The Great Catch: Alaskan Short Stories (Hardback or Cased Book)

This is a book of short stories that takes place in the "Great Land," of Alaska. They say Alaska is the "Last Great Adventure," and in these pages you will read about some of them.

There is an Eskimo boy who overcomes adversity and faces the choice of, "doing what is right." You will read about a Norwegian fisherman of the old days who rows his boat for days just to get to the "grounds," and the herring fishermen who battle storms to make a catch. An old man in a remote cabin works beyond endurance just to save his dog. There are stories of the pilots and the Eskimos, and old timers who live in trapper's cabins far from any village.

There are stories of sacrifice, tragedy, courage, endurance and even a murder or two.

The authenticity of these stories will draw the reader in and make him a part of each tale and reluctant to close the page at the end of the book.

Dale Hanson is an accomplished sculptor who has led a life of adventure and enjoyed numerous accomplishments. He is a black belt martial artist, an author, a pilot of fixed wing and glider airplanes, has flown aerobatics and is a Special Forces underwater diver. He is a disabled veteran and a member of MENSA. During the Vietnam War, Dale was a highly decorated Green Beret who served three years as a commando in the famous SOG program, whose mission involved extremely dangerous raids far behind enemy lines. This unit received more decorations and suffered higher rates of casualties than any American unit since the American Civil War. On one of these raids, Dale earned the first of several purple hearts as his right hand was mangled by a burst of machine gun fire. It is ironic that he became a sculptor, a field in which one's hands are so critical. The artistic fruit of those hands today can be found in collections of thousands of people throughout the world. Signature to his work is a strong emphasis on artistic composition, grace, and flowing lines, combined with attention to detail. In haiku, Dale has expressed his artistic talent in perhaps the most disciplined of written forms. With great economy of words, the writer of haiku is challenged to express concepts and insight as seen in everyday observations. In his work, Dale skillfully points out from the commonplace that which one may have missed and then makes application to life.