SUSAN COLE

Last week, I visited Cleveland, Ohio, where I grew up, to do research for my new book. I hadn't been back in fifty years. Before leaving on the trip, I was anxious and unsure of what I would find. My dad died when I was ten, and I wanted to learn more about his younger years, and about his family, of which I knew little.

Not much has changed. Wide, quiet streets, flowering trees, beautiful historic buildings preserved as they were even though the original occupants are gone. Terminal Tower, the tall landmark on Public Square, can still be seen for miles around. At the very top, a small, modest U.S. flag flies. Lake Erie dominates the downtown, sending cool breezes whooshing through the streets and providing a link to the larger world.

With the help of some terrific librarians at the Western Reserve Historical Society and a friend who accompanied me, I learned so much. I knew Dad had been in an orphanage from a family story, but I didn't know where, for how long, or why. I began to question whether it was true until my friend found his and his younger brother Albert's names in the records of the Cleveland Jewish Orphan Asylum in 1910. "Louis G. Cole, age 9 3/4, admitted." A few words on a page changed his life; he was there for six years. 

The house in which I was born, the one where I grew up, and my grandmother's apartment building were pretty much the same, though my grandmother's building has deteriorated. Dad used to take me to his office downtown on Saturday mornings and I was thrilled that the building still thrives. A frieze of flying horses adorns the roofline and scampers across the front of the white building between each floor, a charming detail I didn't notice when young. In the photo above, I'm standing in the exact spot alongside the house in Cleveland Heights in which I was born where my dad and I stood when I was two (photo posted in last month's blog). 

I even met two wonderful cousins on Dad's side, whom I hadn't known existed until I began this project. The visit gave me a feeling of peace about what had been a very painful period in my life. Now, I need to put my notes together and make sense of it all, which will take some time. 

The sun is out today in Washington and I hope it is shining where you are, too!

I'm working away on my new book. It will be about my dad and me. He died of heart disease when I was ten and it was not until later that I realized how much I loved him and how central he was to my life. I'm writing the book to reclaim our relationship, understand all that happened and why.

I'm very excited that I've booked an appointment at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio, where I grew up. My dad emigrated with his family from Belarus in 1902, driven out by the pogroms against Jews. He was one. When his mother died, his dad put him and his younger brother in a local orphanage, and the Historical Society has records of the orphanage, as well as other records pertinent to my parents' early lives.

It will be my first trip to Cleveland in many years. I'm thrilled and nervous. I don't know exactly where it will all lead, but I want to find out. More updates to follow.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to March 22nd when I will be at the Oregon Women's Sailing Association at Rose City Yacht Club in Portland to talk about my sailing adventure with my husband and young daughter that I wrote about in Holding Fast, with a book-signing to follow; and to April 15th, when I'll be in Ridgefield, Washington at the Northwest Garage Sale with a group of Pacific Northwest authors and our books.

If you'd like to read more about my sailing adventure with my husband and daughter, please go here.

Hope you're all starting to—or will very soon—enjoy early glimmers of spring!

Though everywhere else, it's just Tuesday, last Tuesday in New Orleans was Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. When I moved to New Orleans in August, 2016, after my husband John passed away, my image of Mardi Gras, to which I had never been, was of drunken crowds and topless women on Bourbon Street. That first year, I learned that Mardi Gras parades actually start about a month before Fat Tuesday, and many wound through my uptown neighborhood. I went with my daughter and her fiance's family to watch. Though my heart was heavy and a part of me felt lost among the crowds, I saw kids eagerly catching "throws" from costumed people on the magical floats, heard rousing tunes played by proud, talented high school and college bands, marveled at dancing groups that romped their way along the street, and ogled random assemblages like the Elvi, Elvis lookalikes who sang, revved up their motorcyles, and mugged to the crowds. Far from a drunken orgy of tourists, the crowd was largely made up of local families and friends. Those performing in the parade were all shapes and sizes, and there was a lovely, joyful rhythm in the air. Following on the heels of each parade, a phalanx of streetcleaners worked into the wee hours to clean the streets and sidewalks.

