Book based on local author’s boating experiences

HOUGHTON — It all started with Cyndi Perkins’ sailboat called “Chip Ahoy.”

“We’re on Lake Superior, and from here, on a boat, you can go anywhere, and so, we did,” said Cyndi Perkins, the author of More Than You Think You Know. “My husband and I took two 6,000-mile trips around America’s Great Loop on the eastern seaboard and we went down the Heartland Rivers and that’s where I drew the inspiration for ‘More Than You Think You Know.'”

“More Than You Think You Know” follows three renegade women piloting a 44-foot luxury fishing boat, on a similar journey as Perkins and her husband took, through the Heartland Rivers of Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico.

While the main characters are women, Perkins said that men can also relate to the book.

“There’s two big ‘M’s in this book, right? There’s marinas and marine life and there’s menopause, which we don’t always talk about, which is kind of weird because it’s one of the huge change of life things that occurs in every woman’s life. Men go through middle-age things, too, and so I thought that this was really a frank and fun and open way to talk about the different changes that we experience,” said Perkins.

Other themes include darker topics like domestic abuse and alcoholism, but Perkins said there is one topic that overshadows the rest.

“Beyond what the book means and beyond what writing means, this book is about making your dreams come true because I’ve dreamed since I was a little girl of writing a book and I know there are so many people that have dreams and I’m here to say ‘you can make your dreams come true,'” said Perkins.

“More Than You Think You Know” can be found at several local book dealers, including Book World and North Wind Books.