Raising the Oblivity

Fifty-eight-year-old Dean Floogleman, a retired burned-out engineer who had abandoned his dreams long ago, returns to the place that he was most happy, the beach. He hopes to reboot his life, but instead he gets much more than he bargains for. Raising The Oblivity is a piece of modern-day fiction about pulling up stakes and moving to Ocracoke, a barrier island along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There Dean encounters three old salts, sea captain Bob Hansen, retired professor Cleaton Beckley, and retired reverend Hal Wriggley who constitute the crew of the schooner The Oblivity. The schooner is modified to resemble a pirate ship and provides sailing excursions for handicapped children and their parents. When Dean arrives in Ocracoke, The Oblivity is partially sunk in the island's lagoon due to a previous storm. The three old salts enlist Dean to help raise and restore her. At the same time, Dean meets and falls in love with a lovely and spunky real estate agent, Natalie Rochelle, who knows the three old salts well for years. These five people are thrown together to restore the beloved schooner and unknowingly find themselves being restored from the suffering of the events of their own lives. As these people work together to restore the schooner, they confront personal challenges and obstacles to find hope, healing, and redemption. The literary genre is romantic comedy. Each of these people has a story to tell, which is told with humor, adventure, and romance.