I moved away from New Orleans last August to live near my daughter and baby grandson in Vancouver, Washington, but I wasn't going to miss Mardi Gras. On Fat Tuesday, a group of friends and I dressed up as chicks and joined St. Ann's, the people's parade. Why chicks? No reason, other than the fun of it. It took a bit of work to put it all together ahead of time, and some agita (e.g., sending my old sneakers in time for the glittering party, a friend kindly offering to glitter mine). I'm the third chick from the right in the photo above. We had a blast!

If you'd like to read more about my sailing adventure with my husband and daughter, please go here.

If you enjoyed the book, please consider posting a review on Amazon. Simply click here, scroll down to the reviews, and write one or two phrases. It's tremendously helpful to authors.

I began the new year with a visit to a Sivananda ashram in the Bahamas. This was my third visit, and each time I've come away with new knowledge about myself. I originally chose it because I felt a special connection to the Bahamas where my husband John and I often sailed. I went to the ashram the first time in 2018, a year-and-a-half after John passed away, and spent evenings on the dock staring at the harbor where I could almost make out our sailboat, Laughing Goat, ghosting by, with younger versions of John, our daughter Kate, and me. At a workshop that year, the speaker asked us to choose a photograph from a pile that spoke to us in some way. From among the pictures of puppies and beaches, I picked a black-and-white drawing of a man on a ledge, eyes wide and frightened, a spotlight shining down from above and a black abyss below. Although I hadn't admitted it to myself, the world was scary at first without John. This year, I understood how much I have healed.

I like having markers that show how I've progressed, even when it often doesn't feel that way. I'd love to hear about any that you've found helpful.

In January, I've been working on my new book, had a delightful interview with Ben Shaw for his terrific podcast, Out the Gate, about Holding Fast: A Memoir of Sailing, Love, and Loss, my book about our sailing journey, and I have a few interviews coming up. I'll post links when they are aired.

If you'd like to read more about my sailing adventure with my husband and daughter, please go here.

If you enjoyed the book, please consider posting a review on Amazon. Simply click the above link, scroll down to the reviews, and write one or two phrases. It's tremendously helpful to writers like me who are not as famous as John Grisham!

Wishing you all a fabulous 2023!

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!

I'm so proud that Holding Fast is #1 in three categories on Amazon: Travel Biographies & Memoirs, Sailing, and Adventurer & Explorer Biographies!!! I want to thank readers and supporters, without whom it would not have been possible. 

I hope that my late husband John got wind of it somehow. He would get a kick out of people reading our story, in his view, a series of crises and misadventures that we scraped through by the skin of our teeth. It made me think of how different it was to write about our story than to experience it. In the moment, it was terror, joy, panic, pride... not knowing what would happen next. 

In writing about it, especially the less stellar moments, I had to grapple with my own reluctance to portray us as anything less than heroes. It was only in later drafts that I was able to write about it more honestly.

I moved to Washington a couple of months ago, and it's my first fall up North in in over twenty years. I'm enjoying the fall colors, and hope you are enjoying fall, wherever you may be!

If you want to read about my sailing adventure with my husband and young daughter, you can find it here:

Amazon

Blue Water Sailing is running an excerpt from Holding Fast, beginning on page 14:

First Passage: Sailing to the Bahamas

Do you have a spot to go that brings you peace and serenity? The Japanese Gardens in Portland, Oregon, near my new home, is one of mine. It's hilly with winding paths and green oases everywhere you look, and seating on benches tucked away under trees. My favorite spot is the Sand and Stone Garden. To me, it appears as a bunch of curious animals seeking something from a Buddha. What they seek is not important—it's the act that matters. As I contemplate it, the only sounds are leaves rustling and water gurgling, the air is fresh, I'm surrounded by greenery, and peace descends. 

The fall issue of Blue Water Sailing is out with a new excerpt from Holding Fast about our first offshore passage, which my husband John and I both dreaded. On we go to the Bahamas! There are some great never-before-seen photos, too. The article begins on page 14. 

