Former North End author Margaret Doyle is celebrating the release of "The Fisherman's Quilt," which was almost 30 years in the making. She will sign copies of the book at Ravenna Third Place Books on Feb. 18.
Loosely based on her own experiences, the novel is adapted from a journal that Doyle wrote from 1975 to 1982 while living in Kodiak, Alaska.
In 1985, she developed her writing in a Seattle workshop with Jean Bryant. The manuscript went from a journal to a memoir and finally a novel.
"It's very much what I experienced and what I observed in Kodiak," Doyle said, adding that it was mainly the surrounding characters that changed when she made it into a novel. "It's uncensored and very vulnerable and naked in parts."
Discouraged from literary agents, Doyle decided to self-publish the novel in January 2004. Five months later, in June, she had 1,000 copies made and sold them all by October. Now, she is selling the books through a major distributor.
"I just feel a great sense of liberation and control in being able to make all of these decisions myself," Doyle said about self-publishing. "I just want it to be read, especially by people that can relate to it."
The Fisherman's Quilt" tells the story of Nora Hunter, who moves to Kodiak, Alaska, with her husband and 6-month-old baby. When her fisherman husband is away at sea, Nora has to carry on in a society replete with depression, drugs and alcoholism.
"It's not just kids that have peer pressure, we all do," Doyle said about the book's theme.
As the years go by, Nora makes quilts to mark different life events.
"Nora is trying to piece together a life that isn't gaudy or flimsy, but one that is beautiful and comforting," Doyle said.
"At once an adventure, love story and a portrait of late-20th-century American marriage, 'The Fisherman's Quilt' is an uncensored epic that tells of longing, questioning and life's celebration," says the book's website.
Doyle, currently living on Orcas Island, is working on several writing projects, including an epilogue to "The Fisherman's Quilt," called "Thrown to the Wolves," about being a single parent in suburbia.
She is also working on a book deriving from her experience of attending Catholic parochial schools for 12 years, tentatively titled "Scraggly-Haired Sacraments."
Doyle also would like to revive a book she wrote about 30 years ago that is set during the Vietnam War, titled "Priests at the Revolution."
The arts run in Doyle's family. Her sister is an oil painter and her brother is a successful playwright.
Doyle grew up on Capitol Hill, the youngest of five children. She has kept diaries most of her life. "It was a way for me to be heard," she said.
Doyle also enjoys singing in choirs. She once sang with a choir at Carnegie Hall in New York. Doyle incorporates her love of music in "The Fisherman's Quilt," as Nora gives piano lessons and makes up a country-western song.
"Music and writing have been a way to express myself," Doyle said.
Doyle started touring Puget Sound and Alaska with "The Fisherman's Quilt" last June. This spring, she will visit Alabama and the Gulf states. This June, she will sign the book at Book Expo America in New York.
"I do really love to talk with people about my book," she said.
Doyle, 55, has been encouraged by other women her age who have read "The Fisherman's Quilt."
"I liked everything. It's a totally honest and authentic weaving of a young woman's life and growth," Artha Kass said about the book.
Kass lives on Orcas Island and sings in the choral society with Doyle. She read "The Fisherman's Quilt" last summer while on a small boat to Alaska. Kass enjoyed the book so much that she went to several bookstores in Alaska to market it.
"It's every woman's story, regardless of age," Kass said. "It's beautifully written."
Kass was partly inspired by the book to start a monthly women's group. Some women ministers in Alaska and Seattle are using the book as a forum for women's issues.
"It's so much harder to get through the day than some people think sometimes," Doyle said. "You make your own happiness, and strength is a gift that some people don't have."
Doyle will sign copies of her book on Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Ravenna Third Place Books, 6504 20th Ave. N.E.
She will also appear on Feb. 19 at 1 p.m. at Park Place Books in Kirkland.
The book can be found at most bookstores or on the book's website at www.fishermansquilt.com.
Contributing writer Jessica Davis writes her "It's Show Time!" column every week.
She can be reached via needitor@ nwlink.com.
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