Laurie Fullerton, the Current’s sailing reporter, published her first novel, “Side Launch,” last summer — little knowing it would become an international sensation of sorts.
The book follows a journalist who moves to the fictional Maine town of Clydebank to write for a local newspaper. There, she stumbles upon a ramshackle shipyard and meets a local man determined to build a 70-foot wooden schooner using traditional shipbuilding techniques long forgotten by most.
Since the novel’s release, Fullerton’s friends, neighbors and even her Marblehead High School Class of 1978 classmates have been carrying the book with them on trips abroad, snapping photos of “Side Launch” in far-flung locations.
For Fullerton, it’s a modern twist on a familiar hometown tradition.
“Many of us from those days growing up in Marblehead seemed to instinctively remember that throughout our lives, when the Marblehead Messenger (newspaper) was still in print, if anyone took a trip somewhere, especially overseas, they would be sure and carry a copy of the Marblehead Messenger with them and take a photo of themselves holding up the newspaper,” Fullerton said. “I remember back then that exotic, faraway places were usually Bermuda, or perhaps the Matterhorn or in front of Big Ben, but I do not think that we could have anticipated back then how world travel would change.”
Now, it’s “Side Launch” that’s circling the globe.
“The idea started with Marblehead resident and fellow sailor Jim DaSilva who sent a picture of him reading the novel on a lake in Maine, with a sailboat in the distance,” Fullerton said.
Others soon followed. Diane Jackson sent a photo of herself reading “Side Launch” outside the newly reopened Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris. Jane Goldstein shared a snapshot from a train in South Africa.
Additional photos have arrived from Bainbridge Island, Washington; the Cayman Islands; Quebec; Bermuda; Hong Kong; and the Philippines. Friends have even promised to send a photo of the book from in front of the pyramids in Egypt.
“Because of this immense outpouring of support and the fact that I do suffer from wanderlust, my novel has had the best time traveling,” Fullerton said.
Because it has been far and wide, Fullerton jokes that she considers her book an “international bestseller.”
“I can’t wait to see where ‘Side Launch’ will go next,” she added.
“Side Launch” is available at Saltwater Books and the Arnould Gallery on Washington Street, as well as on Goodreads.January arrives each year with a sense of possibility. It’s the month of clean slates, ambitious resolutions and renewed motivation, especially when it comes to money.
