The Chappy Ferry Book: A Jaws Moment

At the end of the first weekend of sales of the new CHAPPY FERRY BOOK, ferry co-owner Peter Wells gives a copy to Lynn Murphy, visiting Chappy from Chilmark. Lynn, a storied Vineyard boatman and craftsman, played a critical role during the challenging weeks when JAWS was shooting on the waters around Martha’s Vineyard — [...]

The Island network

In my work as a local publisher, I try to use as much local talent as I can find. Sometimes that’s not always easy. Back in the winter I went looking for illustrators for two of my spring books. The books are very different – one is a children’s book that uses the Flying Horses [...]

Writers and editors

I spend my days dealing with writers, who are a complicated species. They are usually very talented people who are often unsure how far that talent takes them. They alternate between being resentful of editing and grateful for it. They crave the undivided attention of an editor but fear what will come out of an [...]

A lighthouse revelation

I was thunderstruck one day last summer when I walked into Alison Shaw’s gallery in Oak Bluffs while she was preparing a new show. Glowing white against a dark blue wall was a  huge picture of a lighthouse. It was instantly recognizable, even though I’d never seen anything like it. I knew a lust so [...]

Ridiculous fun

Our work on the Chappy Ferry book — which we have now named, but I’m not yet revealing — has reached a stage where cover images are being shot, a film for a DVD insert is being edited, and writer Tom Dunlop is beginning to think about an ending time. This is all hard work. [...]

Next year’s books

This is always a busy time for me in the book world that comprises my work life. Because I try to position most of my books for sell next spring, I’ve been at work for many months on the bigger books or am starting now to organize the smaller ones. This year I’ll have five [...]

The belles of the bells

A guest blog by Tom Dunlop, author of the upcoming The Chappy Ferry Book: How enchanted a project is this book on the Chappy ferry turning out to be? A few days back, I went down to the ferry house on the Edgartown side of the harbor to meet my friend Margaret, who has lived [...]

Chappy Ferry book: Roving gangs of boys

With news coming across the harbor that a sheep on Chappaquiddick had just given birth to a rabbit-hipped, ferret-snouted rat-lamb one otherwise unremarkable spring morning, you might have pardoned Edgartown residents if they had convened a quick special town meeting in April 1885 and decided they no longer needed a ferry to reach such a [...]