Cindy Elder is a past executive director of Rhode Island’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She currently serves as the executive director of the Barrington Land Conservation Trust.
Elder, who is also the former assistant director of the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant University in Smithfield, spoke about her recently completed historical novel, “If the Sea Must Be Your Home,” with G. Wayne Miller of Ocean State Stories.
MILLER: What inspired you to write a novel?
ELDER: I have always been a voracious reader with a taste for anything that pulls me into a new world. I love epic historical narratives and high-quality historical fiction. I am somewhat addicted to murder mysteries, and I maintain a steady diet of poetry.
As a lifelong writer, I’ve constantly challenged myself to try new forms of expression. Poetry, journalism, songwriting, documentaries, memoirs, cookbooks — it’s all delicious to me. It was only a matter of time before I tried my hand at a historical novel. I’ve been developing book concepts for years.
Three years ago, I tripped over a story that demanded to be written. I carved out time between work and family to delve into the research and writing that would result in the two-book series, “If the Sea Must Be Your Home.” Based on hundreds of pages of handwritten documents from the 1800s, the story reveals the inner thoughts of a seafaring family at a time of change and division in our country.
Storytelling allows us to portray truths that transcend the news of the day. We invite readers into a safe space where they can accept and even fall in love with flawed people, the only kind that exist. This novel elevates the voices of sailors, soldiers, women and slaves, speaking through history in their own voices.
MILLER: Now, some writing background please. You write on your website that “My writing life began when I could grip a crayon and misspell a few words. I found my voice in poetry and honed it as a newspaper reporter, movie producer and radio host.” Give us some detail.
ELDER: My love of the written word began shortly after the death of my first father, Peter Andrews, when I was 4 years old. Writing helped me to make sense of my life. Spelling be damned, I scratched out poems phonetically in a scrapbook gifted to me by my grandmother, Emmie Mygatt, a writer of boys’ adventure stories. In my teens, she sent my adolescent musings to literary journals well beyond my reach and counseled me to “paper my wall with rejection slips.”
I come from a family of writers. My mother, Barbara Hail, authored several books through her work with the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. Growing up, I observed her working long into the evening, papers spread over the dining room table. I watched her interview tribal elders, where she demonstrated the power of listening. Through her silence, she provided space for the elders to reflect.
Storytelling has driven my checkered career. I went to Roger Williams University in the 1980s (when it was a college) and double-majored in creative writing and career writing. That opened the door for me to work at the Middleboro Gazette under the brilliant editor Jane Lopes. Back then, we typed our stories into huge Compugraphic typesetting machines. On production day, the news team became the production team as we affixed strips of copy to boards that were then shipped off to the printer.
Working at the Gazette opened my eyes to people I might never have encountered in my daily life. I spent hours chatting with a woman living in her car, speaking through a crack in her window. I attended church picnics, murder trials and town meetings. I interviewed farmers and Vietnam vets, recovering heroin addicts and local leaders. They honored me with their truths.
After college I ended up in Orlando, Florida, where I landed a job on WBZS Business Radio, working morning drive with a great news director, Ken Rabac. “You’re not speaking to 10,000 people,” he counseled me. “You’re speaking to one guy in his car.” As a writer, I try to speak to that one reader who’s living their life and just hoping to escape into another time or place for a little while.
In those early days of my career, I had more time than money, so I volunteered with Hospice of Central Florida in patient care. They soon discovered I was a writer. I scripted a promotional video, which won the National Hospice Organization’s excellence in media award. This led to a short stint with Ivanhoe Communications, which hired me to produce a nationally syndicated documentary on domestic violence (Behind Closed Doors: Battle on the Home Front) and education segments for network affiliates. One thing leads to the next!
MILLER: You also write that your dedication to volunteerism led you to “one of the largest hospice organizations in the country, where I became director of communications. Since then, I’ve been a wandering minstrel of nonprofits, telling the story of organizations that provide food, education, mental health services and outdoor experiences to those who need it most.” Again, some detail, please.
ELDER: I was drawn to hospice because of the losses I experienced early in life. Volunteering forced me to deal with my lingering grief, because you can’t support others while you’re struggling with your own issues. This led to one of the most rewarding jobs in my career, director of communications for Hospice of Central Florida. I loved the people with whom I interacted: patients, caregivers, nurses, social workers, chaplains, doctors, home health aides, volunteers, bereavement counselors. They became my friends at a time when I felt alone. I’m still in touch with the former CEO, Brenda Horne, a leader who challenged me and lifted me up.
I listened to the stories of patients approaching the end of life, parents facing the loss of a child, survivors trying to move on. I came to view communications as a form of caregiving, by giving voice to those who needed to share their stories and preserving the dignity of silence for those who wished to remain private. As a former journalist, I had empathy for reporters, too, and did my best to provide accurate information and interesting storylines.
Much later, when life returned me to Rhode Island, I served several years as director of communications for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, working alongside Lisa Roth Blackman and Andrew Schiff, two inspiring leaders who remain friends. While working at the Food Bank and raising two teenage daughters, I returned to school (at the tender age of 50) to seek a master’s degree in public affairs at Brown University. It’s never too late! This degree helped me to obtain leadership roles in a series of small nonprofits.
