We’d love to have more reviewers, although we’re not supposed to use friends and family. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked for reviews of a particular book (I won’t divulge the title) this afternoon and saw it had one review of ***** (five stars). The reviewer’s name: the same as that of the author!

I can see we still have a lot to learn!

If you’re interested in reviewing let us know, and if that sounds too daunting, here are a few links to websites that provide some easy guidelines and even templates for writing reviews:

https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/how-to-write-a-book-reviewhttps://share.reedsy.com/fiction_book_review_template_reedsy.pdfhttps://share.reedsy.com/nonfiction_book_review_template_reedsy.pdf

How to Write a Great Book Review: 6 Templates and Ideas