The Transformation of a Ship & a Soul
Memoir
Date Published: February 27th, 2025
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Deborah Rudell’s world unravels when the leaders of her spiritual commune are exposed, arrested, and imprisoned for bioterrorism and attempted murder. Crushed and adrift, she moves her family off the commune to create a sense of normalcy. But when her husband seeks an opportunity to dismantle and rebuild a derelict fifty-foot schooner, Deborah uproots their children once again and joins him in Kauai. For the next five years, she dedicates her life to restoring a boat.
Pouring herself into the work at hand can only distract her so much as disillusionment about the cult’s lies and manipulation slowly rises to the surface. While she grapples with emotional turmoil and contemplates a new life path, Deborah sets out to accomplish something she never thought possible: sailing across the Pacific to the Olympic Peninsula. Will the dangers that come with navigating the ocean be too much to bear, or will she find resolution and fortitude in the turbulent adventure?
Grit & Grace: The Transformation of a Ship & a Soul is one woman’s account of conquering overwhelming challenges with tenacity and ingenuity and ultimately discovering her inner strength.
Interview with Deborah Rudell
How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
All the writing for blogs and marketing takes up a lot of time and has a whole other focus from ’writing a story’!
More seriously, I discovered the craft of writing: outlining, plots , hooks, characters and arcs, instead of just blindly meandering through paragraphs and homogenous narrative.
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
Reading Nancy Drew Books from when I was six! I was transported out of all the mess and chaos of living in a big family! I could go away into my books for hours and not even hear my mom when she called me to come and do dishes!
What one thing would you give up to become a better writer?
Ice cream!
Tell us a little about yourself? Perhaps something not many people know?
I started out as a teenager doing calligraphy, collecting and copying inspiring quotes. Eventually I got a job illuminating memorial pages in the “Book of the Dead” (actual title was the Memorial Pages Book), for the Sisters of the Precious Blood, a cloistered order of nuns. For real.
If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?
I absolutely would not have listened to the teachers who accused me of plagiarism and I would have continued writing instead of being discouraged and shamed.
What is the biggest surprise that you experienced after becoming a writer?
That I was a writer at all! It kind of snuck up on me over the years it took to write Grit & Grace.
Could you tell us a bit about your most recent book and why it is a must-read?
My most recent book, and my first, is titled Grit & Grace: The Transformation of a Ship & a Soul and is about leaving a spiritual commune (cult), rebuilding an old fifty-foot schooner and then sailing across the Pacific Ocean. It's a must read if you are interested in how one woman left a cult and journeyed through spiritual disillusionment while rebuilding an old boat. It is a must read if you like sailing and exciting true-life adventures. You will be enthralled as she crosses the ocean surviving gales and a skipper overboard.
About the Author
A college professor in San Diego, California, Deborah Rudell participates in her city’s vibrant writing community. She is a graduate of Hay House Writer’s Workshop and the Certificate in Memoir Writing program at San Diego Writers, Ink. Her work has been published in the International Memoir Writers Association’s anthology, Shaking the Tree: I Didn't See That One Coming.
Deborah lives with her black cat in a tiny house built in 1906 by a retired sea captain, who carved a sailing ship into the front door. This is her first book.
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1 comments:
Really love this cover. 😍
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