Going Aloft, Chapter 18

Apologies, y'all: I've been so busy with all these other writing projects that I've neglected to keep updating the blog with new chapters of Going Aloft. Really, it's a good problem to have. Chapter 18 sketches a pivotal moment in the incredibly-messy-yet-passionate love story between the Writer and the Artist, and is an experimental attempt …

Going Aloft, Chapter 17

In this chapter, more than in any other, I make a choice. A choice between staying out in the wilderness with the Captain, or giving up, returning to the life of comfort and luxury I had grown up in. Our little trio was tempted by the fruits of creature comforts (clean sheets, air conditioning, variety …

Going Aloft, Chapter 16

John Canoe, or Junkanoo, is the subject of this chapter. Once practiced as a festival here in coastal North Carolina, it is essentially a two-day-long party sandwiched between Christmas and New Years, involving traditional and modern dancing, ornate costumes, and plenty of music. According to one historian, Professor Stephen Nissenbaum of the University of Massachusetts …

Going Aloft, Chapter 15

There are at least two cities named Nassau. The one you see is the one you can afford. One is bright and glittering and attractive, the leisure grounds of the imperial visitors who arrive there on sleek white ships. The other, hidden safely from sight from the tourists, is rife with the darker issues of …

Going Aloft, Chapter 13

So we've finally made it. We've crossed an ocean, and now we're in foreign territory, far from where we began. Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore. Our paradigm has shifted. Now we must learn a city. Now we must start a business. Now we must work and improve the boat as best as we can, …