I served as assistant director of the Hasssenfeld Institute for Public Leadership, and as executive director of Coggeshall Farm Museum and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Rhode Island. I left the nonprofit world for three years to serve a short-term contract with RI State Parks as chief of business development. Let’s just say I’ve made the rounds. Every job I’ve held opened the window into another corner of our world.
For the last two years, I’ve been having a ball as the first executive director of the Barrington Land Conservation Trust. This half-time, hyper-local position energizes me as I work alongside more than 100 volunteers to protect open space and educate the public about our natural resources. The role also gives me the time and head space I need to pursue my personal writing projects. I’m fortunate to have this kind of life balance, but then, at 64 years old, there’s no time like the present to pursue your dreams.
MILLER: And a bit more about this statement on your site: “Along the way, I fell in love, raised two daughters, and wrote a few books, most of which I completed on behalf of the organizations I served. In my spare time, I’ve written family histories, cookbooks, poems, travel articles, opinion pieces, and a memoir.”
ELDER: I met the great love of my life, Bob Elder, at a party at my family’s house in Barrington, Rhode Island, when I was 34. I was living in Florida, he in Massachusetts. He arrived “fresh” from the Figawi sailboat race, rugged and windblown. I flew up to Boston for our first date — a week on his sailboat. Thirty years later, we’re still sailing together with our two daughters, Emily (27) and Elizabeth (25). So writing about sailing and the sea comes naturally to me.
This is not my first book, but it’s the first I’ve done entirely on my own. I co-authored a retrospective on the Haffenreffer Museum’s education program and a history of the Gordon School. Both of these projects involved searching through dusty attics and basements for forgotten records and conducting interviews to flesh out missing pieces of the story. As a freelance writer, I wrote travel articles for AAA World magazine, great training for writing a book about circumnavigating the globe. Every job I’ve had has involved writing, whether it’s opinion pieces or annual reports. During the pandemic, I wrote a memoir (didn’t everybody?), which may someday see the light of day.
I’m one of those people who just has to write. It’s always been that way. From the age of 11, I’ve created chapbooks of my poetry to share with my family. In my 20s and 30s, I expanded that effort to include family cookbooks and anecdotal family histories.
MILLER: OK, now “If the Sea Must be Your Home.” Can you give us an overview?
ELDER: “If the Sea Must Be Your Home” is the true story of a seafaring family from West Barnstable, Massachusetts, during the final chapter of the Great Age of Sail and the tumultuous years of the Civil War. The story reveals the inner thoughts of a lonely shipmaster as he traverses the vastness of the sea, writing to the woman he loves. Through their own words, the book elevates the experiences of women who braved years-long sailing voyages and the stories of soldiers and slaves as our country was torn apart at the seams.
MILLER: What was the inspiration?
ELDER: I first encountered a transcription of a letter from Capt. James Hamblin Jenkins while working on a family history book in 1999. Penned in the 1860s by my husband’s great-great-grandfather, the letter brought to life the experience and private thoughts of a young captain, separated by oceans from those he loved. At the time, I assumed it was the only record which existed of his writing.
Twenty-five years later I discovered that this letter was just one of many documents detailing the life of the seafaring family portrayed in “If the Sea Must Be Your Home.” Hundreds of pages of handwritten documents, safely stored by my husband’s family for more than 150 years, slowly emerged from boxes preserved by my brother-in-law Charlie Elder after my husband’s parents died. I became entranced by the words of Ruth Jenkins, who wrote of her lengthy voyages with James aboard the Hoogly and major events in our country’s history, as seen through the eyes of a woman before women could vote.
MILLER: You have a blog with updates about the novel. What will readers find there?
ELDER: Readers will uncover the story behind the story — the tale of how a historical novel comes together and the surprises encountered along the way. If you’re interested in sailing, lighthouses, the evolution of civil rights, the Civil War, the Great Age of Sail, or a good old-fashioned love story, you’ll find something to chew on. Writers and aspiring novelists will connect with how a single thread of information can lead to a motherlode of content.
MILLER: As if all this were not enough, you are a poet, too. What are some of your favorite subjects?
ELDER: It’s hard to nail down a favorite subject. I seek moments of clarity, when the commonplace resonates at some deeper level. For example, “The Last Box” lists the final things I packed when moving from our old house into our current home. Each item shimmered with meaning when I unpacked them, and this became a poem.
MILLER: You are seeking a publisher for “If the Sea Must Be Your Home.” Where should prospective publishers go to learn more?
ELDER: Thanks for asking, Wayne! I welcome literary agents or publishers to reach out to me at cynthia@cynthiaelder.com or through any of these platforms: My website, Substack, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
I invite readers to subscribe to my blog and follow me on the social platforms they prefer. These days, most writers have to be their own publicists, so I’m grateful for every like, share and follow. And thank you, Wayne, for the opportunity to participate in Ocean State Stories. Such a privilege.
