I'm thrilled to share that Holding Fast is a Finalist for the IAN Book of the Year Award in the Travel/Nature category!
Reflecting on the amazing and wonderful changes of the past year, launching Holding Fast into the world and talking to readers about it felt somewhat like when the Velveteen Rabbit becomes real, his eye falling off, tail sagging as he was loved to bits. What had been my cherished, pristine private world of the voyage on Laughing Goat with my husband John and young daughter Kate—a bubble where John and I are forever in our forties, Kate's seven and our dog Elmo a chipper young pup—expanded as readers found their own experiences in it, and my relationship to the adventure became more real, somehow, too.
Moving from New Orleans to the Pacific Northwest to be near my daughter and sweet baby grandson, was a huge change but perhaps because I was moving towards something—I very much wanted to be more a part of my grandson's daily life— went more smoothly than I anticipated. I've just returned from a visit to New Orleans to see friends, though, and realized that as I've focussed on moving forward establishing a new life in Vancouver, Washington, I hadn't allowed myself to acknowledge how sad I was to leave such good friends behind. Now, I know that I will regularly need to visit NOLA to get a good "fix" of those friendships and a city that I love. The photo above was taken at a favorite bookstore in New Orleans, the Garden District Book Shop, where Holding Fast has a home.
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday and a new year full of joy and love!
For anyone who would like to hear more about my sailing adventure with my husband and young daughter, you can find Holding Fast here.
For those who have read and enjoyed it, please consider leaving an Amazon review, if you haven't yet. Simply go here, scroll down the page to customer reviews and add a review. One sentence or a couple of phrases are fine!