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Author Archives: jpkenna
Happy Birthday Eugene Debs
“Remember, Remember, the fifth of November!” The old school-child chant of course refers to Guy Fawkes, sometimes dubbed as “the only honest man ever to enter the Parliament.” This date–celebrating the foiling of the 17th century plot to … Continue reading
Posted in history, labor, railroading, social protest
Tagged American Federation of Labor, American Railway Union (ARU), Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Charles Pillsbury, Eugene Debs, George Pullman, Governor John Rogers, Great Northern Railway, Great Northern Strike, Grover Cleveland, Guy Fawkes, James Whitcomb Riley, Jim Hill, Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, Pullman Strike, sleeping car. Pullman IL, socialism, Spokesman-Review, strikes of 1877, Terre Haute IN, Theodore Roosevelt, Washington state
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Did William Faulkner Really Say This?
In writing, you must kill all your darlings. Not according to John Crowley, writer of fantasy, science fiction and mainstream fiction. I was happy to read in Crowley’s “Easy Chair” column, in the November 2014 issue of Harper’magazine, that the … Continue reading
Posted in history, self-publishing, social criticism, writing
Tagged book editing, creative writing groups, Earnest Hemingway, Gustave Flaubert, Harper's Magazine, James Joyce, John Crowley, Mark Twain, Maxwell Perkins, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, The Easy Chair, Thomas Wolfe, Wallace Stegner, William Faulkner, word processing, writing style
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Look What They’ve Done To My Book!
Thomas Wolfe, manically writing while standing, using the top of his icebox as a desk, tossing his manuscript pages into a nearby wooden packing crate, would not understand how my two novels got mangled when transformed into Kindle versions. I … Continue reading
Posted in self-publishing, writing
Tagged author compensation, e-books, formats, Kindle, Luddite, Maxwell Perkins, mega-publishing, Thomas Wolfe
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Any Writers Who “Drive School Bus” Out There?
The treasured summer vacation is winding down, as is the time-allotment for getting done all those tasks to be completed by Labor Day. Create e-book versions of Books 1 and 2; do a final proofreading of book 3; … Continue reading
Posted in nostalgia, school bus, writing
Tagged Crown Supercoach, retirement, School bus driving, summer vacation, writing
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A Visit to the Home of the Future Socialist Leader– Part Two
May, 1894: Social activist Norah O’Hanlon Quinn, now married to former priest Daniel Quinn, accompanies him on the last leg of their trip out to the Midwest. Expecting to visit American Railway Union leader Eugene Debs and his wife … Continue reading
A Visit to the Home of the Future Socialist Leader–Part One
May, 1894: Social activist Norah O’Hanlon Quinn, now married to former priest Daniel Quinn, accompanies him on the last leg of their trip out to the Midwest. Expecting to visit American Railway Union leader Eugene Debs and his wife Kate, … Continue reading
The Homestead Steel Strike–Aftermath
July, 1892: Jimmy Scanlon, in Everett, Washington, has been following the distant events of the Homestead Steel strike. Excerpted from Chapter 21, Beyond the Divide–Available from Village Books, Fairhaven (Wash., U.S.A.); and from Amazon It’s rare for the law to be … Continue reading
The Homestead Steel Strike–Part Two
Gaining fame for ensuring the safety of President Lincoln on his inaugural trip to Washington D.C. back in 1861, by the 1890s The Pinkerton Detective Agency had evolved into a multifaceted organization chiefly known–and despised among the laboring classes–for providing … Continue reading
The Homestead Steel Strike– Part One
July 7th, 1892: From various parts of the country comes the news of festering labor unrest, as workers feel left out of the prosperity issuing from new industrial technologies and rising productivity. Jimmy Scanlon is holed up in Everett, Washington, … Continue reading
Posted in history, labor, writing
Tagged 1892, Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers, Andrew Carnegie, Bessemer Process, Everett WA, Henry Clay Frick, Homestead PA, Homestead Works, Iron Puddlers, Monongahela River, Open Hearth Process, Pinkerton Agency, Steelmaking, Wrought Iron
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Panic on the Farm– Part Three
Fall 1894: Melissa Davis is absent as Jimmy Scanlon helps Curt and his sons finish up with the last of the harvest on the Davis farm. Excerpted from Chapter 26, Beyond the Divide–Available from Village Books, Fairhaven (Wash., U.S.A.); and … Continue reading
J.P. Kenna 