ON ALASKA - An Alaskan Boy, A Bush Pilot Dad, In the Last Frontier

Charles A. Gisel, Jr. at Livingston Copters

by Robert L. Gisel


 Long overdue (in my mind) the book has passed that writer's milestone, the second draft. From here it goes to editor, proof readers, and the trial audience readers. (More...)

 So far the reviews have all been laudatory. The few suggestions have elicited only minor paragraph changes, which I wouldn't make unless they helped the delivery of the meaning and message.

 Patty (who is family and naturally prejudiced) says, "Well, I stayed up very late last night, because I wanted to finish your book. I had started it on Friday, read more on Saturday and finished last night. It was wonderful.... It really made me understand you so much better, and actually it made me get to KNOW you much more than ever." Besides being my sister-in-law she is also a writer, so this is indeed a good recommendation.

 There is possibly a title change in the wind. Given to someone who never had an interest in Alaska he says he never would have picked it up and read it, not having been interested in Alaska, but reading it he can't put it down.

 Instead of targeting hundreds of millions who have some interest in Alaska I might have to consider the wider audience of billions who may or may not have an initial interest in Alaska.

 The book opens like this:

Chapter 1

A New Adventure 



     "We journey to Alaska when I am nine. In meaningful respects I'd never leave it. They say, once an Alaskan, always an Alaskan, and maybe it is so. Maybe it is just a larkish Alaskan saying to mystify the uninitiated.

     "Certainly this is so for my Father, being an Alaskan Bush Pilot who dies on the job. He leaves behind a mountain named after him, and that is about as “always an Alaskan” as it gets.

     "This story takes us back to when the Alaskan experience began for me. Roll back the shrouds of time to 1959…

     "Dad has already crashed a helicopter at Glacier Bay, during the summer. He wants more of Alaska. He wants to move north. The adventuresome move promises to be exciting and dangerous. The danger only makes it more exciting."

 Keep your ear to the ground and I'll thump on it when it is available for purchase.

 You can see the full first chapter here
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