First Passage: Sailing to the Bahamas

Next week, I will be the featured author on Bookish Road Trip, a wonderful Facebook group of readers and authors focussed on travel. Mark your calendars for October 20th at 1:00pm EST for my Facebook Live interview with the terrific Mary Sheriff. You need to join the group to watch; go now to their Facebook page and ask to join! Bookish Road Trip

Coming up in the next couple of weeks, I will be interviewed on Bookable Space, a podcast with the marvelous Yvonne Battle-Felton, and Bookshop at the End of the Internet with the awesome Stacey Horan. More details to follow.

Hope you can tune in to some of these events!

For anyone interested, there is also a free book giveaway going on this week with Holding Fast and other memoirs available! Check it out! Memoir Giveaway

Have a wonderfully spooky Halloween, and happy reading!

Holding Fast was entered for several awards early in the year. On the August day I moved into my new apartment in Vancouver, Washington, I received a notice that I had won a Bronze Medal in the non-fiction adventure category in the Readers Favorite Awards! I took it as a great omen for the move and for the new book that I am currently working on.

In my twenties, I lived on a romantic old wooden ferryboat on Long Island Sound with John, who would become my husband. I had never been on the water before, and though at times it was scary, I loved the adventure of never knowing what would happen next (a broken steering cable, a local fisherman dropping off a fresh bluefish). Up to that time, I had a more orderly life.

In my childhood, changes were drastic and frightening, losing what I loved with nothing to replace it. It's taken a lifetime of adventure to have faith that although a new situation may not be what I'm used to, it could amaze me.

How do you deal with change?

Here's a link to the Holding Fast excerpt running in Blue Water Sailing along with some fabulous pictures from our voyage. Check it out! The excerpt begins on page 12. Laughing Goat: A Family Adventure

Read more about the boat in my memoir Holding Fast which outlines the sailing journey I took with my husband and daughter.

https://amzn.to/3S8A4AC

Last week, I moved from New Orleans to the Pacific Northwest. Since college, I have always lived on or near the East Coast. I hadn't counted on the pull of my new grandchild, Max, my daughter Kate's first child.

When Kate was seven, John and I took her from our home in Connecticut to follow John's dream of sailing away–a three-year adventure that I wrote about in Holding Fast. Kate and her husband left New Orleans a year ago, new baby in tow, to follow their own dreams in Washington. 

I came to live in New Orleans after John passed away six years ago. When I arrived, I hurt so much that I could barely speak. With the help of a loving, supportive community and a city that lets people be, I healed. 

I don't know what's in store on this West Coast adventure, but I love seeing Max and all his antics, and it's beautiful here.

Here's a link to the Holding Fast excerpt running in Blue Water Sailing along with some fabulous pictures from our voyage. Check it out! The excerpt begins on page 12. Laughing Goat: A Family Adventure

Read more about the boat in my memoir Holding Fast which outlines the sailing journey I took with my husband and daughter.

https://amzn.to/3S8A4AC

June ended with a bang: a really fun TV interview with Stephanie Larkin, publisher of Red Penguin Books, on Between the Covers TV Show about Holding Fast, my book about the sailing journey I took with my husband and young daughter. Not only were her questions interesting like asking me about my evolution from who I was when I started the book to years later when I finished, but I also enjoyed meeting the other writers whom she interviewed, Amy Bernstein and Shannon Lawrence. We all write in different genres and the conversation was lively. You can see it here. My portion begins around 23:00.

Last week, I had the immense joy of attending my granddaughter's wedding in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The weather and setting could not have been more exquisite. I remember the days when she tormented her younger brother, and seeing the stunning and amazing young woman she's become was a delight. I hadn't visited the Northeast side of the family since pre-Covid and I'm still savoring how great it was to be together. I also took a little time to explore the coast, like Falmouth Harbor above, and to sample numerous lobster rolls.

Hope you all are enjoying summer.

Here's a link to the Holding Fast excerpt running in Blue Water Sailing along with some fabulous pictures from our voyage. Check it out! The excerpt begins on page 12. Laughing Goat: A Family Adventure

Read more about the boat in my memoir Holding Fast which outlines the sailing journey I took with my husband and daughter.
https://www.amazon.com/Holding-Fast-Memoir-Sailing-Love-ebook/dp/B0BBSMBT2G