Today we welcome Addie Greene, author of the new memoir, How the Winds Laughed, to reflect on her adventure, her writing process, and the impact of the journey on her first marriage.
Addie, we understand that at first you were afraid to climb a mast, even at dock, or change sails on a bucking foredeck washed with breaking waves. Yet as you and your young husband took on the “great adventure” of circumnavigation in a 28-foot boat, a succession of catastrophes demanded that you became the driving force in carrying you forward and eventually safely home. Sounds like quite a journey!
Mentors: When did you decide you would write a book about your experience?
Addie: I began writing on our first passage, from Los Angeles to Nuku Hiva, for the Santa Barbara News-Press, which paid me $10 apiece for the stories. Then, after Sea Magazine asked me for a full-length manuscript, I began turning these stories into a book.
Mentors: This is a true story from personal experience! How is the writing process different from the writing of fiction?
Addie: In some ways fiction is easier, because in writing fiction you are not constrained by fact.
Mentors: How long did it take to write How the Winds Laughed?
Addie: The first draft (crossing the Pacific) I finished in a little more than a year. The manuscript then sat in a box for more than 30 years, until I resuscitated it and ran it twice through my critique group. Then Molly Tinsley [Fuze co-founder] and I honed it for fourteen more months.
Mentors: What was the most difficult part of writing this book?
Addie: Getting rid of extraneous, unimportant details—shaping the material into a story.
Mentors: The title of the book comes up in the very first chapter. Can you say a bit about the meaning of it and how you chose it?
Addie:
On a wagon bound for market
There’s a calf with a mournful eye
High above him there’s a swallow
Winging swiftly through the sky
How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer’s night
This Joan Baez folk song, one of my favorites when I was in college, goes on to say:
But whoever treasures freedom
Like the swallow has learned to fly
The calf’s bondage, and the swallow’s freedom, epitomized for me the meaning of our trip.
Mentors: Do you still keep in touch with the people you met along the way?
Addie: Father Fletcher, who left the priesthood, married, and had two children, visited us in California in the 1980s. Mike Thurston, who married an Australian woman, had two children, and sailed around the world twenty years after we did, visited me in Santa Barbara in the 1990s. Pete and I, divorced five years, sailed back to the Marquesas Islands in his 40-foot Owens cutter with our nine-year-old daughter Addie and seven-year-old son Peter in 1984. And Pete and his mother went back to Abaiang in the 1980s.
Mentors: What do you think was the strangest thing you did? Strangest thing you ate?
Addie: Probably making love in the caldera of a volcano tops the list. And the strangest thing I ate–whale washed up on the reef.
Mentors: How did this experience change your life?
Addie: It made me look at my culture from the outside in and permanently exterminated my need for television.
Mentors: What is the most important lesson you would like for the reader to remember?
Addie: The people we met, by and large poor, gave of themselves and what little they had, which gave me hope that all of us on the planet can live in peace and harmony.
Mentors: Would you recommend this trip to another young married couple? You and Pete divorced after sharing this experience, yet you dedicate the book to him. So, the two of you must have weathered more than storms and interesting experiences at sea. What does he think of the book?
Addie: In the way in which we made the trip, no I would not recommend it. It was so physically demanding I couldn’t do it now. And the constant worry about money, and not being able to fix broken equipment, as I said “weighed on me like a stone.” Pete isn’t entirely happy with my portrayal of him, but when I asked him if he thought it was fair, he said yes.
Thank you, Addie, for sharing your story with us. And it’s nice to know, as your book jacket relates, that you can still hear the winds laugh although you now live 150 miles inland. Readers, if you want your own copy of Addie’s book How the Winds Laughed, it’s available through her publisher, Fuze. Now you have the chance to ask Addie your own questions through the “Leave a Reply” section below.
Your experiences sound amazing! I’ve tried to do some writing myself but I can’t really tell if it’s any good. How were you able to get back to your manuscript 30 years later? And what was your impetus for pulling it out again?
