Tag Archives: Herman Melville

“As the sun pulls away from the shore …

… and our ship sinks slowly in the west ….” I finished Moby Dick more than a week ago, on my last night on the road home from a holiday family visit in Oklahoma. The wide horizons of the Midwest … Continue reading

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Seafaring | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Shore leave ends

Last night I finished The Secret Commonwealth (Vol 2 of Pullman’s follow-up series to His Dark Materials) and sent it back (virtually, and virtuously) to the NYPL. By now, another patient reader has begun this dark and compelling tale. I … Continue reading

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Am revising, Fantasy, NaNoWriMo, Seafaring, short stories | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Steampunk typewriter

I bet you’re wondering about the title for this post. Well, feast your eyes on this: Ooh, ooh! Let me give the prototype a test-run! Note that it can clock your typing speed, keep an eye on your verb tenses, … Continue reading

Posted in Am reading, Am writing, NaNoWriMo | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Am writing, am reading, am really really busy

12 days into November, and I’m on track to finish NaNoWriMo well ahead of the deadline. It’s amazing how much I can accomplish when I have to. The reason I have to: I start a 2½-week trip on 24 November, … Continue reading

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Am writing, NaNoWriMo, Seafaring | Tagged | 8 Comments

The dark sea beckons

Chris at Calmgrove has announced this on his blog, so I guess I can’t back out now: He and I are going to spend the November days after the end of Witch Week reading and blogging about Melville’s monster-book, Moby-Dick, … Continue reading

Posted in Am reading, Seafaring | Tagged | 4 Comments

A well-governed shark

It’s time for another progress report on my reading-the-sea project. For this post, I had planned to include notes on Melville’s Billy Budd, but I’ve been busy having fun instead — fun reading other books, that is, so BB will … Continue reading

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Classic, History, Seafaring | Tagged , , , | 24 Comments

Sea cruise, baby!

No need to get excited. I plan to travel virtually, in honor of Herman Melville’s 200th birthday. Over the next few months I’ll be aboard stories set on ships (with perhaps a rowboat or two) that will take me up … Continue reading

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Classic, Fiction, History, Seafaring | Tagged | 8 Comments