HI\u2026TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN READING MY EPISODES\u2026.NOW AT 239
\nDan and Thom and Marjorie (of course) and Rosalind and Pat and John and Owen and Dirk and Rooter…so many others \u2026 have sent me notes saying they were sad to see the Yukon Diary is coming to a close. What a nice thing to say. Sometimes I worry that my writing is a little too earthy for sensitive ears. Writers should write about what they know and that is what I have tried to do. There are still 6 or 7 more Yukon Episodes so the Yukon will continue. And then afterwards\u2026perhaps Slovakia in the year when the Soviet Union collapsed or South Korea whose people may have hopped from island to island to North America by boat while others crossed the Bering land bridge thousands of years ago\u2026or my First Class journey with big Red Stevenson\u2026no end to the stories.
\nMy diary is so explicit that at times I feel my comments go too far. Your support is very important to me. Several of you think I am writing a book. I am not. Books are not read often. And the work writing a book often kills the spark\u2026dampens the fire\u2026puts out the fire. Writing Episodes is better for I actually know my readers. And, yes, I know those of you who do not read the Episodes\u2026I do know but send them anyway.
\nYears ago I was co author of a particular Canadian history book. My assignment was Quebec in the 1950\u2019s. I was in Chibougamau on my first survey job when I was in Grade eleven. I saw hatred that summer\u2026 in the form of a butcher knife vibrating in front of me at it was slammed into a table\u2026.I saw a young girl my age about to launch into a career of prostitution\u2026I saw what made the Quiet Revolution. I wrote about that summer. Guess what happened? Right! The real gutsy stuff that had meaning was edited out\u2026 scraps on the cutting room floor. When asked to write part of the second edition, I refused. They did not want me anyway.
\nI much prefer to write to you.
\nMany of you are still stuck in those goddamn isolated homes, rooms, condominiums\u2026I hope my stories allow your minds to fly elsewhere \u2026 to be with me on different facets of life\u2019s journey.
\nThanks for hanging around. You do not really have much choice. The Pandemic has got you\u2026like a twist in your underwear.
\nalan
\nP.S. Sometimes just a couple of words can trigger a verbal avalanche\u2026mammoth tooth, pebbly conglomerate, Daisy the Labrador, Grandma\u2019s triumph over Parkinson\u2019s, fanning mill, butterfly, snapping turtle, childbirth, Sikorsky S52 helicopter, Bunmahon copper caves, North Bay romance, Halifax Blonde Bomber, Arnold Red Skeoch\u2026no end to these word triggers. Events that harbour both humour and tragedy. That is not just true of me\u2026it is true of each of you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HI\u2026TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN READING MY EPISODES\u2026.NOW AT 239 Dan and Thom and Marjorie (of course) and Rosalind and Pat and John and Owen and Dirk and Rooter…so many others \u2026 have sent me notes saying they were sad to see the Yukon Diary is coming to a close. What a nice thing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}