MacKinnon Simpson

I was "raised up" on a small family farm in rural northern New Jersey. It was a childhood out of Huckleberry Finn, albeit a century later. Trout fishing with worms, getting my first rifle at nine, driving our Jeep on public roads—illegally—at ten. I self-identified as a writer in 3rd grade in a two-room schoolhouse in the tiny village of Pottersville, NJ. That decision destroyed my education but has provided me a livelihood for

decades.

I went to a terrific high school, Newark Academy, which dated back to 1774. Dedicated my first book to two of the best teachers any kid ever had—Bruce Palmer and Blackie Parlin. College was fun, when it should have been work. I joined the animal house—Cannon Club—and wrote feverishly for The Tiger humor mag. Alway say I majored in beer and whimsy.

After marching in my last 4th of July parade for the Pottersville Volunteer Fire Company, I set off for the west coast in my Toyota Land Cruiser with snow plow mounts still attached. I climbed on my first airplane and arrived in Hawai‘i in July 1970 to get married and move to Alaska. After spending the six weeks before the wedding living with a bunch of local guys, I had fallen in love with Hawaii’s people and we were staying—best decision I've ever made!

I originally wrote on yellow legal tablets, and when I wanted to move something—a phrase . . . a sentence . . . a paragraph—I got out a pair of scissors and a roll of Scotch tape. I would carefully exorcise the piece to be moved with the scissors, and just as carefully affix it in its new home with the tape. Eventually a chapter looked like a Dead Sea Scroll!

I had tried both an early Apple II and an IBM running DOS and rejected them as creatively unworkable. When I got the book commission to do WhaleSong, I called a publisher friend, Bob Goodman, and hired him to publish it—perhaps the first time a writer has hired a publisher. I

had known Bob for years as a fellow biker and as the youngest staff photographer ever hired by National Geographic. We shared a love of books, motorcycles, and Nikon SLRs. By this time—1986—he was prattling on about this “magic box” made by Apple that “would revolutionize publishing.” (Bob was an incredible visionary and since he had already published 120 books the traditional way he had the creds to back it up.)

Still, I was suspicious, as Bob's enthusiasm, while contagious, was occasionally misplaced. I had two VERY technical friends—an electrical engineer named Jim Chiddix who went on to pioneer fiber optics in the cable tv industry, and Doug Bye, a statistics modeler at UH. Both were accomplished programmers, and both had been provided the newest PCs by their employers. Both had, instead, purchased Macs with their own money and THEY were as enthusiastic as Bob. THAT sold me. IF two guys with very technical backgrounds, who were comfortable using DOS, rejected it in favor or the Mac, I was on board, too. I went out to ComputerLand and bought a Mac Plus. The salesguy gave me five minutes instruction and told me I was “good to go.”

Suddenly I could cut-and-paste—electronically—without the scissors and tape!

Bob had an artist friend in California who had purchased PageMaker 1.0, and sent us a copy. We had no manual and were two of the least technical humanoids around, but figured out the entire layout program in a half-hour! I have never looked back. Because our budget was tight, and we couldn’t afford a designer, we taught ourselves book design. After what is now 66 years removed from that 3rd grade decision to become a writer, the processes of research and then tapping consonants and the occasional vowel into a keyboard have become easier—though I still “type”— with two middle fingers and stare, mesmerized, at the keyboard to find the intended letters! At this point creating a Design Seed and then doing the layout is is both an intense challenge and really fun.

WhaleSong was the first real book ever created on a computer and went on to sell some 35,000 copies. It was called by the then-head of Time-Life Books, “the book which changed the face of American publishing,” For the second edition of WhaleSong, we got an ALPHA copy of what would eventually become Photoshop—it was then a proprietary graphics editing program for a clanking, grinding 35mm slide scanner called Barneyscan. Like both the Mac and PageMaker it was extremely intuitive, perfect for someone creative but not technical.

Since then I have created more than twenty books—all on various Macs and all on Hawai‘i’s history. Each book commission is an adventure. Even the solo projects where I am charged with producing a finished book alone from scratch, every project involves dozens of librarians, archivists, and various experts. I am careful to try and thank everyone who helped in the Acknowledgements.

I detest word processors and still use only two programs—InDesign (in which I write) and Photoshop. Recently added two hopped-up 27" iMacs to my quiver, selecting them, after much deliberation, over the MacPro.

Like most creative types, early on I had a succession of unique occupayions: farm hand, snow plower, electroplater, rocket technician, gunpowder tester, motorcycle executive, and a couple of vice-presidencies. Some were sheer drudgery, some were really enjoyable, but what I have been doing full-time for the past thirty-five years, is my favorite.