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Category Archives: writing
Tom Robbins and I
No, Tom Robbins, who died a year ago come February 9th, was not a friend. Or even a casual acquaintance. Though for a few years it seems like our paths crossed obliquely in the picture-perfect town of La Conner, Washington. … Continue reading
Posted in farming, history, marriage, rural life, social criticism, Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., La Conner. Skagit Delta, Swinomish Slough, Rainbow Bridge, bookstores,, Washington State Ferries, writing
Tagged creative-writing, La Conner WA, Seaport Bookstore, Tom Robbins, writers, writing, writing fiction
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An Imaginary (but not unlikely) Fathers’ Day Conversation with my Daughter
SHE: Happy Fathers’ Day! And I see your new book is on a free promotion–for five days. On Kindle. ME: A chance to save $2.99. People should be beating down Amazon’s door! Here I am, hoping people take the bait, … Continue reading
Posted in love, marriage, nostalgia, rural life, writing
Tagged draft horses, Luddites, South Fork Valley-Washington, steam locomotives
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The Humble Spike Maul
As a day to celebrate, Saint Patrick’s Day is filled with images that are simultaneously hackneyed and cherished. The leprechaun, the green top hat, the harp–and then there’s the shamrock. Here on the west side of the Atlantic, most of … Continue reading
Posted in history, Ireland, labor, nostalgia, railroad construction, railroading, social criticism, writing
Tagged gandy-dancers, hand tools, track work
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Make a Living at Writing?
There’s money to be made in writing fiction. But not necessarily by those doing the actual writing. As the number of books being churned out in this age of self-publishing has increased astronomically, the odds of making a living wage … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon KDP, Christmas, farming, nostalgia, self-publishing, social criticism, Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., La Conner. Skagit Delta, Swinomish Slough, Rainbow Bridge, bookstores,, Washington State Ferries, writing
Tagged book marketing, editorial services, hybrid publishers, KDP, legacy publishers, literary agents, Maxwell Perkins, word processing
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Nothing Sacred?
It’s summer, down the shore, in 1948, which would make me three years old. If there’s an east wind, aka sea breeze, you can hear the ocean murmuring half a block away, through the back screen door. It’s morning, … Continue reading
Posted in history, nostalgia, social criticism, writing
Tagged Amazon, Boeing, grocery delivery, hot cereal, Jersey Shore, Merck, Rahway N.J., Regina Corporation, robots, shopping, Wheatena
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Wallace Stegner and Joe Hill–Was He Guilty?
On November 19th, 104 years ago, Joe Hill was executed by the State of Utah. The young itinerant laborer was born Joel Emmanuel Hagglund in 1879. After emigrating from Sweden to the United States he took the name Joseph Hillstrom, … Continue reading
The I.W.W. is 110 Years Old
By the 1890s, in reaction to the unprecedented power concentration of corporations, a labor movement had formed. The Railroad Brotherhoods and the American Federation of Labor (A.F.L.) dominated the movement, divided into crafts. Eugene Debs in the early 1890s formed … Continue reading
Posted in history, labor, Socialism, writing
Tagged AFL, AFL-CIO, Big Bill Haywood, CIO, Daniel DeLeon, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Espionage Act, Eugene Debs, Father Thomas Hagerty, FBI, Free Speech Movement, Great Northern Strike, HUAC, IWW, J. Edgar Hoover, Lawrence Strike, Paterson Strike, Pullman Strike, Sedition Act, Vincent S. John, Wobblies, Woodrow Wilson, World War One
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Ivan Doig (1939-2015)–I Miss Your World
Back about 1980, I was introduced to a town I’d never seen, reading a description by a newly acclaimed 40-year-old writer. And it stayed with me–a mid-1940s scene of a very young boy being happily dragged around by his ranch-hand, … Continue reading
Posted in history, labor, love, Montana, nostalgia, social criticism, writing
Tagged Ivan Doig, Montana, Rocky Mountains, sheep ranching, Village Books, Wallace Stegner, White Sulfur Springs
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Up the Inside Passage
July, 1898. 16-year-old Mike Scanlon has let himself be detained, quite willingly, at a new Utopian socialist colony along the upper reaches of Puget Sound, north of Seattle. He is now “back on track” following the original plan of his … Continue reading
A Day Trip to New Whatcom
In May of 1898, 16-year-0ld Mike Scanlon travels west from New Jersey to meet up the with his brother Jimmy in Skagway, Alaska, to work on building the White Pass & Yukon Railway. The brief war taking place in … Continue reading
Posted in history, Populism, Socialism, Utopian Movement, writing
Tagged Bellingham Wash., Brotherhood of Co-operative Commonwealth, Chuckanut Bay, Fairhaven Wash., Klondike gold rush, New Whatcom Wash., Panic of 1893, Puget Sound, San Juan Islands, Skagway Alaska, Spanish-American War, Utopian colonies, White Pass & Yukon Railway, Yukon
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J.P. Kenna 