Award-winning historical fiction author, bluewater sailor, and recovering tech executive—writing stories of bold women from the deck of a sailboat.

Eleanor Creesy is being inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame—a pioneering navigator finally recognized alongside the sport’s greatest names. She used mathematics and celestial navigation to guide clipper ships through the most dangerous waters on earth, broke the New York–to–San Francisco speed record twice, and set a passage time that stood for 135 years—yet her name was nearly lost to history. Cheyenne discusses why this recognition is long overdue, what Ellen’s story reveals about how we remember women in history, and her own experience writing the fictional version of Ellen’s story while sailing around the world. Read the full story:Who Was Eleanor Creesy? The Real Navigator of the Flying Cloud

Most authors who write about the sea research it from a library. Cheyenne writes maritime historical fiction while living aboard her sailboat on a five-year circumnavigation. She talks about how real experience at sea—storms, celestial navigation, the visceral reality of ocean life—transforms the way she writes fiction set in the 19th century, and what it's like to pursue a creative dream and an adventure dream at the same time.

Cheyenne spent years climbing the corporate ladder—VP of Marketing, helped take Ancestry.com public—before realizing she'd built someone else's dream instead of her own. She walked away, wrote an award-winning novel, bought a sailboat, and is now sailing around the globe. She shares what it actually takes to reinvent yourself: the fear, the financial reality, and the tiny steps that build into a completely different life.

While researching her own genealogy, Cheyenne discovered her great-great-granduncle was Edward Rulloff—a self-taught genius who spoke 27 languages, murdered his wife and baby daughter, and was publicly executed. His brain, one of the largest ever recorded, is still on display at Cornell University. She wrote an award-winning novel to make sense of the discovery. She discusses what genealogy can reveal that we're not prepared for, and the ethical complexities of writing about a real killer who's also your relative.

Edward Rulloff spoke 27 languages, may have inspired Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty, and murdered at least three people. In The Prisoner's Apprentice, Cheyenne tells his story through the eyes of his young accomplice—a bright, lonely boy who falls under the spell of a charismatic sociopath. She explores the psychology of manipulation, writing villains as fully human, and what it means to grapple with darkness in your own bloodline. Read the full story at: The Real Edward Rulloff.