Boat to Small Palawan Island
by Donna Amis Davis / @DonnaAmisDavis
Today I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of possible cover ideas for the fiction book I’m *not really* writing. I mean, I’m ‘writing’ it, as in I’ve started writing it. But *not really* because of Real Life. But I still like to think about it – so here are some pictures taken right here on Palawan of boats heading out to small islands.
This one features my youngest daughter, Bethy, who really is a star! She lights up her world wherever she goes. She works in her Real Life for Habitat for Humanity Greater Los Angeles. And sometimes she comes over here to the Philippines to visit us.
Palawan outrigger boats play some key roles in the plot of my novel, so I thought you might like to see what they look like. My working title is By the Sulu Sea, which is where these pictures, above and below, were taken.
How do you like to go out in a boat,
Out in the sea so blue?
Oh, I do think it’s the pleasantest thing
Ever a girl could do!
Apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson for cannibalizing a favorite childhood poem of mine, The Swing. Replace ‘up in a swing’ for ‘out in a boat’ and replace ‘air’ for ‘sea’ and ‘child’ for ‘girl’ and there you have the first stanza of Stevenson’s poem. I have to say, I really do love to go out on a boat in the Philippines.
What about you? Have you been boating in the Philippines? Did you love it, too? Or are you planning a trip? Do you remember those poems?
And while I’m asking, would you pick up a book to read that had one of these boats on the cover, heading to a little island?
Wow! Great photos! That first photo has me, the reader, inside the boat, heading out to a beautiful island. I don’t think I could resist opening that book.
Thanks, Quirky. Hopefully, the book will be a beach read with a social conscience, but enough to love that you don’t just throw it overboard.
I like the last one of the banca on the beach for a cover idea 🙂
Ah, the photographer’s eye! Thanks for stopping by, Stephen. The little banca, all alone on a wide beach – it must have a story.
Lovely photos!
Thank you!
Great pictures….
Thanks, Joe!
Gorgeous! I love boats and the water, so I’d definitely look twice at a cover that featured both.
Thanks for stopping by, Deniz! Well, you are inspiring me then, better go get some word count going on the darn thing!
Hi Donna! 🙂
I’m catching up on e-mail and reading…Great pix! May I suggest one thing? Some photo programs allow you to shift the horizontal axis so that the horizon line is, um, horizontal. That would help on your banner pic and the others you posted. Unless you want viewers to get seasick… 🙂
By the way, I went back and read your novel pitch. Here’s a suggestion (although I don’t know if it’s accurate re your plot: “An idealistic researcher on an isolated Pacific island discovers family secrets that lead her to a chance at love — and to danger.”)
I’ll try to catch you up on a few other things soon! Much love!
Anita
I’ll get right to work on that. Don’t want all three of my readers to get seasick! Sometimes the internet is so boggy here. Pictures take eons to download, so it may take awhile to straighten out those horizons.
Thanks for stopping by! I’ll look forward to catching up when you get a chance. Spring birthday season is here, BTW, I’m sure you know.
It turns out insomnia is actually good for something – being up in the middle of the night when the bandwidth is strong to upload straightened pictures.
Thanks for further thoughts on the log-line. The family secrets are actually a subplot, and aren’t the cause of her danger. I’ve got to think about it some more.
I think being stranded alone on an island is a fantasy for many people. In September 1991, I spent a week in Ixtapa, México. There’s a very small uninhabited island, not far off the coast from the beachfront where I was staying. I spend one day just relaxing on the sand and staring at that island. I kept thinking it would be possible to swim out there and back; it looked so incredibly close. I finally convinced myself I could do it and set off into the water. I exhausted myself trying to get there. I got the impression that the water was fighting against me (which it probably was) and that the island simply didn’t want me on its virgin shores. So I wisely headed back to my beachfront and continued staring at its isolated beauty. It’s one of the wildest things I’ve ever done in my life! I wrote about it on my blog in 2012.
Sounds like a beautiful place, and a crazy experience!