Spring Vacation Leads To Author Interview

By Tanjua Damon

Fifth grader Herlof Sorensen spent part of his spring vacation in Maine at the Skidompha Library in Damariscotta interviewing author Linda Greenlaw to add to his former teacher Karen King’s collection of video taped interviews.

Herlof was a student of Ms King’s in the fourth grade at Head O’ Meadow when she started getting students interested in interviewing authors such as Peter Sheridan and Natalie Babbitt. Herlof’s mother helped him contact Ms Greenlaw, author of The Lobster Chronicles and The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain’s Journey, both of which he has read. Ms Greenlaw is a nonfiction writer.

Herlof was impressed with the author and was as excited to meet the real-life captain of one of the boats that was portrayed in the book and movie The Perfect Storm. Ms Greenlaw was the captain of the boat that did not capsize. She now lives on the Isle au Haut in Maine.

Herlof learned that Ms Greenlaw does not keep a writer’s journal, but she has in the past kept a fishing log keeping track of what kinds of fish she caught as well as what the weather was like on certain trips.

“It’s kind of like a diary,” Herlof said. “But I thought all authors had a place they wrote things down.”

Ms Greenlaw’s books are about the ocean and her experience with it. She told Herlof that writing for her is simpler because she does not have to research the same way fiction authors or other nonfiction authors might have to because she writes about her own life journeys. He was surprised that she said she never gets writer’s block.

Herlof felt that he related to Ms Greenlaw. He found they had similarities, even though their lives are very different. Ms Greenlaw’s passion is fishing; Herlof’s is baseball. They both like to write especially about the adventures of their lives.

“I liked the way she joked a lot. I liked how she answered questions and related them to her own life,” Herlof said. “I like the sense of adventure, so we could relate a lot of things. It made it easy to talk to her. She was so alive. She has such excitement in her voice.”

Herlof began reading Ms Greenlaw’s books because he is intrigued with the ocean. He enjoys her real life accounts about what is out there and what happens in the ocean.

Ms Greenlaw told Herlof that the most difficult thing for her with writing is the writing process itself. She encouraged him to follow what interests him.

“It’s a lot easier to write about yourself. If you have an opportunity, take it,” Herlof said about what he learned from Ms Greenlaw. “You may not want to do it, but you realize you may not get it again.

“Make sure you don’t go off the topic [when writing]. It’s okay if you don’t finish,” he said.

Another thing that impressed Herlof is that Ms Greenlaw is a high goal setter and he considered that a similarity between the two as well. He was a bit surprised Ms Greenlaw agreed to be interviewed, but for him it turned out to be more than just meeting a famous person.

“You get a lot more in return. She gave me more information that can help me with my writing,” Herlof said. “You get real life experiences. It’s more than just meeting a famous person. I was really surprised by how she’s just an average person, too.”