Third Anniversary!

I'm two days late but no matter. This weekend marks the three year anniversary of the beginning of this blog and, as usual, it's time to reflect on how far things have come in the past year. It seems this will finally be the year when my writing efforts will be reaching a much larger audience. After the success of the Kindle publishing of my article Night of the Grizzlies, 45 Years Later (see post below), the piece has been picked up by The Inside Trial, the publication of the Glacier Park Foundation, and will appear in this winter's issue. I'm excited that something with such personal meaning for me will be getting out there in such a way.

Work on the book version of Where the Bear Walks is still chugging along. I'm around halfway through, maybe a little over, but some of the hardest sections to tackle information-wise are yet to come. I hope that my projected release date of late spring/early summer will hold true but I can't be sure; a delay is a very real possibility.

 

As challenging as the book is, recent headlines are spurring me along and keeping me working. It appears that next year, barring some miracle, grizzlies will be removed from the protections of the Endangered Species Act, making them fair game for anyone with a gun and a score to settle. Already the comments sections of related news reports are overflowing with those frothing at the mouth to take a shot at a grizzly. The truly sad thing is that many of these people have no interest in population control; they simply want the animals gone because of the reputation they've been given. I try to stay focused on this during the dark moments when I'm lost in the turmoil of writing hell. I don't honestly believe that anything I or anyone else writes will change things at this point but I know I have to do my part for the conservation of these animals and I truly hope that the book, the articles, and the posts on this blog will be sufficient enough to do even a tiny sliver of good.

 

But I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Two Articles Available on Amazon Kindle

After spending a few months submitting some of my writing to magazines for publication, I decided instead to publish two of them independently as edocs on Amazon kindle. Night of the Grizzlies, 45 Years Later is the one I most sought to publish but the finished version is too outsized for magazine publication and the subject has too much personal meaning for me to just cut it down to a manageable length. I felt this was the best way to get it out there; continuing to pursue magazine publication could well take until the 50th anniversary! The essay is much more in-depth than my posting about it here and, of all my pieces, it's the one I feel the most pride in.

 

As a bonus to all of you, I've included an additional essay entitled Brown Bears World: Fortress of the Bear that details the triumphs, tragedies, pitfalls, and hardships of saving orphaned cubs in Alaska. The piece is critical of actions taken by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which many publications are unwilling to run. For $0.99 you can get them both and the funds will go into the writing and publication of my book Where the Bear Walks: From Fear to Understanding which will be available later in 2013. I also have a short article, A Summer With The Bears, that will run in the July/August issue of Alaska Magazine.

 

Here is the link for the kindle essays: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B04B0KY

 

I greatly appreciate your readership and your support! Thank you!