The Beginning

This is a blog about a recovering commercial fisherman writing about commercial fishing. Well, my experiences about fishing. Ok, a memoir about fishing. Except I hate the word memoir. Don’t ask me why. Ok, you can ask me but I can’t really answer that. I guess there are just some words that some people like. I once met a guy who hated the word Petri dish. Petri dish. That didn’t mean he didn’t like biology or anything, just that word. And I mean he really hated it. I sent him a made up joke one using it in the punch line (sorry, it was like 15 years ago and I no longer remember the joke) and he said he was so pissed he got up and punched the guy who was next to him. So, OK, I don’t hate the word memoir as much as this guy hated the word Petri dish, but it does grate me. I guess we have the French to thank for that. This blog will take you along my journey of writing my first book (unless you count the book I had to write in 7th grade, it was something about a banana with super powers who helped people, Banananman, but that doesn’t really count). So far, it’s called FISH TALES: something something (I’m not sure what yet). Again, puny. I know, what can I say, I’m a puny gal.
So, I’m not really sure how to write a book. Or get it published and actually have people read it. I mean, I have some ideas, but this is all a new experience for me. We’ll see how it goes. So far I have about 100 pages or so. But, well, I have 100 pages written in Word, size 12 font Calibri. I’m not sure how many pages that would add up to in a book. It’s a series of short stories from my days of living the dream on the high seas. It all started this spring (the writing, not the fishing). I was finishing up grad school and writing my professional project (aka thesis). I had done tons and tons of research and writing the previous fall. Then a few months before my project was due, I changed my topic. It must be the Aquarius in me. We can stop on a dime mid stride, change course, and never look back.
It started when my professor told me to follow my passion. This is great advice, but easier said than done. Follow my passion. Great. Ok. What are my passions? It’s a good question to ask yourself. What gives you energy, opposed to what takes energy? Well, I like writing. I like writing about traveling and fishing. (I should probably take the time to clarify one term I’m using: fishing. When I say fishing I mean commercial fishing, not sport fishing. I don’t sport fish. Not that there is anything wrong with it. Its just that catching fish one at a time doesn’t really do it for me. However, writing commercial fishing each time is a drag. Thinking commercial fishing is a drag. Hence, “fishing”. “Great” she said. “Traveling and commercial fishing”. (That time, it was my professor speaking, not me). “Write about commercial fishing. Everybody has travelled. I’ve travelled, we’ve all travelled, but we all haven’t commercial fished. How many woman can say they commercial fished?” Well, I’m not sure so I can’t really answer that. Besides, I think it was a rhetorical question anyway.
So, I did. That’s how I started writing about my experiences fishing. I wrote about my first time out and not knowing what in the hell I had just gotten myself into. I wrote about some of the beautiful sights I saw, the food I ate, the places I fished, the people I met, the times I though I was going to die, and the struggles I went through. I turned in my project and got an A. And, I had so much fun writing it. It actually did give me energy. I can’t really explain it, but I was happier then than I had been in a really, really long time, if ever. I still am. I like riding the happy wave. I would encourage you all to find your own passions and hop on the happy wave.