Start New Year on right foot

Start New Year on right foot

We're well into January of 2019.    

Ice fishing shanties are out on the harbor.  Four-wheelers, or walking are the preferred methods of accessing the ice at this point.  It may be a few more days before pickup trucks and their drivers venture from shore.

It's been one year and a few months since my last entry, I realize, and with such a lapse there may be no one who reads this or cares to get started as a follower once again.   But, barring unforeseen incidents, I shall in the future continue to grind out some light news from our home on Detroit Harbor.

In August of 2017, I had just announced my new book, Island Stavkirke - Washington Island's Norwegian replica.   Initial, local sales went over pretty well, as I had hoped when I ordered (and then stored in our basement) over 2,000 copies from the printer.  These things take time to catch on, I remind myself.  Lacking backing for marketing, because I self-publish, I depend on word of mouth and my own limitations in contacts.

Well, here's a cover from my most recent book, entries compiled while I worked on the Stavkirke book and received from the printer this recent mid-December.

Words on Water II - Island Journal 2017. 

Because I received this publication at a time when the Christmas season was upon us, several copies were then sold as gifts.  A few more were sold via my website, www.Richardpurinton.com.  All sales at this time of year are appreciated, because book sales remain light until weather warms and tourism returns.  

I've had the distinction, and perhaps an added sales push, of having my title "Words on Water," which appeared on my ferry journal book of 2007, chosen to describe two separate, local literary events.

Last September, the sixth Washington Island Literary Festival borrowed the theme "Words on Water," having first asked my approval.  Unfortunately my new book, Words on Water II, wasn't yet ready, and potential readers came away disappointed.

  

In another few weeks, on Saturday, Feb. 2, Groundhog Day, a poetry and musical event guided by Write On! Door County is scheduled for the Door County Auditorium.  It will also be titled, "Words on Water."  All poems submitted to a selection panel were to have water as a main poem theme.  How my title came to be chosen, again, I'm not sure.  I first read about this event in a Peninsula Pulse notice in December.  

Just to be clear (for readers who might be confused), I didn't take my most recent book title from either of these events!  

If you enjoy reading about local, Island happenings, or learning how events beyond our shores might have local impact, then this newest book, based on my 2017 journal, might provide you with insights, connections, and just maybe, a bit of humor.  Lots of images, too, both in color and B & W, over 50 all told.  

A major inspiration in writing these blogs is to start with a photograph.  That usually gets me off-and-running, and excited to put the topic at hand into words.  Today, I began without such benefit - other than the book cover - because I've not taken as many photos of late.  Maybe in the future I'll come up with a historic photo or two, something that "relates and resonates."  

In the meantime, I'll state that Mary Jo and I plan to remain in place this winter in our Detroit Harbor home, imagining what it might be like to be elsewhere.  

I have several writing project ideas, still in the wings, to keep me busy, and also several wood carving projects. Some are intended for the Stavkirke, others are just for the fun of it.

   

It's good to be back after such an absence, and I must say, getting back wasn't easy.  I had to ask a friend for technical advice in how to get recognized by Google, in order to access the administrative side of this blog.  My old password was no longer recognized, for some reason, and it took a bit of sleuthing, trial and error, to figure it out the right combination.

With my absence from writing and posting a blog, I've had to re-learn the tricks in getting a blog into shape for posting, all in a rather reasonable time frame.

Here's to another winter and the beginning of a new year, along with resolve to continue the posting of these blogs.

  -  Dick Purinton

Fifth Annual Literary Festival

Washington Island, Wisconsin -

The bookmark for September's Literary Festival (shown here) features a painting by David Friedrich, "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog."

The theme for this year's festival, now in its fifth year, is "Exploring Frontiers, Real and Imagined."

The authors and poets who will be featured in presentations will use this theme as a stepping off point for discussion and selected readings.  There are few ways in which we can be so easily, quickly and thoroughly transported than through the written word.  Readers will find this year's experience will further stimulate their appetite for reading, for learning, and finding something new and surprising within a book's covers.

The reverse side of the bookmark features names of the main authors and their featured book.   Wisconsin's Poet Laureate, Kimberly Huston, and Door County's Poet Laureate, Sharon Auberly (their books are not shown). They'll read and talk about their poetry Saturday evening following dinner.

One challenge faced by the committee each year is to provide a meaningful program, improve on the previous years' experiences, and yet not overly complicate the weekend of events.  Logistically, there are challenges, but the outline for 2017 looks like attendees will enjoy an excellent program.  The many tasks and details are addressed through the input of a diverse, talented committee headed by Helene Meyer, whose ideas and inspiration led her to launch the first Island Literary Festival.  Helene, along with many others, strives to keep the festival program interesting, vital and worthy, in what she has often described as an "intimate gathering of readers and writers."

