Woods Wanderer

In 1976, I hitchhiked from Ohio to British Columbia and back on something of an angst-ridden vision quest. Then I wrote about the experience as I usually do. Then I rewrote the story again and again until I thought I got it right. By then it was 1992 and I was a bit too mature to tell the tale of a 20-year-old’s adventure on the road. Still not sure the tale was really worth telling, I set the completed manuscript aside for a while.

Well, here it is 2020, over four decades since that trip and nearly three decades since I finished writing about it. With the pandemic going on these days, I’ve had a lot of extra time to think, write, reflect, dig up some of my old material and reread it. After considerable deliberation, I have decided to put this story in print.

I have only edited Seven Thousand Miles to Nowhere for grammar, spelling and typos. As an older man, now well into my 60s, I don’t think I could revise this story and do it justice. My 20-year-old self is strangely familiar but thought and acted much differently than I do today. So for the sake of young seekers everywhere, I’m letting this tale stand as it is, warts and all.

The book is for sale at Amazon.com, of course. It is also available at the Wood Thrush Books website for those of you who like to directly support small presses. Either way, I’m happy to sell it to you, and welcome all comments regarding this or any of my other work.

Tags: hitchhiking, meaninglessness, Pacific Northwest, travel, vision quest

In May 2004 Judy and I rented an apartment in the heart of Paris, then explored the history and culture of France while feasting on the city’s many delights. It was a fulfillment of Judy’s dream, just like going alone into the wilds of Alaska was a fulfillment of mine.

To my own surprise, I enjoyed the City of Light so much that I felt compelled to write about my adventures there. In order to do that, I had to step out of my comfort zone. A Little Crazy in Paris is written in a style similar to my outdoor/nature narratives, but the urban scene of Paris is a world away from American backcountry. As a result this book is something else.

Francophiles will like this story, no doubt. I hope others enjoy the lightheartedness of it. There is more humor here than in all my other books combined.

A Little Crazy in Paris is now available at Amazon.com as both a paperback and a digital download. For those of you who would rather buy the book directly from me, I’ll have copies in-house in a couple weeks. I’ll be sending a notice to folks on the Wood Thrush Books mailing list at that time.

Let me know what you think of it.

Tags: France, French culture, Paris, travel, travelogue