#BookADayUK; A Reader Event For October. Day 22

Okay, so what happened to day 21? Well, the truth is that I was rather otherwise occupied. A neighbour, who was kind and influential during my teenage years, died last week and I attended her funeral, some distance away, yesterday.

But you managed the 'Word tips' post! Yes, that was scheduled, you see?

Anyway, today's theme is 'Makes me want to travel'. Once again, I am persuaded to delve into the past. There is no doubt that reading The Kon-Tiki expedition as a young man fired up my desire to travel. That I was hampered by my first wife, who would neither fly nor travel by sea, somewhat restricted me to this island home. However, my lovely second wife, with whom I've shared 26 years of happiness, is a traveller and treated me to my first trip overseas on my 40th birthday. A fortnight in Rhodes was a real eye-opener and we've visited many more of the Greek islands subsequently.

But it was undoubtedly Thor Heyerdahl's account of his adventures on the oceans that inspired me to travel. It's decades since I read his first book, and I've read most of his others since. Great stuff. If you haven't sampled this author, I suggest you do. You'll learn a little history and geography along the way.

Related articles

• Kon-Tiki
• The Kon-Tiki man at 100 - and his kindred spirits in Maine
• Thor Heyerdahl's 100th Birthday Marked by a Google Doodle
• Thor Heyerdahl: Retrospective on an adventurous anthropologist
• Celebrating Those Adventurers of the Heart
• #BookADayUK; A Reader Event For October. Day 18

Sea And Sardinia, by D.H. Lawrence, Reviewed

Full of detail, contrasts, contradictions and signature Lawrencian repetitions, this travel memoir is a fascinating read. As regular readers of my book reviews will know, an important factor in my enjoyment of any work is how well written is the piece. This one does not disappoint. Lawrence uses language with a mix of expert observation and casual scholarship rooted in instinct. His descriptions of people and place are vital, complex, opinionated and full of character.

First published in 1923, when he and Frieda had been married for 9 years, the book is an account of their travels from Sicily to Sardinia. That he refers to Frieda initially as Queen Bee and then simply as 'q.b.' (yes, in lower case) says something of the relationship between husband and wife. Though it's never stated in any direct way, the reader is left with the impression that the marriage is a strange sort of equal partnership with Frieda accepting Lawrence's particular take on the battle of the sexes. There is almost nothing of their togetherness and, in fact, he rarely refers to her in anything other than an aside, almost as if journeying alone. It's an odd stance, but takes little away from the joy of the journey for the reader, merely excluding the emotional interaction between the pair.

There's an air of the stoic about the way in which he describes various tribulations of the journey. Bleakness, inefficient and argumentative officials, and potential disaster are all taken in his stride. In fact, he seems to actually enjoy some of the privations. Of course, I read this account from the point of view of the modern traveller, for whom the ordinary necessities are taken for granted. Perhaps what the Lawrences faced on their various trips was simply the 'norm' of their day.

Post-First World War Italy and the two islands, under Mussolini's fascist rule at the time, face change and so-called progress with a suspicion that is sometimes palpable. One of the aspects I find so intriguing in the account is that Lawrence, in spite of his often dismissive opinions, is not at all judgemental on most of those occasions when one would expect strong condemnation. He seems to simply accept that things are the way they are.

English: Tunisia, Sardinia, Sicily and The South of Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've never been to Italy, Sicily or Sardinia but I always associated them with warmth. They are, after all, seated well within the Mediterranean. But the book describes the cold on parts of the journey in such detailed terms that the reader shivers with the chill. The landscape varies enormously over the duration of their journey, much of it through rugged countryside still untamed, rather like the Sardinians who he appears to admire for their almost savage way of life.

The tone of the account is that of a man tired of the relative stability and conservatism he sees as personifying his homeland at the time. This is a man in search of something, though it's uncertain what exactly that is. There is admiration as well as opprobrium and he clearly loves the characters they encounter, describing them in living terms that bring them out of the page to sit beside you as you read.

I thoroughly enjoyed the language of the book; the idiosyncratic English style and use of metaphor and simile. I was entertained and informed, intrigued and stimulated. But, would the book encourage me to visit Sardinia? It's a much changed world now, almost a hundred years later, but there was an underlying history and tradition informing the people that left me feeling I wouldn't be comfortable in their company. So, no, it hasn't left me with a yearning to visit the land, unlike Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières, which had me holidaying in Cephalonia the year I read it. The book is, nevertheless, a very good read and I have no reservations about recommending it to armchair travellers.

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Editing Still

Image via WikipediaA further chapter for book 2 edited and ready for correction, and 5 more chapters from book 1 corrected and saved in readiness for the day I approach an agent /publisher.
Another full day, with an early morning rise after Kate returned from her seaside trip for sunrise pix unfulfilled due to cloud cover. At least she has a location for the next attempt. Valerie and I took a different walk and saw more of the local countryside; unfortunately the light wasn't good enough to produce any worthwhile photos.
Sunday dinner was my duty today, as Kate is studying and Valerie is desperately trying to compile her table of fixtures for the bowls league. The chicken was good, served with the trimmings and a glass of vino to help with the preparation.
Now it's time for relaxation in readiness for tomorrow at work. Roll on retirement and a time I can spend more hours actually writing.

