Near the beginning of We Ran Away to Sea, Pam leaves Kent and the boat, taking the two boys and fleeing back to familiar Brookings, South Dakota. He is not sure whether she will ever come back. She does, but not for the long-term that he envisions. The tension between Kent’s dreams and Pam’s, between their love for each other and their different goals and perspectives is the essence of We Ran Away to Sea. Uniquely written in two voices, the reader experiences the struggles and the rewards of their love for each other and their determination to stay together despite their differences.
As Thomas Hübl writes in Attuned, “We could think of marriage as a process of learning and becoming aware of everything we missed about our spouse when we first fell in love.” (84)
I attempted to capture the essence of this struggle in the very short video, Pamela or Panama?
Reading, Book Signing, Exhibit of Pam’s Art and Maybe a Slide Show
Please share your thoughts about the book if you liked it (and even if you didn’t). Every review helps. It doesn’t have to more than a heading and a few words. Post on Amazon
The Story Behind the Book Cover
Pam’s Rough Draft of a Collage was the basis for the cover design
We spent months working with cover designer Sara deHaan, who patiently made cover after cover for us. Somehow, none of them seemed quite right. Even when we decided on the final cover, we had our doubts. In our Christmas letter we asked for votes on two cover choices, and only two people chose our final cover as their favorite.
Kent and I wavered in our choice, but Sara urged us to go with the blue cover we finally decided on. Pam’s collage expresses what is perhaps the main theme of the book: the relationship between Pam, Kent, the boat, and their boys, and Pam’s struggle to reconcile those loves, and her ever-present longing for home, as represented by the cats snuggled together on the lower right, and her love of art (in the upper left and right corners), for which there was no room on their small sailboat. Pam was practicing moving heads in Photoshop, so a photograph of her head is attached to the the figure slumped in the chair to the right of the boat, while Kent is given the be-wigged head of the dogmatic Puritan, Cotton Mather, both of whom, fairly or not, were characterized as stubborn and fanatically dedicated to what they believed to be right. Sons Jake and Andy sit on a log, their backs to us, and the curving lines connect all the elements of the picture with each other and with the boat, Coot that is the central and dominant image.
Pam and two artworks from the collage that represent her love of art, home, and her boys.
We finally launched a new video: A Storm at Sea , and we are excited to announce a new book talk and signing at the wonderful new Groove Artspace at 309 Gold SW in downtown Albuquerque on Wednesday, October 4 at 6 pm. More information to follow. Save the date!
Meanwhile we had a wonderful visit with the family and grandchildren in San Francisco over the weekend. Here is just one photo with Zia and Grampy reading We Ran Away to Sea on the shore in Sausalito: More to follow!
Join us at Treasure House Books and Gifts in Old Town this Sunday, September 10, from 1:30-3:30 p.m. for a book talk, reading, and conversation. Come and go as you please since the space is small. Books will be available for sale.
We hope to have future events for those who cannot make this one.
In the News!
We were happy to see David Steinberg’s “Book of the Week” article based on his thoughtful reading of We Ran Away to Sea and several phone conversations over the past couple of weeks. We were pleasantly surprised to be chosen as the Book of the Week, given the presence of several much-published and well-known authors at events this week. The link to the Albuquerque Journal article is below.
Report on the Travel Bug Presentation on August 26
Unfortunately, we forgot to ask someone to take pictures of the talk and reading at the Travel Bug in Santa Fe last week that was attended by twenty enthusiastic people. The presentation shared by Kent and Linnea was accompanied by a slide show with a few special effects. We won’t be able to show the slides this week, but we hope to find another venue where we can repeat this performance.
Thanks for Your Support
We appreciate all of your support for this project that, like the Covid pandemic that accompanied it, often seemed to have no end. Please think about writing a few words on Amazon about your response to the book. Ask about the book at your local bookstores, and tell your friends about the book.
Land-locked Albuquerque Sailor Launches a Gripping Memoir
of his Eight Years on a Sailboat
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 17 July 2023 — Philosophy professor and sailor-turned-author Kent Kedl brought 100 typewriters and a dinghy with a sail with him when he moved to Albuquerque twelve years ago following the death of his sailor wife and co-author Pamela Thompson Kedl. His second wife, Linnea Hendrickson, pushed him to collect Pam’s letters and his stories (“Yes! Other people will want to read this!”) and turn them into a book, so We Ran Away to Sea: A Memoir and Lettersbecame a Covid project that out-lasted the pandemic.
Book Description: “If I don’t get away from here, I think I’ll die,” Kent announced to his shocked wife Pam in the early 1980s. We Ran Away to Sea tells how two Midwesterners with no experience of the sea or sailing gave up their careers and comfortable South Dakota home to sail with their children from England to the Caribbean, embarking on a multi-year quest for a simpler, more satisfying, and honest life.
Essentials: We Ran Away to Sea: A Memoir and Letters (ISBN: 979-8-9870097-0-3 paperback and 979-8-9870097-10 e-book) by George Kent Kedl and Pamela Thompson Kedl, published by Jacana Press, 2023. $16.99/$5.99, 352 pages,is available for purchase from local retail and online booksellers (including Amazon), through IngramSpark, and from the author. Contact information: Webpage: Jacanapress.com; Facebook: George Kent Kedl; Author Page: George Kent Kedl; jacanapress@gmail.com; 505-344-7650 (h); Linnea 505-977-5811or Kent 505-440-3334. Events 2023: Travel Bug, Santa Fe, 26 August, 5 pm; Treasure House Books, Albuquerque, 10 September, 1:30-3:30 pm.
Contact: Kent or Linnea at Jacanapress@gmail.com or via text or phone for review copies, book talks, signings, interviews, cover images, or more information.
Sailboat Cruising published an earlier (less edited) version of the family’s idyllic 1985 visit to beautiful Mona Island, “Fools Rush In,” now found in Chapter 6 of We Ran Away to Sea. We thought you might enjoy a brief escape to (almost) paradise.
We Ran Away to Sea by George Kent Kedl and Pamela Thompson Kedl is now ready to order on Amazon as a Kindle e-book and a paperback. You may also place an order with your favorite local bookstore.date:July 1, 2023, so it may take up to two weeks to receive a copy.
352 pages, Paperback. Official Publication date: July 1, 2023
ISBN: (9798987009703 paperback) and (9798987009710 e-book)
The paperback edition may be requested from your local bookstore, or ordered from Amazon. The e-book is currently only available on Kindle.
Jacana Press 
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