Below are some of the quotes David selected from Ready to Come About for his calendar, accompanied by the Portuguese audio clips of the same passages from De Vela Ao Vento.
To my surprise, I could understand many of the spoken Portuguese words and phrases – me, a non-Portuguese speaking person – when I read along in English. Maybe it’s because the Portuguese translation is faithful to the original script. Or maybe it’s because Eliana’s narration is so emotionally true, and clear, and clean. Or maybe it’s all of the above. Who knows. But it worked like magic.
Try it! I think you too will be amazed! You might even find yourself singing along at the end!
Wishing you all happy holidays, or I should say, boas festas! 🙂
Last month, David and I had the privilege of being guest-speakers for the Kingsway Women’s Club’s first session of its 2025-26 season and its 90th year in existence.
The Club, founded by a small group of Toronto women, moved locations over the years: originally meeting in local homes; then, for many years, in the Print Room of the “Old Mill Gardens”; and now in the Markland Wood Golf Club. Throughout these changes in venue, the constant has been the club’s steadfast focus on cultural enrichment and camaraderie via its monthly lecture series, book clubs, and interest-based events.
Our presentation, of our year-long adventure on the high seas that led to my memoir, Ready to Come About (Dundurn Press), was well received – that is, from the comfort and safety of the warm, dry, still conference room 😊. Check out their website for a recap of our October 17th event. What’s more, I was told, just yesterday, their book club is now reading my memoir. So, yey!
Last year, in 2024, after several years of work, Joel Rendall (co-founder of Practice Portuguese LDA, the European Portuguese language learning site out of Lisbon) and his team, completed a European Portuguese translation and recording of my memoir Ready to Come About.
This spring, I was generously given the rights to those audio files with which, with the help of Author’s Republic, an audiobook was created.
De Vela Ao Vento, a superlative full-length European Portuguese audiobook, was published on June 24, 2025, interestingly, the exact day eighteen years earlier that David and I cast off the dock lines on the east coast of Canada for the adventure that, unknowingly at the time, would become the basis of this story.
I am so happy with this audiobook! The professional voice actor, Eliana Silva, out of Lisbon Portugal, is amazing!!
It is my pleasure to introduce you to Eliana, in her own words:
Eliana Silva
I was born in 1985 and started singing before I could even talk — as if my voice was destined to become the thread weaving through my life. Clarity in speech and the power of being understood have always been guiding forces for me.
I was born in Lisbon and raised in the Algarve, and at 22 I returned to Lisbon to begin my career as a flight attendant. Traveling the world was my way of discovering not only new places, but also new sides of myself.
At 30, I embraced another calling and joined an arts and performing school. Around the same time, I began my journey as a voice-over actress, giving life to words in a new and exciting way. Today, at 39, I continue to balance the skies and the microphone. I’m a devoted mother to a five-year-old girl, still working as a flight attendant, and still passionate about voice-over. But my mission has grown: beyond discovering the world, I now feel called to share it — through my voice, my work, and my journey.
Here is a sample of Eliana’s narration from De Vela Ao Vento.
This audio is translated from the original English version found in the Epilogue of my memoir:
And we ocean sailors know that quality of life is not dependent on how much we have or how easy we have it. It’s being able to sail our own ships. It’s choosing our own destinations. It’s developing our own heavy-weather tactics. It’s self-discovery through passage-making and riding out the storms. It’s appreciating when the sun re-emerges, as it always does. And it’s the incomparable thrill of landfall that can be experienced only if one first takes the risk to cast off.
De Vela Ao Vento is now available on multiple platforms:
It can be found on other platforms. Search online for “De Vela Ao Vento” to see its availability.
If you speak Portuguese you might want to hear my story told in Eliana’s beautiful voice!
This audiobook was published by me and produced and distributed independently of Dundurn Press Ltd. Dundurn Press Ltd. makes no representations or warranties as to its content, quality or availability.
Guelph, Ontario is a community with an embarrassment of riches, particularly when it comes to the arts, including the literary arts.
It is home to the iconic bookstore, The Bookshelf, a landmark on Quebec Street.
And just down the road is the Guelph Public Library, one of the oldest public libraries in Ontario, the most used recreational facility in Guelph, and a vital community hub.
