EVENTS
October 12, 2021, Pre-order on Amazon
October 13, 2021, Press release (see below)
October 19, 2021, Launch day! Holding Fast will be published by White Bird Publications. Susan's Launch Party will be held at Blue Cypress Books, 8123 Oak St., New Orleans, 6:00-7:30 pm. If you missed it, it's available on youtube! Susan's Book Launch Party
October 23, 2021, Susan will be at The Book & The Bean, 235 Girard St., Mandeville, LA. signing books from 9:00-11:00 am!
October 26, 2021, Nola.com published an article online about Susan's sailing adventures and Holding Fast. Shooting Stars and Seasickness
October 27, 2021, Susan will be joined by her daughter Kate at Garden District Books, 2727 Prytania St., New Orleans, 6:00-7:30pm for a reception, reading and Q&A. (Cancelled due to weather and will be rescheduled)
Garden District Evening with Susan and Kate
October 28, 2021, Reyn Reed @reynstudio released a podcast interview with Susan. Living the Dream: Reyn's Interview with Susan
November 5th, 2021, Member Spotlight in Authors Guild. Member Spotlight
November 17th, 2021, Susan will be at Garden District Books, 2727 Prytania St., New Orleans for a reception, reading and Q&A. Hope to see y'all there!
November 28th, 2021, Susan will be in The Villages, Florida, for a reading, Q&A and book-signing at the home of Pat Smith at 3:00pm. Invitation-only as seating is limited! Contact susan@susan-cole.com.
December 14th, 2021, Susan will discuss her book with a book club from Vancouver, British Columbia. (virtual)
January 26th, 2022, Susan has been invited for a talk and book-signing at Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans at 6:00-7:30pm to members and their guests.
January 30th, 2022, Susan will be the featured author on Spotlight Sunday in the international Facebook group of memoir readers and writers, We Love Memoirs. It's ongoing throughout the day, and she'll take questions beginning at 10:00am Central Time, whatever you'd like to ask. (it's monitored!) If you want to join, here's a link to the Facebook page, We Love Memoirs
February 2nd, 2022, Susan will participate in a Book Giveaway on the Facebook group, Bookish Road Trip. Join the group, then pop-in on February 2, 2022 for your chance to win books and other bookish swag. Discover new authors, new books, and good times.
February 25th, 2022, Susan will be the guest author in a memoir class at the Simon Fraser University Writers Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia.
March 1st, 2022, Holding Fast is now on the Best Coast Canvas list of books about seafaring women, written by women authors! Seafaring Books by Women Authors
May 19th, 2022, Susan has been invited to the American Yacht Club in Rye, NY, to participate in their Speaker Series. She will be the featured speaker in May, followed by a book-signing.
June 22nd, 2022, Susan's interview with publisher Stephanie Larkin on Between the Covers TV Show is now on air. Susan is the third writer featured, beginning at minute 23:00. Interview about Holding Fast
June 24th, 2022, An excerpt of Holding Fast is featured in the spring issue of Blue Water Sailing beginning on page 12.
Laughing Goat: A Family's Adventure
July 18th, 2022, Susan will be interviewed on Bookshop at the End of the Internet, a terrific podcast for booklovers with Stacey Horan. Link to the interview will follow when it is released.
September 30th, 2022, An excerpt of Holding Fast is featured in the fall issue of Blue Water Sailing beginning on page 14. First Passage: Sailing to the Bahamas
October 12th, 2022, Susan will be a guest on Bookable Space, a wonderful new podcast launching in July, for a reading and Q&A with host and writer, Yvonne Battle-Felton, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Holding Fast's publication. Link to the interview will follow when it is released.
October 20th, 2022, Susan will be interviewed on Facebook Live at 1:00pm EST by the wonderful Mary Sheriff on Bookish Road Trip, a great Facebook group for readers and authors focussed on travel. To view or participate in the interview, please go to Bookish Road Trip on Facebook, and ask to join the group.
November 7th, 2022, Holding Fast is selected to a Best Books of 2022 list featuring such authors as F. Scott Fitzgerald.
November 20th, 2022, An excerpt from Holding Fast is featured on Sailish.com, Kurt Hoehne's fantastic West Coast sailing blog.
January 20th, 2023, Susan will be a guest on Out the Gate podcast hosted by the terrific West Coast sailor, Ben Shaw. Link to the interview will follow when it is released.
February 10th, 2023. Susan's interview with Stacey Horan on her terrific podcast, Bookshop at the End of the Internet, is live and you can find it here.
March 9, 2023. Another excerpt from Holding Fast is featured on Sailish.com, Kurt Hoehne's wonderful West Coast sailing blog. This excerpt is from the chapter on Hurricane Mitch, about Susan's handling the boat with John away.
March 22nd, 2023. Susan has been invited as guest speaker at the Oregon Women's Sailing Association on March 22nd 6:00-8:00pm at Rose City Yacht Club in Portland, Oregon, followed by a book-signing.
April 15th, 2023, Susan and other Pacific Northwest authors will be at Northwest Garage Sale at Clark County Fairgrounds in Ridgefield, Washington. Signed books will be available for sale.
May 1, 2023, An excerpt of Holding Fast is featured in the winter issue of Blue Water Sailing beginning on page 12. Havana to Isla Mujeres
June 1, 2023, Susan's interview about her family's sailing adventure in Holding Fast with the delightful Yvonne Battle-Felton on her wonderful podcast, Bookable Space, is now live here.
July 23, 2023, Susan will be at NW Book Fun in the Sun from 11:00am-3:00pm with other local authors at Covington House, 4201 Main bSt., Vancouver, WA.
September 1, 2023, An excerpt of Holding Fast is featured in the summer issue of Blue Water Sailing beginning on page 14. Riding Out Hurricane Mitch in Guatemala
March 1, 2024, Susan will be signing books at the Local Authors Fair, Clark County Historical Museum, 5:00pm-8:00pm.
Press Release
Sail Away with the Original Digital Nomads in Holding Fast, a Memoir Launching on October 19th
From Madison Avenue to Riding Out Hurricane Mitch in Guatemala: Reluctantly Leaving Everything Behind to Follow Her Husband's Dream, a Woman Finds Herself
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, UNITED STATES, October 13, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Media Advisory
Susan Cole's Holding Fast1: A Memoir of Sailing, Love, and Loss will be published by White Bird Publications on October 19th, 2021. The Book Launch Party3 will be hosted by Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans on October 19th, 6:00-7:30 pm. Media invited.
It is Cole's first book. She is in her 70s, and at work on her next book, proving that it is never too late to follow your dreams.
She met the man, John Russell, who would become her husband when they were in their twenties. He dreamed of sailing away. Cole dreamed of settling down. She had never sailed before.
Their first home was a romantic, leaky 1903 ferryboat. It sank.
When their daughter was seven, they left their quaint Connecticut farmhouse behind and sailed to the Caribbean. Cole's journey took her from the glitzy world of Madison Avenue advertising to riding out Hurricane Mitch, the largest hurricane on record at the time, on a sailboat in Guatemala. She hadn't wanted to go in the first place but ended up on a life-changing odyssey.
Years later, Cole's life forever changed after John passed away, but the courage that she found when she stepped outside her comfort zone and sailed off stayed with her.
Susan Cole has lived on or around sailboats for more than thirty years. In between sails, she earned a B.A. at Barnard College, an M.A. at Columbia University, and for many years, ran a successful market research firm in New York. Her essays have appeared in literary journals and sailing magazines.
Cole was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She has lived in New York, Connecticut, Florida, and Mexico; and now lives in New Orleans with her cat.