Desolation Ghosts is a 65,000-word adult literary fiction novel in the vein of The Human Stain. It is set in North Cascades National Park and is about a missing traumatized female veteran with alcohol and relationship addictions who changes her mind about killing herself, but then falls off a mountain and must survive in the wilderness while park rangers battle over how much effort should be spent to locate her. The story takes place during the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of law enforcement reforms following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. This book will appeal to readers who are interested in national parks, outdoor recreation, the Pacific Northwest, and the controversial issue of how emergency services treat people with mental health challenges. It includes exciting stories, based on real-life events, about using rock climbing and short-haul helicopter techniques to rescue a pack string mule who fell off a trail and a mountain climber who fell off a crag, a shoot-out and its impact on park rangers, a couple drownings, an aquatic body recovery and other sad outdoor tragedies, and funny and scary encounters with bears and other wildlife. If you like Jack Kerouac, Nevada Barr, Bree Loewen, Jon Krakauer, Michael Connelly, James Dickey's Deliverance, Matthew Quick's The Silver Linings Playbook or Scott Heim's Mysterious Skin, you may enjoy Desolation Ghosts.

Friday, June 4, 2021

BLM

When you act threatened by Black Lives Matter, regardless of what you say, all I hear is "Black lives don't matter."

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Kerouac in Sedro-Woolley 1956 #7

"Okay, I cut off - back down to the highway, over the tracks, and out on the bend getting traffic three ways" [Sounds like Ferry/ Hwy 17-A (now SR-20)]

Kerouac in Sedro-Woolley 1956 #6

"Squat against a wall and light a cigarette and dig the little afternoon city, there's the hay and grain feed silo outside town, the railroad, the lumberyard" [Probably talking about the Janicki building, but this north side of the Wixson Club/ Mestizo is more colorful than Janicki building.]

Kerouac in Sedro-Woolley 1956 #5

"I go out to buy my shoes - main street, stores, sporting goods, basketballs, footballs for coming Autumn ... I go in a store ... and the kid gives me blue canvas shoes with thick, soft soles ... I buy em, leave the old shoes there, and walk out -" [Likely Al's Sports Shop, 711 Metcalf and Black's Quality Shop, 713 Metcalf, now the Janicki Building]



Kerouac in Sedro-Woolley 1956 #4

"I go out to buy my shoes - main street, stores, sporting goods, basketballs, footballs for coming Autumn ... I go in a store ... and the kid gives me blue canvas shoes with thick, soft soles ... I buy em, leave the old shoes there, and walk out -" [Likely Al's Sports Shop, 711 Metcalf and Black's Quality Shop, 713 Metcalf, now the Janicki Building]

Kerouac in Sedro-Woolley 1956 #3

"My first stop will be the bank, there's a bank ..." [Skagit Valley State Bank, 631 Metcalf, SW corner of Wixson Hotel building, now JC Speedee Tax Services]



Kerouac in Sedro-Woolley 1956 #2

"The three old geezers ball me down to outside Sedro-Woolley ... I walk across the hot road towards the town ... first I comb my hair in a gas station ... then I start off-across the curving road is a factory plant ... I keep moving ... out across tarns and oil-meadow ditches ... and come out and lope ... into Sedro-Woolley proper" [Herb's Chevron, 224 W. Ferry, same building but likely different owner]



Kerouac in Sedro-Woolley 1956 #1

Jack Kerouac wrote in Desolation Angels about a quick stop he made in Sedro-Woolley in 1956. After doing some research, these are the places I think he was writing about, but I could be wrong.