Review
Sea Changes, debut novel by Bill Branley (One Sock Press, 0-9778561-0-0, $14.95) is the story of midlife romance set in the Pacific Northwest. The book is the result of a fiction blog called Peggy Finds a Friend which Branley wrote during the latter half of 2005, while commuting on the car ferry between Bainbridge Island and his day job in Seattle. Branley said he liked the idea of writing a serialized story where readers would eagerly await the next installment. The result is that this book is almost like reading a third-person diary with each chapter headed by the date. The main character, Peggy, began as a writing exercise and a way for Branley to view the world in a different way, he said. As the blog story grew, the author introduced new characters. He explained that all of the characters were loosely based on people he observed on the 5:20 ferry. Peggy, a widow, meets Raoul, also widowed, on the ferry and from the start the two could not be more different. He is a lawyer for the firm that her environmental organization frequently fights in court. But these two very different characters decide to put aside their differences and nurture a friendship and romance. When the chemistry is right, all the other things do not matter, Raoul tells Peggy. They embark on a relationship that eventually takes them to the hurricane-ravaged south. Branley included Hurricane Katrina because he said he typically inserted his fictional characters into whatever he was doing in his life. The author had family living New Orleans and so his characters followed. The characters also spend a lot of time talking about current issues, like homeland security and global warming and how communities don t invest enough into infrastructure. Some of these topics end up driving wedges between characters who otherwise care about each other, explains the author. Despite their differences, the relationship between Peggy and Raoul does develop and, thanks to realistic and telling dialogue, the characters strengths and weaknesses as human beings are portrayed in such a way that they become endeared to the reader. The couple also struggles to get over their respective spouses. Through all that there was this thread that I could not let go of, said Branley. It was Peggy trying to get on with her life, but unable to let go of her previous life with her late husband. It was grief at work, he said. Raoul too shares his struggles with grief with Peggy: You got me out of my shell over these past few months...I was too wrapped up in my own world, still living with Priscilla. I did not want any intruders. Peggy realizes that she too is still struggling to find herself as a single person and turns down his suggestion that they live together. It has to feel healthy and loving, and not like two clueless people depending on each other for emotional support, she says. Peggy comes up with a solution and whether it is right or wrong will be completely up to the reader to decide. Did she make the right choice? --ForeWord Magazine Beach Read 2006
Product Description
A midlife romance about two people who meet on a commuter ferry and begin a rocky yet heartwarming relationship that forces them out of their comfort zones. He seeks a new midlife partner; she is a defender of the environment and dreams of a life of satisfying and rewarding pursuits; they clash over everything from global warming to homeland security to Hurricane Katrina. Told from the viewpoint of the main character, Peggy, the story follows the couple from Seattle to Maine and from the Nation's Capitol to New Orleans, while their emotional journey ranges from sadness to confusion to happiness at finding each other late in life.
