Dave Gibson

When I was young, I loved to read. I lived in our town library. Every week, I'd take out the maximum of three books, and I would devour them, returning week after week to get three more. Loving reading, I also loved to write. In 10th grade, we were given a book report assignment to read a book and report on it. I read my book, and worked very hard on my report. I wrote an outline, and then draft after draft. I submitted the final report. A week later, it came back with an F. I shot my hand up and asked my teacher why. My English teacher said because it was good. Too good. I was incapable of writing like that and I must have copied it. I was a lousy writer.

I went through life thinking I was incapable of writing. But about 25 years ago, I posted on a sailing magazine's online message board about what I learned from chartering a sailboat and sailing in the Caribbean. The magazine's editor emailed me and asked if he could publish it. Me? A guy who can't write? Sure, I answered, figuring it would be heavily edited. It was not. It was published word for word. And I got a nice check! I went on to write many magazine articles over the years, and then a wildly popular blog about cruising down the eastern seaboard on our 46 foot trawler, which has over a half a million hits. And finally, I wrote three books in 2016, all about Sasquatch of all things. The green book is non-fiction. Seriously.

What I am most proud of are the reviews. Writing is certainly rewarding for me, but whenever I see a new four or five star review, I take great satisfaction that, for at least a few hours, I made someone happy.