Sailing Down the Moonbeam

With a destination loosely defined as the rest of the world, Mary and her husband Tom leave family, friends and successful careers for a multi-year sailing voyage.

As the voyage takes her farther and farther from her traditional support systems, her world becomes more and more defined by forces outside her control.  Mary's travels through often uncharted island communities, provides a compelling metaphor for a journey of self-discovery.

Raised and educated in the Midwest, Mary moved to New York City to build a career. Fifteen years later, with two house, two cars and more frequent flier miles than she could ever use, she and her husband Tom found themselves increasingly dissatisfied with conventional measures of success. Since leaving New York on a sailboat in 1985, she has lived and/or worked as a financial consultant in Panama, New Zealand, Australia, Europe and Mexico. Along the way, she backpacked through Asia and the Middle East. She now makes her home in Des Moines, Iowa where she works as a financial consultant and increasingly focuses her professional energies on assisting nonprofit agencies that serve the homeless and the mentally ill. Her first novel is well underway.