...to seem halfway intelligent, if only that person will write the same thought over and over again, improving it just a little bit each time. It is a lot like inflating a blimp with a bicycle pump. Anybody can do it. All it takes is time." Kurt Vonnegut ...
Read MoreI discovered Wendell Berry a few years back. I loves his fiction first. Most of his novels and short stories are set in rural Kentucky where six generations of Berry's ancestors on both sides of his family were farmers. His first novel, Nathan Coulter, published in 1960, is a great place to start reading him. I love his non-fiction. He has been writing about the importance of the local economy and agriculture's place in it for forty years. Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community is a collection of essays that helps us think about what is worth conserving from our past and worth preserving in our present. And he is a poet. From Sabbaths: I go among trees and sit still. All my stirring becomes quiet around...
Read MoreI was so delighted when I saw this first review of The 53rd Parallel from an Irish reader, Eamon Howley, and read how much he enjoyed the Irish scenes. From the beginning I have been fascinated by the idea of bringing together Irish and First Nations Ojibway cultures and stories--the working title of this book was Dreams of Irish and Indians. I love to listen to Irish and the Indian voices, and smile each time I hear them in conversation with each other. www.goodreads.com/book/show/20560424-the-53rd-parallel#other_reviews ...
Read MoreI wasted away so much time in college. I went to Knox College from 1969 to 1973, the ripe college campus counter culture years, at least at Knox, and I had a lot of counter culture fun. And once I figured out the professors had become so radical about the Vietnam War that they wouldn't flunk me and take away my student deferment, I stopped going to class and had even more fun. So I played soccer, and I partied, and I wasted so much precious opportunity. But there was one opportunity I did respect, that I cherished even, which was attending every Creative Writing class I could with Robin Metz. All by itself the time I spent with Robin could...
Read MoreI feel so fortunate that I will have two novels published this year, The 53rd Parallel in early May, and Anung in August. And it's a greater delight to have my three daughters involved in this work with me. My eldest, Sarah Rose, is a poet who will have her first book of poetry published this year. Best Bones won the 2013 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. With her permission I have included some of the lines from her poetry in The 53rd Parallel. She also built this website for me. And just last week it was decided by the publisher that Brita, the second oldest, a talented designer and artisan,...
Read MoreI love rock music. There are few I envy but near the top of the list is the front man of a hard rocking band who calls out "One more time" because he feels how much the boys behind him want to hit it again. Well, I get to hit it again. Just when I thought my work on 'The 53rd Parallel' was over as a writer of it, I discover I have a final author's duty to take a close read of the ARC preview edition, the novel published as a book for the first time. ARC's are printed in very limited numbers for two purposes--as an Advanced Reader Copy to garner reviews, and to be read for last chance edits...
Read MoreOne of the reasons I am so fond of 'The 53rd Parallel' is that I've written it twice. Actually I have written it 100 times, I am such a determined re-writer, and since it still isn't printed it's very possible I am still looking for some way to improve it. But I had finished the book and I had moved on to the second novel of what is now 'The River of Lakes' series, and I had finished it as well, including the 100 rewrites. I had just started the third book of the series when one morning I sat down to get to work and no sooner had my PC fully booted itself--this was 2008--than my desktop icons began to disappear,...
Read MoreThe 53rd Parallel was written with respect for the large historical events that advance its stories. I have fictionalized those events, I have not distorted them. That respect extends to my use of labels and names for the First Nations Ojibway and in my presentation of their customs. My guide in this matter has been my good friend, Steve Fobister. We worked together at Delaney Lake and Ball Lake Lodge in Northwestern Ontario in the mid to late 60's and he went on to be elected Chief of the Grassy Narrows First Nation, serving his people at a crucial time. Steve is Ojibway. Others spell the tribal name Ojibwa (which is how I pronounce it because it is how Steve always pronounces it)...
Read MoreSteve and I met the first summer I worked as a fishing guide in Northwestern Ontario at the small family-run fishing camp on Delaney Lake owned and operated by Herb Helzer and his wife and three daughters. Two extended family clans of First Nations Ojibway were as crucial to the camp's success: the men as fishing and hunting guides and the women managing the domestic chores. These three families worked together for years and the small scale and intimate setting resulted in them becoming one big family and, for the summer I was there, they adopted me. We worked together, we ate together, we lived together, and on those few days the camp was empty of guests, we played together. I...
Read MoreIt was the summer of 1967, the summer I turned 16, the first summer of four that I would spend as a fishing guide in Northwestern Ontario. I had two guests in my boat, and we were heading back to the lodge after a great evening of smallmouth bass fishing. Floating in the water ahead I spotted a loon, and I watched him, fully expecting he would dive as we approached. Loons never let us get any closer than twenty or thirty yards before they'd slip under the surface and I was still so fascinated by these birds that at their disappearance I would begin to count and often counted out a minute before the bird resurfaced. This one didn't move...
Read More