How You Get There

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach Today seemed to be about modes of transportation—cars and boats and trains. We rolled out early to go to Bath, and met up with a…

Rolling With The Sarsen Stones

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I woke up this morning in London to a gentle rain, and was reminded of a comment by Mark Twain. When Twain was living in…

Going Around In Great Circles

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I’m sure many people know this, but a “great circle” is a circle that goes clear around the entire globe, and whose center is at…

Get Your Kicks In Stepney

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach. WARNING: This post contains no scientific content of any kind, just a story of our travels.  So we made it to London, a place that…

In Which We Kidnap Reagan, And He Wins Anyway!

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach After I got out of the Army, I became involved in the anti-war movement as well as the other main causes of the time, women’s…

I Have It Made In Alaska

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach In the fall of 1964 I started college at the University of California at Berkeley, but I hated it. I lasted one year, and as…

The Native Sun

After I left Clayton’s place in 1971, following my motto of “Retire Early … And Often”, I retired for a while. It was good fun, but as usual, impending hunger…

Old Bill Rises From The Dead

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I’ve written about a South Pacific reprobate I called “Old Bill” before in my tale called Modern Piracy. He was a con man of the…

Behind Bars Again

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I’ve written about my time in the US Army, and about spending time behind bars getting out of the Army, in my story called It’s…

Fishing the Mighty Kenai

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach When I was 62, I had the great pleasure of working once again in Alaska. I love Alaska, I’ve starved and frozen there, worked there…

Gold Fever

Guest post by Willis Eschenbach I first met my friend Mel in the Army nuthouse. I wrote about him before, and the nuthouse, in a piece called “It’s Not About…

The Captain’s Daughter

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I come by my storytelling habits honestly—mostly I credit my grandmother for my love of a well-turned tale. I grew up way out in the…

Blackmailing the Japanese Ambassador

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I got to talking and laughing with my lovely lady today about old Billy Bennett. Billy was a rascal and a rogue and an erstwhile…

Freighted With Memories

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach In my mind, freight trains have always held some kind of special mojo. As a kid, I’d read about them, and sung about them. I…

The Missing Cashbox and the Nguru Patrol

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach This is a tale about one of the most beloved people in the Solomon Islands, my good friend Phil Palmer. Phil was white, but he…

Home Invasion

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach At some point, the ocean rolls in and out of many of my tales like a slightly demented uncle who lives upstairs who you only…

Even Scientists Need Love

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach It being Valentines Day and all, I thought I’d write a Valentine message about the woman I generally describe as my “gorgeous ex-fiancee”, my wife…

Tropical Crime and Punishment

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach People sometimes ask how I learned so much about coral atolls and islands. It’s because for three years in the late ’80s I lived in…

Bird Language

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach One fine day, after exhausting my meager means and concluding that my hopes of being struck by financial lightning were as ungrounded as Ben Frankin’s…

Between The Warm And The Wild

Willis Eschenbach When I was a kid on the cattle ranch, my stepdad worked in the surrounding forest as what’s called a “timber feller”. The fellers are the ones who…