I was delighted to be contacted by James Gordon, local singer-songwriter extraordinaire and fellow author, on behalf of the Friends of the Guelph Public Library, to be part of their inaugural panel discussion, Guelph Writes.
At the event, moderated by Jeremy Luke Hill, local publisher and the driving force behind the Vocamus Writers Community, I was privileged to share the stage with award-winning authors; Nicholas Ruddock, Kathy Stinson, and Barbara Kyle, all of whom also call this area home.
After we each read a piece from our published works, Luke started the panel discussion by asking how Guelph influenced our individual writing journeys.
My response was, “In three huge ways!”
First, the story for my memoir, Ready to Come About (Dundurn Press), essentially started in Guelph; our first sail as a family, the kids’ growing pains, the job firing. Many local settings played a part; the home where we raised our family, Sunny Acres Park, the Speed River, St. Stanislaus School (now John Bosco), the Wooly, the Stone Road Mall where my husband, David, had his fateful seizure, the Guelph General, the decision to take off.
Second, believing I had a story that deserved telling, but never having been a writer before, I set about acquiring the skills I needed to enable me to tell it to the best of my ability. That multi-year journey included participating in many local educational opportunities; a one-day class entitled Writing Personal Stories, by Brian Henry at Harcourt United Church, various courses in creative writing at the University of Guelph, and workshops in the art and craft of story-telling by experts, like Barbara Kyle, a member of the panel.
And, last but not least, as writing is an inherently solitary activity, it felt extra-important to me to meet like-minded people, others who could appreciate the joys and pains and highs and lows, others to lend a shoulder to cry on and with whom I could celebrate small victories. And, for me, Guelph provided that community.
So, thank you Guelph! It isn’t a stretch to say that, without you, my memoir would not have seen the light of day.
During the Q&A, I was asked if I was writing another book. I was thrilled to answer, “Yes! I’m on the final stretch of completing my first novel.” Fingers crossed it will become a proud member of the ‘Books from Guelph Authors Club’ in the not-too-distant future.
This is a necessary sequel to my July 2020 post, Paciência.
Since returning home from our sailing trip, my husband, David, in his own quiet way, has continued to try to learn Portuguese; enrolling in Practice Portuguese, a language learning site out of Lisbon, doing their exercises religiously, practicing speaking Portuguese weekly to a couple of people online, keeping a daily journal in Portuguese, reading Portuguese news, watching Portuguese TV, and even cooking from Portuguese recipe books.
Well, here we are sixteen years later and it seems that his paciência — and his shocking persistence — have paid off.
This spring, at 70 years of age, David went by train to the Portuguese Consulate in Toronto and, along with several 20-something-year-olds, took the country’s official CIPLE exam that evaluates all aspects of language proficiency (oral and written comprehension, writing skills and the ability to converse).
“Having such a huge adventure to draw on, did the words flow freely when you wrote your book?”
That was a question asked of me by a man in Bobcaygeon last week where I was talking to a group about my memoir, Ready to Come About.
My response was an immediate and emphatic, “NO!”
Speaking to the Probus Club of Bobcaygeon
The truth is, whether you are writing a novel or a true story, writing is darn hard.
As Miriam Toews, one of my favourite authors, once put it, “You have to leave your blood on every page.”
However, fortunately, there are resources out there to help. Primary among them, for me, was learning all I could about the art and craft of story-telling through classes in Creative Writing; the first, and most pivotal, being Brian Henry’s Writing Personal Stories 101, over fourteen years ago.
Coincidentally, Brian is offering that exact same course online this summer, and fantastically, he has asked me, again, to be his guest speaker, specifically on the topic of memoir! Click here for details.
Delighted to have this opportunity to pay it forward, my response to Brian was an immediate and emphatic, “YES!”
We mark time with anniversaries. And, yesterday, David and I celebrated two big ones as guest speakers to the Probus Club of Muskoka Lakes, in lovely Bracebridge, Ontario, namely: the fifth anniversary of the exciting May 18th publication of my memoir, Ready to Come About (Dundurn Press), and the unforgettable May 21st of seventeen years ago when we cast off the dock lines in Hamilton Harbour to set sail for the North Atlantic Ocean. This would become one of the most pivotal days of my life.
