Felicia Schneiderhan is the author of Newlyweds Afloat, released by Breakaway Books in October.
Q. You've been on the book reading trail for a few weeks now—how does it feel? What has been the response?
A. It was so fun to go on tour! I loved loved loved it. I got a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council to fund a small tour so I set up the events in Duluth, Chicago, and Moline, Illinois. So in that sense, it's been a ton of work to put it all together, but it's been great because I get to decide where I go, where I think I can pull an audience for an event. I've had between 40-65 people at each event, and sold between 30-50 books. That's cool, but what's really the best is reading excerpts to an audience, finding out what grabs their attention, and sharing this story with people. There's been a mix of people at each event—friends/family, friends of friends, writers, boaters, and then random people who just show up 'cause they read about it in the paper. I love hearing from people after I read. Boaters share with me their own boat stories, some women talk about divorce, and a lot of parents share their own "oh shit" moments.
Q. Newlyweds Afloat began as a blog. Tell me why you chose to write about that experience in blog form in the beginning.
A. I wanted to write to my dad about moving onboard. He lives in Illinois and loves water and fishing and boats (his boat was a 12-foot aluminum fishing boat with an outboard motor). But a lot of people were interested that we were living on the boat, and so I wanted to write to all of them, too. Blogs were just starting, and I thought it would be interesting. Early on, I didn't post any images with the entries—I didn't even own a digital camera. I wasn't even sure that people would take blogs seriously. But pretty soon people I didn't know (boaters especially) started contacting me about the blog. Someone wrote to tell me they learned how to pump out their sewage from my blog. Other times boaters we met at docks would say, "We read your blog." That was a little unnerving...I wondered if I was telling too much to strangers (which is sort of how I feel now about the memoir).
Q. At what point did you decide to take the blog posts and start to shape them into book form?
A. After we moved to Duluth, back to land, and the experience ended, I could see that there was a story arc. Also, I had published various blog entries as magazine and newspaper articles, so I could see them as chapters. It was a big task to shape the blog into a book. I printed out the whole blog and then started honing it down to what entries I wanted to include, then started shaping them into chapters. There was a lot missing, naturally—like when I first met Mark and the year that we dated. So I had to write those using personal journals and memory.
Q. I was at your launch in Duluth and you made a point of telling the audience, “this is not art.” What did you mean by that?
A. I said that in Duluth, I guess to be funny, like hey, I'm not taking myself too seriously up here. The truth was, I worked damn hard on this, and I think of it as art, or at least my version of art. I said it at a reading in Chicago, and afterwards a good friend of mine (another artist) told me, "You are a writer and work hard at it. Own it and forget your little anti-art rant. He was right, so I cut it from my talk.
Q. Many authors struggle to find a publisher—that part came pretty quickly for you didn't it?
A. Mmmmm, not really. I looked for several years. I had written a good query and sent it out to about a dozen agents. I actually got a lot of interest from agents, and more than half asked to see some chapters, but no one picked it up. I got tired of trying and put it on the shelf, moved on to another project. But then my in-laws asked me about it and I started thinking about it again. Then one day I had a babysitter for my three kids and was sitting at my computer working on a novel. I had about ten minutes left before I had to head home and pay the babysitter. I randomly looked up "boat publisher" and found Breakaway Books. It was something I had Googled before. I don't know why but this time, the term led me to Breakaway.
I sent the query in November and the publisher asked for a copy within a couple days. Then I didn't hear anything for a couple months. Right after New Year's 2015 he wrote to me. "I like this a lot. I'd like to publish it this fall." I thought, oh, that's fake.
But it wasn't. And then things moved fast. We didn't have enough time to send out advance reader copies, which I wish we'd had time for, but oh well. Next time I'll know.
Q. Any advice for writers looking for a publisher?
Well...I think finding a publisher who is interested in your subject matter is key. I've already gotten an email from someone asking me who my publisher is, because they have a Star Wars memoir they want to publish, and someone else asking me because they write novels that have nothing to do with boating or outdoors but they're just looking for a publisher. That route doesn't work, and it's a waste of the writer's time to send out queries to publishers or agents who haven't demonstrated any interest in the subject matter. Besides, a publisher who knows about your subject matter will know how to get it to reviewers and how to sell it.
Q. You wrote/edited/refined much of Newlyweds Afloat at Irene Blakely's B&B in Washburn. Tell me how that all came together, why that space worked, and why you needed to find a space. How important is it for writers to find their own getaway spot?
A. I learned about Irene's B&B from a WritersRead event (all roads lead back to WritersRead). Some of the other readers had stayed there and really liked it. I needed desperately to go away and write somewhere. At the time I had two small kids, three and one, and I needed to leave my house. My husband Mark is extremely supportive of my writing retreats. I didn't want to stay at a chain motel, it was against the vibe I was looking for. I wanted to stay in a nice house, private, with no one to bother me, and no free breakfast with waffle batter dripping down the hallway in the morning. Irene's place is perfect. I stayed in Albert Hall, and I just loved it. I've gone back a few times to keep writing there. I'm going back again in January.
I have a schedule I follow: I get there Friday afternoon and dive in. I park my car and don't move it again until I leave early Monday morning to drive back to Duluth before 8 a.m. I might go for a walk, but other than that, I'm working. I also think it's good to stay until early Monday morning, so that I have two-and-a-half solid days to write. And having a writing weekend planned means that I have to be writing in the weeks leading up to it> I can't just arrive and expect something magical to happen. I have to be in the thick of it, even if I've only been doing short daily sprints in preparation. Those short runs make the writing marathon amazingly productive.
Also, the only TV channel available in Albert Hall is PBS. This is good. There was one time I stayed during Apple Fest (I didn't realize it was the same weekend). Above me there was a family with a toddler running around. At first I was annoyed by the sound of footsteps, but then I thought, hey! it's not my kid!
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