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Years ago, when I had just been named captain of a new ship, the publisher of Cruise Industry News interviewed me for his magazine. He mentioned that he was looking for someone to write short stories, then I countered that I came from a long line of writers. I jokingly said that this person could be me, and I was sure he was also joking when he told me this was a great idea.
But I decided to try. I quickly found out that writing serious insider stories wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Ship computers are much better suited for navigation than word processing, so I wasted many sheets of paper trying to write about things that interested me very little and would interest a reader even less! Then something amusing happened on the bridge one day, and the story became funnier the more it was told. That’s when I decided to write a few pieces about everyday ship life instead. I had no idea if the stories were pearls of wisdom or pearls cast before swine and very nearly threw them away. But I had opened my big mouth and made a promise to write a few stories, so I decided to send them in after all.
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I clicked my tongue, indicating how concerned I was with all these problems. Of course, I would look into all this, but quite frankly, it wasn’t easy to keep track of how many things didn’t meet her expectations. Secretly I glanced at my watch, and then looked over to the husband who seemed very eager to say something.
“Yes, sir. Sorry for ignoring you.” I prayed that he would be a bit more understanding of all these horrible errors and mistakes my poor crew had made. I was very glad that indeed he was, saying he hadn’t noticed any problems at all as he looked askance at his wife.
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