Hi, Briana. From the time I was six I knew I wanted to be a writer. However, providing financially for two children was my first priority for more than 20 years. When I finally was able to retire, I started writing fiction, first a novel, You’ll Never Make the Grade, Dear, published in 2006, and then an historical novel still in process. About five years ago the memoir began calling to me from its cardboard box. I hauled it out, realized it was a story worth tell, and began work on it. If you truly want to write, write. And keep writing. Join a critique group of fellow authors, listen to their criticisms, but respect the voice of your own judgment. If you want to write, you will. Good luck! Addie
Sailing around the world – wow! Must be everyone’s fantasy. What do you do now when you hear the winds laugh? Do you still feel as free as you did on your boat?
Hi, Chris. Not everyone’s fantasy, but the sense of freedom it gave me was intoxicating. Rather than feeling hemmed in by being “stuck” on a 28-foot boat, I felt that the horizon was limitless. Now hiking in southern Oregon’s beautiful mountains gives me the same sense of freedom and spirituality. The winds still laugh with me, and I laugh with them. Addie
Addie, you had the great chance to, as you say, “look at my culture from the outside in.” What did you see? How were you seeing the other cultures that you visited?
Hi, Charley. Most of the people we visited were very poor in terms of material possessions, but that didn’t matter to them. They were rich in their love of life, in their love for the people around them, and in their spirituality. They came to help when we lost our dinghy, when we were in danger of losing Wa’s mast, when we had grounded the boat intentionally to clean her bottom. They invited us to their homes, served us wonderful meals, and shared their culture with us. All this made me realize that, as Americans, normally we don’t do these things: We don’t invite total strangers into our homes to share lunch with us–and give them the best part of the meal. I wound up feeling grateful and humble and, sometimes, ashamed that most of us Americans don’t give in the same way. Addie
Love your line about the adventure permanently exterminating your need for television. And Rosemary, thanks for featuring Addie and this book.
Thanks, Molly. Yes, I haven’t had a television since mine died in 1992 and I told the kids my upper limit for a replacement was $300. They turned up their noses at that, so I turned off the cable and saved myself a bunch of money. I also read more. Addie
How was it writing a memoir? Did you feel you needed to protect the people you were writing about? What did your kids say reading about what you had done 30 years ago?
Hi, Dottsie. When I originally wrote the memoir, as 90 newspaper articles, I didn’t bring myself or my husband into the story emotionally. Forty years later–with the distance between my younger self and my self now, I was able to do that. Of course, I felt the emotions at that time, but I wouldn’t have been able to write about them. As for the people we met, most were kind and would be gratified about what I wrote. I changed the names of Cynthia Bouman, and the couple I call the Carters, because if I didn’t and they were still alive they might sue me. My daughter loves the book and has become a big fan and promoter. My son has had a harder time with it because he’s sailed on three long-distance cruises with his dad and (probably) identifies with him at some level. My portrayal of Pete is honest but not flattering. Addie
I’ve only sailed occasionally for fun, with others taking the responsibility for making the decisions. We’re you afraid out there with just the two of you? How did you get over your fears?
Hi, Fiona. Pete and his father taught me how to sail in Newport Harbor, California. I loved it! It set me free. Fear didn’t enter into it until we were two weeks out at sea and the self-steering gear broke. The next night one of the jumper stays broke, then one of the spreaders, which meant we were in danger of losing the mast. The seas were high enough that the mast was pivoting 60 degrees from one side to the other and Pete had to climb it to fix the problem. That was scary! But I knew we had no choice, so I hoped. All of the other times I faced fear, I also knew we had no choice and that we were responsible for our lives. That knowledge helped me get over the fear and, in a strange way, liberated me. Addie
Addie, Thanks so much for being so open about sharing your story with us. Your book was fascinating and illuminating in so many ways – your dramatic experiences on the sea, the emotional ups and downs of the relationship with your husband, the interesting people you met along your journey, the richness of the cultures you experienced. We hear that you’re working on another book and we look forward to reading it soon. Glad you’ve got your land legs back!
Rosemary and Phyllis, thank you so much for allowing me to blog on your site. It is an honor. And thanks, too, to all the people who wrote in. From my new attitude of decrepitude, I look back on that experience sometimes with amazement and horror and usually with out-loud laughter. My next book is historical fiction, set a hundred years ago in Cananea, Mexico, which is just south of the border from Bisbee, Arizona. I got interested in Cananea because my mother lived there as a very young child and remembered escaping from the revolution. Talk about fighting for your life!
It sounds like it will be another great read! Looking forward to it, Addie. We enjoyed hosting you today. Rosemary