I'm not one to read each listed book of the featured authors, but I've recently ordered "Death and Life of the Great Lakes" by Dan Egan, based on a strong, positive review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, titled, "Nor Any Drop to Drink?: Why the Great Lakes Face a Murky Future."   Egan works as a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and his work on Lake Michigan water topics has often been featured in the pages of that newspaper.  Egan has family connections in Egg Harbor.

Having observed Lake Michigan's water qualities as a sailor and ferryman, and knowing something of the problems that denigrate the qualities of this lake, I will be especially interested to read his book and to learn more about what is happening to the Great Lakes as a whole, both the good and the bad.  As an example, it wasn't many years ago that commercial fishing was a major economic factor in Northern Door County.  That's completely changed, and in a rather short time.  Forty years ago, there were between 40 and 80 boxes of fish, almost daily.  Now its rare to see any fish being shipped to commercial markets.  Why is that?  

Egan once interviewed me at the Ferry Office, and I believe his questions then dealt with piers, man-made structures built on the public lake bed, and how these structures might change water flow and quality.   In providing a ferry service, we need to connect floating vessels to solid land at several points, and piers are essential to the transport of people and vehicles, along with break walls that further protect the pier.  These structures are robust and substantial in dimension and mass in order to withstand heavy seas and moving ice.  I was a bit defensive then to Egan's questioning.  But, I'm interested now in learning if he promotes a viewpoint on limiting waterfront construction, or if I've changed my own point of view on that same topic.

In any case, as an island community we should be open to learning about Great Lakes water quality, even when we don't always agree with proposed solutions.

Festival registration for 2017 is $125 ($112.50 if you register prior to August 1st).  There will also be workshops, held on Friday, Sept. 21,  poetry and writing workshops by featured writers.  Workshop fee is $75, but then $65 for each additional workshop selected.

In order to register, checks can be made out to:  TPAC/Washington Island Literary Festival, PO Box 136, Washington Island, WI 54246.  Or, if you're on the Island, drop by the Fair Isle Book Store and you can register with Deb Wayman, located next to the Island Post Office and Red Cup.
  
-  Dick Purinton

2016 ISLAND LITERARY FESTIVAL LINE-UP

Washington Island, Wisconsin -

The list of authors and poets is set, for both presentations and workshops, for the 4th Washington Island Literary Festival.  

The invited authors have each written and published one or more works that reflect this year's theme: MYSTERY AND MISTIQUE OF THE MIDWEST.     Not all are writers of mystery, although that genre dominates this year.  

In non-fiction, author Michael McCarthy's book Ashes Under Water is about the Eastland disaster in the Chicago River of a century ago.  This maritime event that shook not only Chicago but the entire nation, a milestone disaster that set a course for federal laws for improved passenger vessel design and operation.  The poems of Wisconsin Poet Laureate Kimberly Blaeser reflect the mystique of living in Wisconsin.

 

A variety of writing and poetry workshops will begin Friday morning, September 16, and there will be a Festival opening reception at the Farm Museum Barn that same evening for all registrants.  A panel discussion will begin Saturday's program at the TPAC, followed by individual author presentations, interspersed by opportunities for the purchase and signing of books backstage.   Dinner Saturday evening will be at Karly's, featuring readings by Poet Laureate Blaeser.   Sunday morning's author presentations will once again be held at the TPAC.  

Registrations are now being taken, both online at the Literary Festival page within the Trueblood Performing Art Center website (www.truebloodpac.com).    Deb Wayman will also help to sign you up at her Fair Isle Bookstore, adjacent to Red Cup.

For more details on authors and events, please go to the Literary Festival website at:  
washingtonislandliteraryfestival.com

-  Dick Purinton

ISLAND LITERARY FESTIVAL COMING UP!

Washington Island -

Today's blog entry is meant to serve as a reminder to anyone who enjoys reading, literature and poetry, and having an enjoyable time meeting others with similar interests - including noted authors and poets!

Registration has been ongoing, but after September 15th the registration price increases from $75 to $90.  You can register online (go to the TPAC website and find the Literary Festival pages), by mail (TPAC, PO Box 36, Wash. Island) or stop in and see Kathleen Dixon at Island Time Books.

I should emphasize that this year the program offers an opportunity for several workshops.  I'm looking forward to the poetry workshop with Max Garland.

The poster above should have a slight yellowish background tint, but for some reason my printer cartridge (even with a new one) came out pinkish.    The photos and information is still clear, however.

I look forward to joining you at the 2nd Island Literary Festival.  Lots of great names, great books, and an enjoyable time awaits.   -  Dick Purinton