I am a writer living on the central coast of California. After spending many years living on a small boat and sailing around the world, I came to appreciate how tiny and insignificant we humans seem in the natural world that surrounds and supports us. We appear to be living on the edge of the wild, the largely untamed and unknown world into which we are embedded, exploring the borderlands that lay between the human and the more-than-human worlds, and the ways they overlap and mirror each other.
Now that I am again living on the edge of the wild in a home bordering a nature preserve, I find myself re-exploring those borderlands, not only through my encounters with the wildlife and natural habitat that now surrounds me, but also through reflecting on those years living on the sea, and through my writing, my artwork, and the books I’m reading. The artwork in the heading is from one of my paintings (water color and oil pastel).
I am currently seeking representation for my second novel This Sea Within which takes a young woman down into Central America in the 1970s where she meets the leader of a rebel force fighting to overthrow a corrupt government. Excerpt from my query:
Lena Landon, an antiwar activist in California, is faced with a decision that will change her life: Start graduate school as planned, or travel below the border to San Balanque, the homeland of her estranged mother to learn more about her heritage.
Landing in a war-torn country with a history and culture foreign to her, Lena finds herself in the middle of the unrest that has swept the little nation. She is forced to quickly learn who to trust and who to avoid. She falls in with Daniel, a journalist working the rebel beat, and meets Raoul, the charismatic and handsome leader of the rebel forces fighting to free San Balanque from its authoritarian ruler. Instantly attracted to Raoul and his ideas for creating a democratic society, Lena joins the rebels.
Lena’s transformation from a naïve, idealistic antiwar Pacifist to a full-fledged Freedom Fighter comes at a cost as she confronts the moral ambiguity and harsh realities of guerilla warfare. As she and Raoul grow closer, Raoul’s brother, a commander in the rebellion, begins to see her as a threat and rival. All the while, she closely guards a terrible secret she fears will turn Raoul and the rebels against her: Lena’s mother is married to the enemy, the right-hand man of the brutal dictator they are fighting.
More about the story and the writing process can be found at the link above.
My first novel From the Far Ends of the Earth is currently represented by Robin Rue, a senior agent at Writers House. It has not been published yet.
One day Fran heads toward the grocery store and keeps on going till she reaches the tip of South America. Meanwhile she leaves behind an empty hole in the lives of her family, an insecure daughter trying to cope with the rigors of graduate school and lackluster love life, a son strung out on heroin, filled with self-pity and rage, and a husband who plots her course across the continent with push pins on a map as he pays her credit card bills. How they cope with her mysterious disappearance and the cryptic phone messages and photographs she sends them, as well as rediscover each other and forge new relationships in her absence, creates the heart of this novel.
More about the novel and an excerpt published online can be read at the link above.
I am also working on a series of books for middle graders about a family that goes sailing around the world, based loosely on our own journey.
Questions & Answers
I was honored to be nominated for an award which came with these questions. The answers tell a little more about me, so I thought I’d include them here.
1. What is the most difficult piece of writing you’ve ever written?
All writing is difficult for me, but most recently, the blog post The Deer’s Scream, My Mother’s Eyes, and the Ripe Strawberry was especially difficult.
2. Do you do your best writing in the morning or at night?
Morning, especially when I first awake, in bed, on a yellow pad in pen.
3. What is your favorite quote?
I have so many, it’s hard to choose. Here’s is something from the German poet Novalis that I recently came across and love: “The seat of the soul is where the inner world and outer world meet. Where they overlap, it is in every point of the overlap.”
4. Where is the most interesting place you have ever lived?
Ah, so many places to choose from our travels. It may be safest to say living on our sailboat La Gitana was by far the most interesting place I’ve lived.
6. What is your favorite month and why?
I’m not sure I have a favorite. Maybe July–deep summer, long hot days, balmy nights, everything blooming and bright.
7. Are you superstitious about anything?
I’m not superstitious, really, although I’ve lived in haunted houses, and had a “demon” leaning on my chest, which I’ve written about on this blog. But I still don’t quite believe in them–odd, huh? Maybe not. I believe in lots of things I’ve never seen (quarks, black holes, God, world peace, my heart, Buddha, the Tao, infinity, intuition). So maybe it’s not so strange I don’t quite “believe” in things I’ve actually seen.
Deborah J. Brasket 
Very intriguing, your contemplation and investigation of the borderlands. I’m there when I dance and choreograph, and now when I write, among other creative endeavors. And of course when I’m at the sea. Lucky you: You live there! Thanks for your comment and for liking my post. Peace….
