Saving the Big Ship
1/17/2004
Day 17: Living Crew Members and Contest Entries
I discovered three living crew members from the Wawona's years as a codfishing vessel this week. I spoke to one of them, Dave W., who is 84 years old and full of stories to tell. He lives in Anacortes. The other two men also live in the Anacortes area. I have contact information for one and the name of the other. I got the information from a local person, Bill M., who has been following their lives for about twenty years. Bill has apparently painted a mural of the Wawona somewhere in Anacortes. I'll have to make time to visit the town soon.
I've submitted my draft of chapter two to the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2004 Literary contest. I've also started on the prolog, which I want to be an essay about my "discovery" of the Wawona collection documents and the thrill of seeing a story worth telling. The idea is to put readers in the mood of reading the rest of the book; it answers the question "Why read further?" I was genuinely excited when I realized that a story could be told, and also that no one had attempted to tell it, at least in the way that I envision. The essay has proved harder to write than I expected, but I'm making progress. If I get the essay completed in time, I'm going to submit it to another contest. Then I'll write chapter one, and build a formal book proposal with those parts of the book as a foundation.
That's all for now.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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I've submitted my draft of chapter two to the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2004 Literary contest. I've also started on the prolog, which I want to be an essay about my "discovery" of the Wawona collection documents and the thrill of seeing a story worth telling. The idea is to put readers in the mood of reading the rest of the book; it answers the question "Why read further?" I was genuinely excited when I realized that a story could be told, and also that no one had attempted to tell it, at least in the way that I envision. The essay has proved harder to write than I expected, but I'm making progress. If I get the essay completed in time, I'm going to submit it to another contest. Then I'll write chapter one, and build a formal book proposal with those parts of the book as a foundation.
That's all for now.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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1/10/2004
Day 16: Time at the Library
I spent much of the day yesterday at the Seattle Public Library, looking up some references in an unpublished paper written by Ronald Hughes in 1964, apparently in support of the Wawona purchase and restoration. Northwest Seaport had a copy. The copyright notice says "John H. Ross," who is apparently the same John Ross from Boston who became the leader of the SOS project which purchased the Wawona. Fifty copies were printed, and the one I have (actually a photocopy of the one is NWS' possession) is labeled with an attorney's name, Robert D. Ashley. It also came to NWS with a cover letter with letterhead from the NW Puppet Center. Eventually, I'll have to track this down and see if I can find the author's orginal notes. They're likely to have a lot of good information.
I also spent time at the library trying to find more information about Capt. Foss, and I'm pretty sure his wife's name was Marion L. Foss. However, I can't confirm it. She's at the family home on the 1500 block of 12th Ave. S. until 1937, according to the Seattle City Directories of the time. But then she disappears. A check of the state death records until 1970 doesn't show a Marion L. Foss. I'm guessing she was only a few years younger than her husband when he died. He was 68. I don't have much to go on at this point. I may post a note to a Foss family genealogy message board.
Project related free-lance writing had a good early start. I successfully pitched a story on salt cod to a local daily newspaper (on spec, albeit). And I believe I've successfully pitched an essay on the success/failure of local maritime historic preservation. I'm also working on a vignette about Matt Peasley for history and regional magazines. He may have skippered one of the very first whale-watching expeditions to Alaska in 1931.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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I also spent time at the library trying to find more information about Capt. Foss, and I'm pretty sure his wife's name was Marion L. Foss. However, I can't confirm it. She's at the family home on the 1500 block of 12th Ave. S. until 1937, according to the Seattle City Directories of the time. But then she disappears. A check of the state death records until 1970 doesn't show a Marion L. Foss. I'm guessing she was only a few years younger than her husband when he died. He was 68. I don't have much to go on at this point. I may post a note to a Foss family genealogy message board.
Project related free-lance writing had a good early start. I successfully pitched a story on salt cod to a local daily newspaper (on spec, albeit). And I believe I've successfully pitched an essay on the success/failure of local maritime historic preservation. I'm also working on a vignette about Matt Peasley for history and regional magazines. He may have skippered one of the very first whale-watching expeditions to Alaska in 1931.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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1/04/2004
Day 15: A Surprise Assignment and Text Started
I neglected to mention in my entry of Dec. 27 that I was asked by Sea History magazine to write a news brief about the Wawona for the next edition of its quarterly magazine. I had contacted the editor, looking for copies of articles that Capt. Harold Huycke had written about the Wawona in 1980 and 1981. None of the local libraries had Sea History issues going back that far. In the return e-mail, the editor asked if I could write the news brief. I agreed, of course, and had to scramble to get sources, given that it was a holiday week, and that my deadline was Jan. 1. (I got the assignment on Dec. 22.) I had to get into full "news reporter on deadline" mode, even though I haven't done that kind of work in years, at least on a regular basis. Anyway, I managed to get quotes from the City, Northwest Seaport, and Capt. Huycke himself.
On Friday, I started writing text for chapter two, which I will be submitting to the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2004 writing contest. The writing went well, though it's only a first draft. My plan called for including a profile of Matt Peasley in chapter two, and I worked on it yesterday. It's slow-going, since I have to pull facts from several different sources into a coherent narrative. As near as I can tell, no one has done this before with this person, which surprises me a bit.
By the end of Saturday, the Peasley section was so long that I don't think I can include it in chapter two, at least the version that goes to the PNWA contest. And on further consideration, I'm not sure it works in chapter two anyway. I've taken all that text out and set it aside. I may put it in the chapter on the business of codfishing. I may also break it out as a stand-alone article.
The writing of the last two days has also given me some insight into the outline. I wrote a fairly detailed outline for the chapter the week of Dec. 22, but I'm not sure that kind of outline is working for this project. It might be better just to write a few paragraphs with the general thrust of the narrative, and after studying the details carefully, pull them together in the text without putting them in the outline. There are so many little facts that I could never get them all into an outline. I still want a blueprint, but just not as detailed as I've done so far.
On the research side, I need to look up some articles cited in some of my sources, particularly the Ronald Hughes paper. My experience is that these articles often have juicier parts that the secondary sources leave out. And it's good just to see for myself, if I can. And I still need to find out some important details, such as where Matt Peasley is buried.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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On Friday, I started writing text for chapter two, which I will be submitting to the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2004 writing contest. The writing went well, though it's only a first draft. My plan called for including a profile of Matt Peasley in chapter two, and I worked on it yesterday. It's slow-going, since I have to pull facts from several different sources into a coherent narrative. As near as I can tell, no one has done this before with this person, which surprises me a bit.
By the end of Saturday, the Peasley section was so long that I don't think I can include it in chapter two, at least the version that goes to the PNWA contest. And on further consideration, I'm not sure it works in chapter two anyway. I've taken all that text out and set it aside. I may put it in the chapter on the business of codfishing. I may also break it out as a stand-alone article.
The writing of the last two days has also given me some insight into the outline. I wrote a fairly detailed outline for the chapter the week of Dec. 22, but I'm not sure that kind of outline is working for this project. It might be better just to write a few paragraphs with the general thrust of the narrative, and after studying the details carefully, pull them together in the text without putting them in the outline. There are so many little facts that I could never get them all into an outline. I still want a blueprint, but just not as detailed as I've done so far.
On the research side, I need to look up some articles cited in some of my sources, particularly the Ronald Hughes paper. My experience is that these articles often have juicier parts that the secondary sources leave out. And it's good just to see for myself, if I can. And I still need to find out some important details, such as where Matt Peasley is buried.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
Powered by Blogger™ ¶ 8:40 AM 0 comments
