MANCHESTER, NH – Dan Szczesny is a long-time journalist and author living in Manchester. You can learn more about him below. But what you really need to know right now is that his latest book, “Mosquito Rain: Alaskan Travel Essays,” is about to drop – scheduled for release on June 7, 2016. He’s celebrating with a launch party at Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 South Main St. in Concord, 5:30 p.m. You’re invited. Everyone’s invited.
Official blurb: “Mosquito Rain: Alaskan Travel Essays” – In a series of essays as far ranging as hidden salmon fishing hot spots to walking into glaciers to finding eagles in Valdez Bay, Szczesny’s Alaska is terrifying and beautiful; a land of equal parts danger and wonder. If you want your travel tinged with a hint of off-road exploration, Mosquito Rain is the book for you. So, brush off the mosquitoes, boil up some dehydrated noodles and sit back and enjoy discovering an Alaska you’d never known existed.
Below is a brief Q&A with the author about his latest book:
Q: Why ‘Mosquito Rain’?
A: When we went to Denali National Park, our goal was to camp as close to the mountain as we could. In the morning we awoke to the pleasant pitter-pater of rain drops on the tent, but were shocked to discover that what we thought was rain was actually swarms of mosquitoes! Between the low land area of the camp ground and the humidity and haze caused by nearby forest fires, the bug were so vicious that our time at Denali basically became a search for a good stiff breeze to keep the Mosquitoes away. The title of the book and main essay evolved out of that experience.
Q: What were some of the unanticipated highlights/lowlights of your Alaskan journey?
A: Highlights included discovering a hidden away salmon fishing cove where locals fished and the salmon would literally jump into long dip nets. We found the most amazing Thia food, and explored the Alaskan tundra which takes up one-third of the state and is heart-breakingly beautiful. Lowlights were getting used to nearly 24 hours of sun. We had to outfit the back of the SUV with curtains in order to get some sleep. When it’s 1 a.m. and the sun is still shining, your body does not want to go to sleep.
Q: Did you discover the true meaning of the last frontier?
A: Nope. After visiting, I’m no longer sure if that’s actually even a thing. But like we always try to do, we met people, talked with them about their lives and their loves, and I think we got as close to the real Alaska as we were able. We walked into glaciers, sipped espresso alongside the raging Copper River, watched eagles float above our heads in the mud flats of Valdez Bay, and cooked noodles on the pebbled beach of an unknown pond as a bush pilot landed his bright red plane in the water nearly at our feet. If anything, the idea of Alaska as the Last Frontier is still evolving, it still seems like the last place left to go to explore your own feeling about wilderness.
Q: Any post-script thoughts on Alaska?
A: Everyone should go. And I don’t say this lightly, there are places that will do you no good except to empty your wallet. But Alaska is different, it’s as far from what we know as the United States as you can get without needing a passport. Even the commercial trips with a tour group and on a bus or train will offer you something different or new or epic; unnamed mountain passes that in New England would be scenic wonder, there they are just ways of getting from one place to the next for example. You can’t go there without being changed.
As if that’s not enough, there’s much more from Dan Szczesny
. All his books are available via this online bookstore.
“The Adventures of Buffalo and Tough Cookie,” a hiking memoir about a one year, 225-mile journey through some of New Hampshire’s least known wilderness with his 10-year-old foster daughter.
“The Nepal Chronicles,” about a month-long trek to Everest Base Camp and marriage in Kathmandu.
His first collection of fiction, “Sing and Other Short Stories,” includes a variety of short fiction spanning Szczesny’s 25-year career as a writer and journalist.
His latest book, “Mosquito Rain: Alaskan Travel Essays” is scheduled for release on June 7, 2016. He’s celebrating with a launch party at Gibson’s Bookstore,
Mosquito Rain is an illustrated travelogue of Dan’s journey to discover the true meaning of the Last Frontier along with his bride, Meena.
The Rest: Szczesny serves as Editor of Murder Ink, a series of New England-based Pulp Fiction anthologies set in or around the newsroom. Volume Two is set for release in 2017.
His career began in Buffalo, NY. Since then, he has written for a wide variety of regional and national publications, including the Main Line Times, Philadelphia Weekly, Christian Science Monitor, Princeton Packet, Pennsylvania Magazine, all4woman.com, Yahoo! Parenting and Huffington Post. He currently writes an occasional column for Good Men Project called Modern Dad about getting kids into nature and the challenges of being an older dad.
In 2000, he moved to New Hampshire to cover the Presidential Election. In 2001, Dan became Associate Publisher of The Hippo, now the state’s largest Arts and Entertainment journal.
He’s a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s 4,000-footer club and has written extensively about the outdoors and hiking. He has camped in the Grand Canyon, hiked England’s Coast to Coast Trail and trekked to Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Dan is a hiking guide and naturalist for Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center in Milton, Mass.
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