I appreciate your stopping by and leaving a comment. You are a multi-talented artist. I probably won’t ever be a dancer (I wish!) but I’d love to paint someday, water colors, I think. Drawing too. I like clean white space with spare lines.
Wow!! I would give anything to finally settle in a home in the edge of the wilderness… Having been to forests ever since I could remember, I guess nothing could ever beat that!! Love your blog!!
Cheers,
Sumithra.
Thank you Sumithra. We love living here and feel so blessed.
Hi Deborah, thanks for stopping by my blog…especially since it gives me an opportunity to check out yours which looks like wild fun.
You are so welcome. I love meeting new bloggers.
Hi Deborah, I nominated you for the Leibster Blog Award. Please for the love of god don’t ask me what it means other than this: I think you’re an incredible writer. You can accept the award from my page under the Awards tab. I am looking forward to reading more and more of your writing!
Wow! I’m honored. Thank you so much. This is especially meaningful to me because I think you are an incredible writer also!
Thank YOU! You have inspired me, and you’ve been so kind as to read my work. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
My pleasure. You too.
Thank you so much for liking my Birthday Roses. I glad you stopped by as it lead me to your wonderful blog.
Deborah, I’ve nominated you for the “Family of Bloggers” Award. To see the nomination, visit http://anotherlovelyday.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/overdue-thank-yous-awards-and-a-little-winnie-the-pooh.
Thanks so much for your friendship and followship.
~ Sandy
What a surprise, and an honor! Thank you so much. I do think of our blogging community as a family, so very appropriate award.
I’m betting interesting does not cover half your life; I look forward to reading more. Thank you for visiting my blog.
My pleasure–I look forward to seeing more of yours as well.
Greetings from Australia,
I really enjoyed reading about your perception and experience of the world. I fully understand your desire to live close to nature so as to ignite that creative spark within you so that it becomes a burning flame. All the best and God bless
Thank you so much! We loved Australia when we were there sailing along the Great Barrier Reef, and were sorely tempted to immigrate there! All the best to you and yours too.
You are most welcome Deborah, Australia is indeed a beautiful place to experience and has a relatively easy and relaxed way of life as compared to the rest of the World. I sincerely wish you and your family health and happiness wherever you may be . 🙂
God bless you
It’s late and words left me long ago but I couldn’t stop reading even after I was just skimming….will enjoy coming back here again and again. :~)
What a lovely thing to say. I’m so happy you stopped by and look forward to your next visit.
Deborah, how are you?
Good news, we are giving you the “BEST MOMENT AWARD“. Congratulations and enjoy the rest of the day!
I’m honored! Thank you.
Glad I stumbled upon this page. You have been writing for long. Let me ask a different question. Why do you write at all?
I have been writing a long time, but blogging less than a year so far. I write to know what I think, what I feel, and to learn more about myself and others and the world. Writing is a form of discovery–it allows me to go deeper and wider than I would otherwise. I actually wrote a post on this called “Writing – A Leap of Faith”. It’s listed in the favorites column on the right if you want to click on it and learn more. I so appreciate your visiting here and leaving a question to ponder.
I’m really choosy about what blogs I follow – your on the list!
I am honored! Thank you.
Thanks for sharing about yourself, Deborah.
Living on the edge of the wild, and borderlands I am exploring:
Well I like to sail and be small too, also in deep alpine valleys or high on the summit.
Right now I am experiencing the mysterious borderland of marriage, two and one.
I am exploring a wild frontier called ‘meaning’ with a bit of philosophy and semiotics. My goal is to understand relationships better to bless people and be a better translator. I’ll leave you with a quote that your about section brought to my mind. I disagree with him, but not entirely.
“The meaning is not on the phrase like the butter on the bread, like a second layer of ‘psychic reality’ spread over the sound: it is the totality of what is said, the integral of all the differentiations of the verbal chain; it is given with the words for those who have ears to hear. And conversely the whole landscape is overrun with words as with an invasion, it is henceforth but a variant of speech before our eyes, and to speak of its ‘style’ is in our view to form a metaphor. In a sense the whole of philosophy, as Husserl says, consists in restoring a power to signify, a birth of meaning, or a wild meaning, an expression of experience by experience, which in particular clarifies the special domain of language. And in a sense, as Valéry said, language is everything, since it is the voice of no one, since it is the very voice of the things, the waves, and the forests. And what we have to understand is that there is no dialectical reversal from one of these views to the other; we do not have to reassemble them into a synthesis: they are two aspects of the reversibility which is the ultimate truth.”
