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| Sailing Down the Moonbeam - Mary Gottschalk |
Q: Mary, how did you and your husband decide to go on your trip? Was there a triggering event or did the idea evolve over time?
A: Tom and I were
experienced sailors and loved working with nature to get where we wanted to go,
and we intended to circumnavigate the world when we retired. However, the decision to do it in 1985 was
spur-of-the-moment: we first discussed it in late January and sailed out of New
York Harbor only 7 months later.
At the time, we were
very successful in our Wall Street careers, but at age 40, the decision seemed
like a huge risk. We felt the
opportunity to see more of the world while we were still young and healthy was
worth it. It was the right decision.
When we eventually went back to work, we both ended up in jobs in which we were
much happier and probably more successful than we would have been if we hadn’t
taken the trip.
Q: Your book
‘Sailing Down the Moonbeam’ is the story of the amazing sailing trip you took
around the world. Did you plan to write
this book before you went on your voyage, or was it something that you decided
later?
A: I had no plans to do a
memoir when we left, although I did keep a journal from the first day.
It took nearly two
decades for me to appreciate that sailing is a metaphor for life: nothing ever
works out as planned and you often end up someplace very different than you
intended to go. But if you make the most
of every moment — instead of trying to control the outcome — you will enjoy the
trip a lot more. When you apply that to
everyday life, you’ll be much happier if you do what you love rather than
trying to meet the expectations of others.
Q: It is an
intensely personal memoir, so what was it like to open up your private thoughts
and emotions to the world?
A: Moonbeam wasn’t
cathartic in the traditional sense, as I had made peace with both my mother and
my ex-husband long before I started the draft in 2002.
That said, one of the
extraordinary benefits of Moonbeam was learning how many people had unpleasant
or embarrassing experiences that I thought were unique to me. I learned this
from my original writing group, but it became even more apparent from the
responses readers after it was published.
Q: How long did it take to write the book?
A: It was six years from
the time I first put pen to paper until I had a printed copy in my hand.
Q: Did you hit any writing obstacles along the
way?
A: For sure. The writing process broke into three phases:
- Trying to figure out what from my 400 pages of journals was relevant to a story of personal growth. For example, we spent six wonderful weeks in the Dominican Republic, but nothing happened there that influenced the way I changed or the way Tom and I thought about our trip. So it doesn’t appear in Moonbeam.
- Creating 3-dimensional characters on the page. While I was an accomplished business writer, I had little experience with the kinds of physical and emotional details that make for appealing and intriguing characters.
- Keeping the reader turning the pages. I knew that dialogue was key, but my journal did not include any, so I put words into people’s mouths, words that reflected both the emotional content of the scene and the way that individual tended to talk. But this can be dangerous territory in a memoir.
Q: Looking back on your experience of writing
the book, is there anything you wish you had done differently?
A: I loved learning the
craft of creative writing … developing intimate relationships with the other
women in my writing group … and of course, gaining additional insight into
myself along the way.
The hardest part was
marketing. As a run-of-the-mill introvert,
I dislike drawing attention to myself. I
accomplished far more than I ever imagined I could, in terms of reaching out to
bookstores, book clubs, and libraries, but I left a lot of good soil untilled.
I' m approaching it quite differently for the novel that will come out in the
spring.
Q: Why did you choose to go down the route of
self-publishing?
A: I had two main reasons.
- As a first time author writing about sailing story from landlocked Iowa, I thought getting an agent and publisher would be almost impossible.
- I’d heard so many horror stories about losing control of your book … the cover, the editing, the price, and the timing. Having gone to the trouble of writing it, I didn’t want someone to make changes I didn’t agree with.
Q: In your opinion, what are some of the pros
and cons of self-publishing?
A: The pros are easy. You can control pretty much everything, except
the marketing. And if you have both
print and e-book versions, you make a lot more money on the e-book that you
would if you go with a traditional publisher.
Q: From writing a memoir, you moved into writing fiction with your novel ‘A Fitting Place’. What attracted you to writing fiction?
A: There were two
factors. One is that I really enjoyed
the experience of creating characters and dialogue.
The second was that I
really believe that there are huge personal and/or professional benefits to stepping
out of your comfort zone. The memoir was
based stepping out from a geographical perspective. By contrast, the protagonist in my novel never
strays far from her home, but is hurled outside of her emotional comfort by
circumstances.
Q: Could you give us a short extract from your
current project?
A: A very short section
from Part III
'As she put her toothbrush in the holder, the light caught the stones
in her pendant and cast two small red discs on either side of a single white
one on the bathroom wall. She stared at them, fascinated by the myriad ways in
which light could come alive, but they disappeared the moment she raised her
hand to touch them.
She rubbed the pendant between her fingers as she continued to stare
at the now blank spot on the wall. Although this tiny piece of jewelry was the
repository of some of her most treasured memories, it had been years since she
thought consciously about why she always wore it.
But now, she couldn’t avoid thinking about the day Ted gave it to
her, the day Zoey was born. He’d had it made by their neighborhood jeweler in
Sydney. A ruby for each of the July-born women he loved, and a diamond for
himself, an April Fools baby.
She’d worn that pendant for nearly twelve years, rarely taking it
off. For many of those years, as they lay in bed at night, he’d run his fingers
along the chain around her neck, and tell her that she was more valuable than
any jewel he could ever hope to buy.
When had he stopped doing that?
Turning to observe herself in the mirror, she reached up and opened
the clasp at the back of her neck. She held her hands there for several
moments, then slowly lowered them, and dropped the chain and pendant into the
top drawer of bathroom vanity.
The diamond in her life was gone, and she could no
longer pretend it would return.'
About Mary Gottschalk
Mary has made a career out of
changing careers. After finishing her
MBA, she spent nearly thirty years in the financial markets, working as an
economist, a banker and a financial consultant to major corporations. She has worked in New York, New Zealand,
Australia, Central America, Europe, and amazingly, Des Moines, Iowa.
Along the way, she dropped out
several times. In the mid-1980’s, Mary
and her husband Tom embarked on the multi-year sailing voyage that is the
subject of her memoir, Sailing Down the
Moonbeam. Twice, she left finance to
provide financial and strategic planning services to the nonprofit community,
first in New York and later in Des Moines.
In her latest incarnation, she
defines herself as a writer. She is
working on her first novel, writes for The Iowan magazine, and lectures on the
subject of personal risk-taking.
Mary is on several non-profit
boards, including the Des Moines A.M. Rotary
Links to books and social media sites
http://www.facebook.com/mary.gottschalk.9
