West of Spencer

by R A Bard

Overview

Bo has been drinking steadily through the long dark Alaska winter in a futile effort to cure a broken heart. Spring and the need to get his boat ready for a new fishing season offer some distraction, and his love for women keeps him above the poverty level in that regard, but he’s truly free of regret only when he’s out on the water, trolling for salmon. After some radical swings of fortune during the short early openings, the main king season starts out west and a weird chain of events puts Bo in jeopardy of losing everything.

West of Spencer nails the hard-working, hard-playing lives of fishermen in the Gulf of Alaska. We get the true feel of life onboard, from a wild ride through a near gale to the peaceful calm of quiet anchorages. On the docks, over the boat radios, and at the Quixote Club, a favorite watering hole, Bo and his friends look, however erratically, for a deeper understanding: why is love so elusive...who is God, really...where have the fish gotten off to now...and what the hell does Spinoza have to do with it, anyway?

Product Details

BN ID:	2940015883725
Publisher:	Smooth Passage Books
Publication date:	10/25/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	155 KB

About the Author

What do you do with a degree in psychology? No good ideas surfaced, so Rich Bard bought an old boat and became a salmon fisherman along the coast of Washington and Alaska. Twenty-nine years later he came to his senses with the thought that it might be interesting to try something else. Psychology? Not so much. Maybe better to develop the writing sub-career he’d pursued in the off seasons. After several years as a full time journalist, the addictive pull of the ocean got the better of him and, with his captain’s license, he began delivering boats around the Pacific while continuing to write. Besides news reporting, he has published some short fiction; West of Spencer is his first full length novel. Bard lives near Seattle with his wife and friend Celia, who allows as how she won’t mind if she never goes fishing again (and who has a real job). Their two children have recently escaped into adult lives with only a minimum of emotional scarring.