An Interview With Author, Lyn Fuchs.

How would you introduce yourself to readers?

My name is Lyn, but I should be called Lyndiana Jones. I've survived enraged grizzlies, erupting volcanoes, Japanese sword fights and giant squid tentacles. I've been entrapped by FBI agents and held at gunpoint by renegade soldiers. I've sung with Bulgaria’s bluesmaster Vasko the Patch and met with Mexico’s Zapatista Army commander Marcos. I've been thrown out of forbidden temples in southern India and passed out in sweat lodges off the Alaskan coast. My navel has been inhabited by beetles and my genitals have been cursed by eunuchs. I've shared coffee with presidents, beer with pirates and goat guts with polygamists. I've contracted malaria, typhoid, salmonella and lovesickness around the world.

I've written about all these adventures in my new book, Sacred Ground & Holy Water: travel tales of enlightenment, released today, and I'm excited to share it.

How did you get started as an author?

My writing habit began when heavy snow sealed me for weeks into a log cabin, amidst the thick timber of Canada's craggy mountains. Life was forever changed. With nothing to do but observe minute details and reflect upon them, I spent silent solitary hours grasping for exact words to convey my experience to others, for when that connection would be restored. Meditations transformed into magazine articles. From eye to mind to pen, the journeys of my life were distilled into the stories that now make up my first book, to the very last one written on an isolated Mexican ranch under a fiery sunset and the influence of tequila. My spirit is within the pages too. If you aren't currently holed up at a snowy cabin or a sunny ranch but wish you were, I hope you'll let this work take you there.

What do you do when you´re not writing?

The phrase “philosophical adventure” describes both my writing and my life as an avid world-trekker with a master´s degree in philosophy. You can often find me in the Canadian rainforest or the Mexican desert. Right now, I´m wandering around doing some research for my second book: Fresh Wind & Strange Fire. Otherwise, I'm professor of communication at the University of Papaloapan in the jungle lowlands of Southern Mexico. I don't have a phone, but I do have an iguana. I enjoy hiking, coffee, meditation and getting feedback from readers. 

How would you describe your new book?

Sacred Ground & Holy Water: travel tales of enlightenment is a collection of seventeen stories filled with humor, tragedy, adventure, sexual innuendo and spiritual insight. These journeys originally appeared in Outdoor Canada, Monday Magazine, Canadian Ethnic Studies, The Dalhousie Review, Eclectica Literary Journal and many other publications. One publisher called this work “the guy-friendly Eat, Pray, Love.” (Would that be Drink, Pray, Spank?) A New York Times bestselling author wrote, "No one since Hunter S. Thompson has loved the wild and woolly world with as much intensity, insight, passion and gusto as Lyn Fuchs in his new collection of travel writing. From Africa, Central America, India, the Pacific Northwest, and back again, Lyn's rambunctious dispatches from the far corners of our strange globe arrive with the full force of whitewater plunging from mountains, lava burning the very soles from our hiking boots. So delicious are the bountiful meals he eats, so beautiful the foreign lasses he dallies with, nothing is left for the reader but a searing jealousy, an aching desire to be out there ourselves.” (No, that wasn't my mom.) I've posted more reviewer descriptions on my blog at lynfuchs.blogspot.com, but ultimately readers will decide the work´s value.

What makes the book a unique experience for those readers?

I think there's a surprising reason why people are so jazzed when reading Sacred Ground & Holy Water. That would be editor AND SINGER Catherine Treadgold. Have you ever read a work in which the engaging stuff was front-loaded for bookstore browsers, while the remaining pages were a bit of a snooze or even a lunch bag letdown? Who hasn´t? Fortunately, Cat´s experience thrilling audiences long after the tickets are sold has given this book a stunning wax and polish. She suggested ordering the stories with readers, not just sales, in mind. So, the text has a musical performance rhythm and flow. Fast-moving easy-access pieces come first. Mind-blowing heart-moving pieces (interspersed with funny/sexy interludes) come next. Then "gonzo razzle-dazzle verbal fireworks" (in the words of one reviewer) wrap up the show. Some readers may wonder "Who let the dogs out?" in response to my humor, but we can all thank Coffeetown Press for letting the Cat out of the standard editor´s bag. Let´s hope there are enough cats on Broadway that she won´t quit her day job. 

Where can readers get a copy of the book?

Sacred Ground & Holy Water is available in Kindle and print editions on Amazon.com. Hardcover and paperback editions are available through Baker and Taylor or the Ingram catalog. Plus, books can be ordered thru coffeetownpress.com and other ebook versions will be sold on Smashwords.