An Interview with Sarah Thompson

Originally from Austin, I grew up in Dallas and Waco and attended Texas Tech University, where I received a BA in Spanish with a minor in public relations. After teaching Spanish in Midland and Richardson ISD, I received a master’s degree in curriculum. Bruce grew up in West Texas and attended school in Wichita Falls and the University of Houston. We retired together in 2020 after returning to Texas from Brazil and currently live out in the country near Horseshoe Bay.

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What inspired you to start writing this book?

I have heard Bruce tell these stories of his sailing adventure a million times throughout our 27-year relationship to friends, family, co-workers and strangers. I began to feel an urgency to take them all down for him, for our children and grandchildren. This enormously significant time in his life altered him forever; PLUS, it’s really interesting! He’s not a writer, and I didn’t have a better story. It is definitely an act of love!

Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

We have three or four working titles: 1. Glorified Boat Trash; 2. If We Sail, We Steer (Thoreau); 3. Tack to the Prevailing Winds; and 4. An Element of Surrender (Mahoney). Our difficulty is that all of these phrases relate to the adventure and its impact in a specific and beautiful way, but each one also has a flaw.

Describe your dream book cover.

Bruce commissioned a gorgeous original watercolor of his sailboat, Altair, which we really want to be on the cover.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

“Sailing,” by Christopher Cross; “Into the Mystic,” by Van Morrison; “Orinoco Flow,” by Enya; “Hurt,” by Juice Newton; “Sail Away,” by Styx; “Southern Cross,” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; “To the Morning,” by Dan Fogelberg; “Blue Skies,” by Willie Nelson; “God Bless the Broken Road,” by Rascal Flatts; “Don’t Be Cruel,” by Elvis Presley; “That Lonesome Road,” by James Taylor.

What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?

West with the Night, by Beryl Markham; Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott; Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks; Exercises in Style, by Raymond Queneau; You Could Make This Place Beautiful, by Maggie Smith; Memoir From Antproof Case, by Mark Helprin; No Two Persons, by Erica Bauermeister; and others.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I taught Spanish on television for nine years and in the classroom in American and international schools for 18 years. I was named Spanish Teacher of the Year by the Texas Foreign Language Association in 2005. I have traveled or lived in Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, Turkey, and studied in Spain, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay. My husband, Bruce, is originally from Oklahoma but grew up in Texas too. Together, he and I have traveled to Greece, Spain, Kenya, Italy, Scotland, Peru, Israel, Argentina, Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, Guadaloupe, Dominica and Canada and lived overseas together on the River Nile in Cairo, Egypt and on the beach in Salvador, Brazil. On the journey he made aboard Altair, he visited the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. He has worked in construction, in the oil field, and in hotel management. He retired from a position as director of buildings and grounds at a large private school in Dallas in 2016.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

My grandmother, Elizabeth Cate Manly, wrote me nearly every week of my life, as well as hundreds and hundreds of other correspondence. She was the author of a newspaper column and several genealogical and historical books about our family and the places they lived in Tennessee. She encouraged me to submit a poem to a contest, and it became my first published work. I adored the show, “The Waltons,” and the passion for writing that John Walton shared. I began keeping a journal after watching every episode of that program. I am also a nerdy reader and former literature teacher, so I appreciate—and crave—well-written stories and unforgettable characters.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Depending on the weather and the light, I might be outside on our deck overlooking the Colorado River, spread out all over our dining room table, or hunkered down in the covers with my laptop and our six-year-old Maltese.

What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?

Just get on with it! I am a perfectionist and a people pleaser, so I worry too much about the “what-ifs” and procrastinate a lot. There is so much I wish I had written down.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

All the places we have seen, and the people we have met, definitely enriched our lives, so we hope every reader understands how travel keeps you grateful for what you have and those you love, as well as provides new perspectives and experiences that change you profoundly.

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Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.