Raging Winds...Roaring Sea
Creative Publishers: St. John's, 2000 200 pages
To Order Book (Go to site)
Robert Parsons - Newfoundland Author
It has twenty-seven stories that span our province:
- Labrador
- The Cape Shore
- Bonne Bay/Port au Port
- Twillingate, Herring Neck, New World Island, Fogo
- South Coast: Burgeo, Belleoram, Ramea, Bay d'Espoir, Port aux Basques
- Conception Bay: Perry's Cove, Spaniard's Bay, Carbonear, Harbour Grace
- Renews to Cape Race
- St. John's
- The Burin: Marystown, Fortune, Burin, Grand Bank, Bay L'argent, Lawn
- The Straight Shore including Musgrave Harbour, Centreville
- Bonavista, Catalina and Port Union
- Notre Dame Bay especially Pilley's Island and Robert's Arm
- Placentia Bay including Port Elizabeth
And several other locations and unique stories.
Raging Winds...Roaring Sea released December 2000 has 200 pages, over 40 images/photos and an index of people, towns and ships. There are between 500-600 family names listed in the individual/people index. Much of Raging Winds... describes the experiences of those affected by an adventure (or misadventure) on the sea. As well it documents what happened afterwards and how those left behind coped. This is the author's ninth book, but all tales contained within Raging Winds...Roaring Sea are new and unique. E-mail him at robert.parsons2@nf.sympatico.ca for details on ordering.
Also ordering details are published on this website
http://shipwrecks.nf.ca
Interview with Robert Parsons>
Courtesy Paula Warren, 5th year Arts/Technology student at Memorial University of Newfoundland, November 30, 2000
1. Why does non-fiction interest you? As an educator, did you enjoy teaching non-fiction more than fiction?
Newfoundland non-fiction interests me although I read a lot of biography. Local non-fiction tells us who we are as a people, why Newfoundlanders are unique; not better than other cultures or races, just different. Newfoundland books, especially those written by local people about their towns and community histories, fill in the gaps of our diversity and explain the forces that shaped our present-day lifestyle. I have also had five or six pieces of fiction published, but I find fiction much more difficult to write. As a (retired) educator in the elementary grades, most of the material -- in language arts -- I presented to eleven and twelve year olds, was fiction and very little Newfoundland fiction with that. Many courses in that elementary area were social studies, religion, art, science and these were " non-fiction." Since science, math and literature/reading were personal favourites, I would have to say I enjoyed these courses immensely.
2. Do you think that being an educator is ideal for an author?
No, I would say the ideal situation for an author would be to have no other occupation other than full-time writing. Then an author's working hours per day could be devoted to editing and revising since this is what a writer does -- edit, revise, re-edit which takes more time than actually composing. But since in Canada and especially Newfoundland there are few full-time writers, an occupation with a fixed income would put bread on the table or keep the wolf from the door. An educator though involves much home preparation of school materials leaving precious little time to write i.e. edit, revise. I found myself composing and correcting evaluations (tests) while watching TV or in most of my spare time. Writing non-fiction was done later at night or on weekends. It comes as a great source of wonder to me now since I have retired, that in the period between 1987 and 1997 I was able to do both -- educate and write that six or seven books that were published.3. Which of your books would you say would be most interesting for school-age readers?
"Toll of the Sea" (1995) would be terrific for readers on the Burin Peninsula or south coast. That book features the history and unique sea stories from 45 communities all along that stretch. One school in St. John's, I think a grade nine or ten culture class, has a class set which the teacher uses as part of a course. Few schools on the Burin Peninsula have that book and right now it is out of print and sold out and have been for about five years. Parts of chapters of "Survive the Savage Sea: Tales from our Ocean Heritage" (1999) would be interesting for students on the northeast coast or the Straight Shore, for example, but I couldn't see them studying the whole book.
4. Which of your own books is your personal favourite?
It would be best to give the standard answer writers are supposed to give -- "My next book will be the best." That book, "Raging Winds...Roaring Sea" will be published in about two weeks around December 6 to 9. Watch for it in your local bookstores. Give it to someone for Christmas. On a more serious note "Committed to the Deep: Stories and Memories" (1998), because it has the words or stories directly from those who lived and experienced sea dramas, is my favourite.
5. What are you working on now?
"Raging Winds...Roaring Sea", a 200 page book of strange and unusual Newfoundland stories, is finished and is being printed as of this moment, December 6, 2000. I'll be promoting, advertising and selling that one for awhile. This, my ninth book, has much of my personal thoughts in it, plus tales from every coastline of our historic province. I also have much research done on other sea stories which will have to be written, edited, revised within the next two or three months. It only has a tentative title yet. Also with writing Newfoundland books of this nature much time has to be spent verifying facts. For example I spent about an hour yesterday trying to find where Alicante and Santa Pola were in Spain. Alicante, Spain, I located; Santa Pola I'm still researching. New stories or leads to stories are welcome. I recently found the entire crew list for the "Marion" lost in 1917 with full crew and supposedly run down by a foreign vessel. I'm going to re-visit that story, give some theories on what may have happened to the "Marion" and then give her entire crew list. I also discovered the unusual story of four men who were imprisoned in Brandenburg, Germany, during WWI when they were caaptured from a schooner called the "Dictator." There's a few surprising elements in that story too. So writing sea stories, researching new ones and inteviewing our elders to find our who we are and why remains a priority with me.