Becoming a Sailor

8 posts

Creative

Creative is where I use figurative language, lifting me from the fetters of my former life as a technical writer where I was bound by strict writing conventions and the authoritative voice.

  1. David Crystal Writes Back

    Lorraine's First Person essay in The Globe and Mail: our family dictionary, Betty, a famous linguist, and finding joy in what really matters.

  2. Our Sailing Familect: 1 Unique Word Drops Every Hour

    A familect is a family's shared made-up language. Ours fills the SV Aphrodite Family Dictionary, with 100+ words, and a new one appears every hour.

  3. Family Cruising Crew and Port of Spain Market: Two Articles

    My two articles in All At Sea's December 2017 issue: choosing family crew for cruising, and dawn market day in Port of Spain, Trinidad, with links.

  4. Leaving Luperón, Dominican Republic: Getting Your Despacho

    Leaving Luperón after six months: a new Navy comandante, talk of required surveys, and how local helpers, raisins and coffee got us our despacho.

  5. Cycling the Pacific Coast: 1,000 Miles with a Parrot

    In 2005, before kids, Rick and I cycled 1,000 miles from Abbotsford, Canada, to San Francisco with our parrot Dixie. What it was like, plus the article.

  6. What is a .cat Domain? Why Our Catamaran Blog Uses One

    What is a .cat domain? Using one for our catamaran blog meant agreeing to promote Catalan culture, so here is my first post on Catalonia and Salvador Dalí.

  7. Short Fiction Example: Chicken Dinner Delight (219 Words)

    A 219-word short fiction example I was paid to write in 1995, then a breakdown of how it works: sensory imagery, contrasting tone and hidden metaphor.

  8. Sailing Poetry: Did John Donne Know More Than Coleridge?

    Sailing poetry compared: John Donne, who sailed to Cádiz and the Azores, and his compass image, against Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner.