Wendy and I went over to Skagway on the Victoria Day weekend. It is a pleasant two hour drive from Whitehorse on a scenic road. The Americans and Canadians each have a border crossing.
The ice was still on Bennett Lake and heavy snow is still on some mountains. We saw one black bear. Skagway has some interesting architecture most of it was built in the eighteen and nineteen hundreds but there is some modern day construction. Wendy is standing outside the Arctic Brotherhood building. If you look closely you can see that the facade is made up of thousands of tree branches. We stayed in the Golden North Hotel once right over the large kitchen's exhaust vent. We woke up smelling like last nights special. The yellow and red building is something new as far as paint goes. I know all the building are kept historic so someone must have really convinced the town council that red and yellow were gold rush colors. The two larger building on the side street are the train station. Twenty seven years ago, when the road was first opened, we drove over to Skagway. The unfinished building looked exactly like that then as it does today. My curiosity got the best of me so this weekend I stopped and asked the neighbor what the story was because the construction is absolutely brilliant and masterful. I was told the builder still lives in Skagway and has not gotten around to finishing it. If you look closely you can see that a master builder has been at work. Check out the fence. He carved hearts and put a red board behind to highlight them. Brilliant work and I was told the inside is just as grand. That is an old army ambulance parked outside. You can still see part of the red cross on the roof. I hope you all have the chance to visit Skagway some day. Do so on a day the cruise ships are not in. Much more pleasant without four thousand plus people milling about. Cheers David If you are interested in reading the two short stories, 'My Life in Grand Center and Jerome's Child', sent to the Antigonish Review fiction prize then send me an email at [email protected] and I'll forward a copy.
Both Caitlin Press and my editor have encouraged me to enter writing contests.
The Antigonish Review has a fiction and poetry contest that I submitted two stories too. The first one, a 5000 word effort, is called 'Jerome's Child' and is adapted from a story called 'The Sourdough and the Carlyle' written back in 2011. That story and another called 'Golden Nugget Gloves' were to be included in the book of short stories called 'Talking at the Woodpile' but the publisher felt they didn't fit. 'Jerome's Child is about a fifty year old social worker, Teresa, working out of an offfice on Vancouver's east side skid row. She is divorced from a husband that broke her heart and dumped her for a younger women with transplants. She has an elderly client named Jerome whom she visits because he is house bound. Jerome tells her an interesting story of the love of his life a women called Sara. Jerome dies and leaves a note for Teresa to take to Sara on Vancouver Island. Teresa makes an interesting discovery in the process. The other story is shorter, 1600 hundred words, and is called 'My Life in Grande Center'. It is adapted from a longer story called 'Golden Nugget Gloves'. My Life in Grande Center is about a twelve year old boy whose father tries to teach him to box so he can protect himself in a rough and tumble school in northern Alberta. Charles is not a fighter and his father gives up trying to teach him although his younger sister loves to box. The father trains her. Much to Charles distress a new teacher, Mr. Hermann who is a pugilist, comes to town and trains the gym class to box. Charles is teamed up with the school bully and Mr. Hermann refuses Charles request for a partner more his size. He then gets beaten pretty badly. Charles' dad and sister come to his rescue. At one point Charles says, "It was disconcerting to have your sister as your school yard protection." So i sent in the two stories along with an entry fee of $25.00 each. I will receive a free year of the Antigonish Review if I win or not. Cheers, I hope you are all having a good day. Today May 01, 2014 the novel with the working title of 'People of the Yukon' has been completed. I'll be sending it off to Caitlin Press.
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About Me
I'm a general building contractor and fiction writer. Living in the Yukon since 1962. Archives
March 2016
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