SEA CHANGES: A Novel
by Bill Branley, One Sock Press, 2006

Review written by Shirley Perkins (4 out of 5 stars)

It’s 5:20 a.m., where are you? While writing Sea Changes as a 70-episode blog entitled “Peggy Finds a Friend”, Bill Branley was commuting to work on the ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle, Washington. The debut novel’s composition is similar to a diary written in the third person, with the blog entry date heading each chapter.

Comments from readers helped transform his serialized blog into a novel about the midlife romance of two widowed ferry commuters. Bill self-published the book through his start-up company after being rejected by seven agents. Having to endure that much rejection leaves me shaking my head wondering, “What were they thinking?” I had just finished Tending Roses, the 2001 debut novel by Lisa Wingate and enjoyed making comparisons. Both novels are based on personal experiences of the author and a close relative. For Sea Changes it was Branley’s mother who lived in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina and his travels across the United States. For Wingate, it was her grandmother and her life-long experiences on the family’s farm. Other similarities in the stories include strong community support, close family ties, the loss of a matriarch, and a deliberate decision to change employment and relocate.

The characters Mr. Branley created in Sea Changes, loosely based on people he observed on the early morning ferry, are likeable and well-developed. The dialogue among the small group of passengers who ultimately become friends is the backbone of the story. The conversation is realistic and lacks dependence on clichés. Branley’s sub-themes in the novel, through these conversations, the oppositional careers of the soon-to-be lovers and their adventures while dating, focus on current issues like homeland security, global warming, and how the effect of a lack of investment in community infrastructures hurts the environment. Branley easily makes his point about these issues without being preachy. In contrast, Wingate’s novel is peppered with clichés and I couldn’t ignore the repetitious propaganda that ultimately became tiresome. Technically, Sea Changes is not a disappointment and, in my opinion, is a few notches above the caliber of writing in Tending Roses.

Branley’s Sea Changes and Wingate’s novel are about love, loss, grief, hardship, and ultimately moving forward in spite of an innate tendency to resist change. It remains a mystery to me how Wingate managed to have a prominent publisher print her book and Sea Changes was such a tough sell. The debut of Sea Changes is equally inspiring and entertaining and won’t disappoint a reader looking for romance.