KristinaStanley

Sailboat Stored For The Summer

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Up on the hard, as they say. Mattina, our Lagoon 380, has been stored for the season.

Every year the list of tasks seems to get easier as we store and secure the boat for the summer.

The handy Excel spreadsheet seeps into every aspect of my life, including keeping track of boat tasks. We have a three page to-do list to remind us of everything that needs to be done.

Some of the important items that keep our boat in great condition include:

  • Taking all sails and canvas down and storing below
  • Flushing water maker
  • Waxing
  • Maintaining engines and genset
  • Emptying food lockers, fridge and freezer (Get to eat everything left in one day)
  • Washing all settee covers
  • Plugging through hulls (don’t want any unwanted critters to get aboard)
  • And on and on it goes…

It’s sad to put the boat away for the summer, but we look forward to getting back on board in the fall. The more we do in the spring, the easier it is in the fall when we are anxious to get going again.

Interruptions While Writing

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

#writetip

When you write at home do you get interrupted? I’ve heard it said that you wouldn’t get interrupted if you worked in an office. Well, I’ve worked in an office, and I did get interrupted, just not from my family. I think we all get interrupted.

They key for me is to not let it happen at critical moments. At work I could shut my office door. At home, maybe there isn’t an office door.

Here’s what did the trick for me. I explained why a 10 second interruption hurt my writing.

When I’m writing, I hold 2, 3 sometimes 4 ideas in my head at a time. If someone says “Do you know where the (blank – and you can fill in whatever blank is) is?,  the ideas in my head crash to the ground and shatter. I then spend the next idea picking them up and putting them back together again.

This description seemed to work and now I’m left alone unless there is a true emergency.

Now all you need to do is define a true emergency.

Related articles

Running Safely with Your Dog

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

#dogs

Farley, my wheaten terrier, loves to run. If he can run off leash, he is ecstatic. I only let him do this if he is in a safe place. In the photo, he’s running in a wheat field in Manitoba.

When I take him running with me on the road or on paths he is on a leash.

For my safety, I have a leash with a belt. I wear it around my waist and that way, if he jerks sideways at, oh say a rabbit, he won’t jar me. This protects my knees and shoulders.

But really I’m writing about dog safety.

First, learn the dog’s limits. Farley can do 10K. More than that and he seems sore. I’m not sure running in a straight line at a consistent pace is what dogs are build for.  He can run forever off leash and not show any signs of soreness.

I have a command for him to run on my right side. He’s been trained to heel on my left, but this doesn’t work while running. On the right, he is tucked between me and the side of the road.

This allows cyclists to pass without the worry that Farley will dart in front of them, and it allows me to be sure he won’t dart unexpectedly in front of a passing car. If there are other dog walkers coming the other way, I have better control of Farley so he can’t stop of a visit.

If you have any tips about running with your dog, I’d love to hear them.

English to German: Translation Process

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Translation Process

It’s been two days of translation work and we are at the end of Chapter one. Since this is the first time my translator and I have worked together on a project we are carefully working on each sentence.

Our process:

–       Read sentence out loud in English.

–       Read sentence out loud in German.

–       Discuss whether we have it right.

–       Investigate words in two printed dictionaries and three online ones.

–       Agree on changes.

–       Start on next sentence.

I think I might have to stay here all summer! 🙂

As we go along, the work should be faster. We understand each other better and are quicker at deciding what word we want.

Land Crabs

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

#sailing The creatures we meet while living on a sailboat can be alien.

These creatures come out at night. They scratch their way across the sand and sound like something out of a horror movie. Come to think of it, they look like something out of a horror movie. If you don’t know what they are, they can be a bit scary. They are slow moving, and as far as I know, harmless.

We spotted this beauty on an early morning run.

 

A Novel: From English to German

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

The German translation of my novel Fracture Line  has arrived, and it feels like Christmas. It’s exciting to read my novel in another language, but now the hard part begins.

Working with a translator is an interesting process. We plan to spend the week discussing the nuances of each sentence and whether the voice sounds like my writing.

Dialogue is an area that we need to be careful with. I may want the character to sound sad, but in the translation they come off as angry.

And then there is proofreading. I thought proofreading in English was hard. Ha! The joke is on me.

I have a good relationship with my translator and know enough German to read, but I wonder how an author knows their novel has been translated in the manner they intended to write it if they don’t know the language. I guess it’s just one more mystery in the publishing industry.

Dogs Underway

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

#dogs #sailing

Does your dog have a favourite place to sit when you’re sailing?

Farley likes to sit on our trampoline if and only if:

– we are on a beam reach

– the seas are calm

– the engines are off

– the sails are up.

If all of these criteria are not met, he’ll hide down below or in the cockpit. If the seas are rough, he has a spot in the cockpit where he can brace himself on all four sides. If it’s rough enough for us (the humans) to be tethered to the boat, then Farley wears a tether too. He has his own harness, tether and life jacket.

Breaking The Rules

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

#writetip

As an author starting out, there is a ton of advice to consider. I’ve been reading blogs with different opinions on this one. Some say follow all the rules. Some say follow none of the rules – it’s your art, your creative process.

Here are my thoughts on “Do you have to follow the rules?”

Some of the rules (advice) include:

  • Don’t change point of view mid scene
  • Don’t open a scene with a character waking up
  • Eliminate/minimize adjectives
  • Don’t use names that are hard to pronounce
  • Etc.

My advice: learn the rules, use the rules, become an expert at the rules, and then break them to your heart’s content.

Being a master at something is tremendously satisfying and, I think, worth the effort.

National Family Island Regatta

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments

#sailing

An amazing time to be in the Bahamas is for the National Family Island Regatta. The regatta is held in April every year.

George Town celebrates on land. The racers get wild on the water. Cruiser take their dinghies out  and watch the action. Some lucky cruisers get to join in and get on one of the boats.

Positive and Negative Feedback on Your Novel

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

#writetip

How do you know if your reader is any good?

Does your reader only give you negative feedback? That might be okay, but it won’t tell you what you’re good at.

Does your reader only give you positive feedback? That might feel great, but it’s not going to help you improve your writing.

To me the best reader gives me both positive and negative feedback. The positive keeps me motivated and tells me what I can relax about. The negative tells me what I need to work on.

What type of feedback do you like to receive and how does it help you?