Second Proof

Printed five copies. Turned out okay. Still found about 20 typos and such to change in it and a couple tedious spots. Also discovered I talked about Sedro-Woolley without mentioning the chainsaw-carved statues on the downtown sidewalks! Major oversight. Fixed that! One copy for proofreading, one to keep, one each for two awesome rangers who influenced it, and one for Henry Rollins who's mentioned as an influence but probably will not be at all excited to receive it. I think I might be on his bad fan list (stalkers) if he has one. But I don't know. Who doesn't like to hear they've helped people?

Proof of third revision

Finished a 6-month revision of Desolation Ghosts and just queried another 5 agents. It's a tough sell since people looking for social justice work generally want non-fiction and since social justice and nature are a strange combo. I'll keep trudging away at it though. I'm printing a proof for a "final" proofread through Barnes & Noble printing. Here's the cover. It's kind of ugly. I'm no artist, but I love having Hozomeen on the cover.

Query #45

I found an agent I was excited about because of her mission statement (books that matter) and because she's done a lot with Philip Roth's work (whose novel The Human Stain is the most like mine in terms of whistleblower fiction). It wasn't clear until I'd already invested some time in the query that she only accepts non-fiction. I guess I was tired, but I got aggressive and sent her a query anyhow. Haven't heard back. :D I've queried 45 agents now and need to keep going. It feels like I'm running out of agencies I feel confident are solid. I know I need to submit some short stories to magazines, too. That would help my credibility to agents.

Part of my query letter to Wendy Strothman:

I’m writing to you because this book, which reflects dire current affairs, matters. It will change how people think about those struggling with mental health issues by revealing yet another little-known form of discrimination they either endure or succumb to. It will educate people about the toll of being a park ranger and about dangers in nature, and it will make them curious to follow, in the next book, a memorable character out of the frying pan of surviving suicidality into the fire of our failing mental health system, which often leads to jail for people in crisis.

I’m writing to you because you’re singing my song and I’m singing yours but in different, complementary keys. Philip Roth, Upton Sinclair, George Orwell, and many others wrote significant and provocative works of non-fiction as fiction because it was more effective to make their points. Would you say no to them without peeking at their work? What use is a memoir aborted by libel laws unless you dress it in fictional skin?

Photo I traced for cover of new book proof

I love this picture of Desolation Lookout (and Hozomeen!) from the air this summer during all the fires. (credit: Jim Henterly, "Edge of the Void")

X Marks the Spot

As far as I know, Alexander is still missing. Kept my eyes open while hiking Thunder Knob today but didn't see anything out of the ordinary except for the giant X made out of 2 tree trunks that I think fell during the lightning storm when he went missing. The X marks a little pond, bridge and hill not far from the summit where I think, for various reasons, he may turn up, if he ever does. I deduced where I thought another missing person might have gone, and it turned out to be correct. It's coming up on two years. I didn't know him. I just helped look for him.

Mosley

I love it when I buy a used book and it turns out to be signed (presumably by the author)!

Reservations

There was a homicide at the national park I used to work at last week, and I worry about the impact on the rangers I used to work with who responded to it. I based the book I wrote on that park (writing rule #1: write what you know) and used elements of it to illustrate a problematic social issue around how we handle people with mental health issues (Michael Connelly's "Everyone counts or no one counts" maxim summarizes it nicely). Even though it's fabricated, it has rangers as characters, one of whom represents the problematic side. How do you ever criticize people who do that work for a living? I know people in law enforcement aren't perfect any more than anyone else, and I know there are good and bad apples, as they say, but it's truly heroic work. For every mistake or imperfection, there is so much generosity and sacrifice. The stress and toll of the work is immense. I wonder if some jobs earn the right to be left alone about how the work gets done. Not in cases of racism or abuse, obviously. We clearly have a systemic problem that needs to be addressed and reformed. But in cases like the one I wrote about where the right or wrong of how a situation is handled is less clear and the people making the decisions are truly doing what they think is right, maybe "thank you" is the only appropriate response.