The Separation

In 1936, twin brothers Joe and Jack Sawyer win a bronze rowing medal for Britain in the Berlin Olympics, meeting Rudolf Hess when he presents the medals at the award ceremony. Later when England enters the war, the fact that the brothers look alike and have the same initials (J.L. Sawyer) causes confusion between Jack who becomes a bomber pilot and Joe who becomes a conscientious objector working for the Red Cross. This story provides an alternative history of World War II with hints of parallel realities.

This book by by Christopher Priest was the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Science Fiction Association Award.

Clive Cussler

The hero of Clive Cussler's series - The NUMA Files - is Kurt Austin. The series starts with the book Serpent which includes descriptions of Austin rowing a Maas Aero.

Find out more about Clive Cussler and the real National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) that Cussler supports with the royalties from his books at the link below.

Rowing Water Skier

Is it possible to water-ski behind an eight-man rowing team? Find the answer to this question in the following book and video - look for both in your library:

Mythbusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time by Keith and Kent Zimmerman.

MythBusters: Breakstep Bridge. [video] Produced by Beyond Productions for Discovery Channel.

For the episode summary from TV.com go to the link below.

Drawn to the Rhythm

I'm currently reading the biography Drawn to the Rhythm: A Passionate Life Reclaimed by Sara Hall, a Colorado native who now lives in Boston. Sara dedicates equal time to describing how she developed as a rower and how she developed as a person strong enough to free herself from her emotionally abusive marriage.

I was pleasantly surprised when Sara wrote of the help a reference librarian provided her - finding books and articles about rowing for Sara during her first year of rowing and how Sara reported her progress to the librarian, bringing her first medal to the library to share the victory with the librarian.

Much of the culture of rowing that Sara describes in learning to row in New York is a very different than the Rocky Mountain Rowing Club has. She felt she was an outsider because she wanted to row a single. Our club teaches students to row in singles so they can go out safely on their own right from the start and our coaching program includes singles as well as big boats.

Rabbit's Guide to Rowing Films

This British website is a fun place to find out more about movies with rowing themes or with rowing in the plot. The majority of the movies have screen shots, a plot summary and the website creator's spin on the rowing in the movie. Interesting commentary is made about mistakes, inconsistencies and things that just don't happen in real life.

Check out: http://www.twrc.rowing.org.uk/movies/filmguide.htm

Notebook 366 - Published Online

Update Oct. 2011: this story is no longer avaiable online -

Carve Magazine is a free and non-commercial online publisher of short stories. Check out Notebook 366 by Michael Horner. This is a short story about a rower, his wife and the instructor of a memoirs class that the wife attended. It is a story about obsessions and relationships with odd twists and turns.

The River Killings

A new book coming out this fall called The River Killings by Merry Jones.

Description from the publishers catalog*: “On vacation from her art therapy job, Zoe Hayes takes a sculling class with her best friend, Susan. When their boat capsizes, Zoe and Susan find themselves flailing about amongst a mysterious throng of floating corpses. Someone along Boathouse Row is a murderer, but who? An argument with Zoe’s fiancé, Detective Nick Stiles, leads Zoe and her daughter Molly to the river at night. What she finds there is a sinister plot that she may not be able to escape.”

(*p.55 from http://www.stmartins.com/Booksellers/minFall06.pdf)