There’s always so much to do at a marina, because we’re responsible for what’s on the water with the docks and gas and store, and also for the land, with the campground that isn’t hardly used and the bathhouse and all.
I start my day in my tiny dark bedroom on our crappy houseboat, listening. If there’s any wind, I hear the tink-tink of waves against the hull, or the bell clang of shackles against masts if there’s more.
Wind’s invisible, so how do you explain how hard it’s blowing? Admiral Beaufort figured it out. He was a Royal Navy guy, so he came up with thirteen classes based on wind that would move a frigate, up to where the sails get ripped from the masts. Once steam ships came in, the descriptions were changed. Zero is dead calm, the water flat like a mirror, smoke rising straight up. Twelve is a hurricane. The descriptions are beautiful, poetry, really — in a moderate breeze “small waves becoming longer; fairly frequent white horses.”
I’m a sailor so I pay attention to the wind all the time, listen for its whistle and hum, see it in the dark ruffles moving across the water from gusts. I feel it on the back of my neck (which is another reason to keep my hair short). A lot of times, I’d like to get away from all the problems here and go sailing where no one can reach me, but either the wind is too strong for Bellatrix or there’s nothing but cat’s-paws.
I can’t make the wind blow, but I can set the sails.
I guess pretty much that’s the case for my life, too. I’m still in school, so there’s that. And while I’m figuring out my day depending on the wind, I’m also listening to hear if Dad is stirring. Like with the wind, I can’t make my father somehow else. My day depends on where Dad is, on the drunk-o-meter. If he’s sober then we get right to work. If he’s hung over, or still drinking, then it’s just me.
In the Lonely Backwater
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Release: May 2022
Purchase Link
All seventeen-year-old Maggie Warshauer wants is to leave her stifled life in Filliyaw Creek behind and head to college. An outsider at school and uncertain of her own sexual identity, Maggie longs to start again somewhere new. Inspired by a long-dead biologist’s journals, scientific-minded Maggie spends her days sailing, exploring, and categorizing life around her. But when her beautiful cousin Charisse disappears on prom night and is found dead at the marina where Maggie lives, Maggie’s plans begin to unravel. A mysterious stranger begins stalking her and a local detective on the case leaves her struggling to hold on to her secrets—her father’s alcoholism, her mother’s abandonment, a boyfriend who may or may not exist, and her own actions on prom night. As the detective gets closer to finding the truth, and Maggie’s stalker is closing in, she is forced to comes to terms with the one person who might hold the answers—herself.
Meet the author
Valerie Nieman has been a reporter, farmer, sailor, teacher, and always a walker. She is the author of In the Lonely Backwater and four earlier novels, and books of short fiction and poetry. A graduate of West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte, she has held state and NEA fellowships. You can find her online sites at ValNieman.
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