— Maurice Merleau-Ponty as translated by Alphonso Lingis
Thank you for sharing what borderlands you are exploring in your life too. I will have to ponder that quotation a bit–I’m not sure I fully understand it, but it certainly is interesting and thought provoking. I’m not sure what he meant by “a wild meaning” but I love that phrase, and I suppose we are free to glean from it whatever “meaning” it signifies to “us.”
Wow. Just wow. What a joy to find (and follow) your blog! Grateful you found me first so I could retrace the bread crumbs back to you. You have made this truly an art form. I am prone to binge-reading so I may just sit up late one night with you…..figuratively, of course!
take care and thanks again,
Stephanie
How great was this, to wake up and find your comment in my inbox this morning. You’ve truly made my day. BTW, after discovering your delightful blog, I was inspired to question my own “oh so very serious” approach to things on this blog and wonder why. Then I sat down and wrote a post that will be coming soon on “the serious side of humor.” Yes, seriously.
I love that paradox! The serious side of humor! It’s just right for the flip too, “The humorous side of serious?” Shall I leave both to you, Deborah??
No, go for it! “The humorous side of serious” should be hilarious, as well as enlightening. I’ll look forward to seeing what you do with this.
Copy that. 10-4…Over and Out!
Thank you so much for visiting my blog so I could find yours! What a beautiful, thoughtful, place you have created here!
Thank you, Beth. So glad you followed me here.
Hello. I came across your blog in the most unexpected of ways just now–Google searching for information about whether the wild turkeys in my neighborhood might end up in our new pool, which led me to a picture of a wild turkey, which is somehow connected to one of your blog posts! I’ve not found that particular post, but got drawn in by your blog as a whole. Looking forward to reading and seeing more from you.
So glad you found me! I’ve had encounters like that too, searching for one thing, and then stumbling across something else that really speaks to me. Serendipity, I thing they call it.
Thanks for the “Like” on my posts “Earths Music ” and “Sky Shadow”. I’ve been reading some of your posts and I think we have some experiences in common. I also love the wild places. Many years ago my favorite thing to do was to backpack solo into remote regions where I had many strange and curious experiences. Strange and curious because at that time I lived and worked in an urban environment. To the animals native to those areas the things I thought curious and strange were probably considered routine and commonplace and it was me that was strange and curious. The first time I was in a remote wilderness I was standing just east of the Chisos looking out across the wide expanse of the Chihuahua Desert and I remember feeling a vague sense of claustiphobia. Now that’s has to be listed in the strange column.
I also lived in a “haunted” house growing up. Whatever it was we named it Sid.
How interesting! Both your experience in the wilderness and with “Sid.” It sounds like we do have a lot in common.
Just read your poem, ‘Playing with Light’. I just love it. So inspiring. I look forward to reading more of your writings!
Thank you so much! I’m a little self-conscious about my poetry, putting it out there, unlike my prose, which I have no problem doing. So when my poetry speaks to others, it’s very special to me.
Just found your blog – and somehow it feels like a gentle, and necessary, push to step back from self-absorption – thank you.
Thank you, and to others who have written here but who somehow I never responded. Your lovely comment means a lot to me.
Thanks Deborah. Pleased to have found your intriguing blog. I look forward to explorations here. Regards from Thom at the immortal jukebox.
A very belated “thank you”, Thom! I don’t know how I missed this before now.
you are welcome. Hope you enjoy The Jukebox. Thom
I quite like the list of things you believe in (those that cannot be seen). And I like the way you look at and experience life in general 🙂
Thank you! I hope you enjoy your visit here.
Thank you Deborah for following my Thoughts & Sensibilities blog. I invite you to my other blog: Mystic Strings http://bit.ly/1Jc5tGN – I appreciate to have writers read and comment 🙂
My pleasure, Elizabeth, I’ll be sure to check it out.
Hello, Deborah! So very nice to meet you 🙂 I look forward to discovering your blog. Thank you for stopping by and liking my painting – I appreciate it.
All the best,
Gregoria
Hi Gregoria. It’s wonderful to meet you too. I’m looking forward to exploring your blog more too. Thank you for coming here and leaving a note.
It was my pleasure! 🙂
Hi Deborah, Thank you for liking my blog. I followed your footsteps and reached your blog. Lovely descriptive and deeply reflective ways of exploring life and world. I intend to discover more in your blog. Thank you again.
Thank you for following me home, Sabari. I’ve met a lot of fine friends that way. Let’s keep in touch.