Day of departure from Hamilton Harbour – May 21, 2007Presentation to the Probus Club of Muskoka Lakes – May 21, 2024
“Thank you, Inia, for taking us far and keeping us safe. Godspeed, my sweetheart!” (Excerpt from the acknowledgements in Ready to Come About)
For our wedding flowers, we had Talisman Roses. Talismans are thought to have magic powers and bring good luck. And, it seems they worked. This week David and I celebrated forty-three years of marriage!
On our anniversary day, David surprised me with a lovely bouquet of these special roses.
As I look at them by our kitchen window, on the cusp of a brand-new year, I’m filled with optimism and wonder. What positive adventures lie ahead?
And, amazingly, these roses have not yet wilted. Rather, throughout the week, they have continued to blossom. David says this is a sign … an optimistic sign! I tend to agree!
To all my friends and family, I wish you a new year full of happiness, health, and magic too.
Pretty much everyone knows the journey to becoming a published author is a roller coaster, replete with ups and downs, highs and lows, excitement and moments of deep despair.
A lesser known fact is that, for most authors, that ride continues well after publication.
There are post-publication lows like; standing at a book table in the mall that no-one visits, showing up to a bookstore to discover they’ve forgotten you were coming, getting hurtful reviews, getting no reviews at all.
But, after your book has come out, there are naturally many highs too; such as, receiving your very own box of books from the printer, holding the finished product in your hands, spotting it on actual bookstore shelves.
There are also the wish-come-true kinds of highs; such as, people expressing they loved your story, discovering wonderful online comments, getting positive media attention, perhaps even selling a book or two.
And then, if you’re super lucky, there might be an occasional totally unforeseeable high.
Two such unforeseeable highs happened to me, one leading to the other.
Two years ago, Practice Portuguese, a language training site out of Lisbon, translated the prologue of my memoir, Ready to Come About, into European Portuguese, which they then narrated and posted online as an audio language-learning tool for their membership.
Subsequently, one of Practice Portuguese’s intrepid members from Germany, Andreas, stumbled on this Portuguese audio translation of the prologue. He liked the sound of the story such that he obtained my full memoir to study with his English-language learning group in Berlin.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Andreas and, his wife, Ulrike, visited Canada on their honeymoon and we arranged to meet!
At Andreas’ suggestion, we met in Hamilton Harbour, the very spot where our transatlantic voyage began. It was a wonderful visit on a beautiful October day.
Since their return to Germany, we have been in frequent email contact. David and Andreas, kindred Portuguese-learning obsessors, are now Zooming in Portuguese once a week. And, who knows, perhaps someday we’ll visit them in Berlin, or maybe Lisbon.
We have made new friends, all thanks to Ready to Come About!
I often drive on Highway 400 between southern Ontario and places north, and I always pay attention to the road signs marking where to gas up, where to expect construction, and how much farther I must go to reach my destination. But, truth be told, seldom, if ever, have I given any thought about the exit signs along the way, and where they might lead. That is, until now.
Friday, David and I had a book event with South Simcoe Probus in a venue called the Gibson Centre in new-to-us Alliston.
In just a little over an hour from our home in Guelph, Google Maps guided us through Alliston’s charming tree-lined streets, by well-kept older homes, and passed a bustling sports field. What a lovely town, I thought. Then … wow! The Gibson Centre appeared up ahead, standing proud and stately, like a Parliament building in Ottawa. I don’t know what we had expected, but this was definitely not it!
According to the website, the building was originally a farm implement factory built by the Mercer Manufacturing Company in 1889, designed in the “second empire style”, perhaps explaining its Parliament Hill feel.
In 2001, it was donated by the Gibson family and the “Gibson Centre for Community, Arts and Culture”, a non-profit organization, was created. As such, it is now home to many groups, like the South Simcoe Probus; it holds exhibitions, musical events, and live theatre; and it is an intrepid supporter of the local arts and crafts community. A gem, just a few minutes off the busy Highway 400; Exit Highway 89!
Following our presentation, David and I ventured to downtown Alliston where we discovered a second gem, Taqueria El Norte, tucked in its main drag!
In the boldly painted intimate space, we savoured chips and guacamole, street tacos, and craft beer. The Mexican fare was fantastic and the service, second to none.
I won’t travel Highway 400 again without feeling a tug towards the Alliston exit, also wondering what gems might lie beyond the others.
Come to think of it, just maybe David and I should plan a few day trips and further explore the region in which we live!
