Monthly Archives: January 2011

RadioSRQ author interview: Dennis R. Blanchard

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Listen to Ann Corcoran’s interview of author Dennis R. Blanchard on RadioSRQ.com. This two-part interview covers the gamut of hiking the Appalachian Trail, preparation, emotions, food, equipment and just about every facet of a long distance hike. The photo on the site harkens back to Gabby Hayes.

Each segment of the interview is about a half-hour long, so sit back, enjoy and take yourself onto the trail.

Fun video about hiking the Appalachian Trail

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A fun video about hiking the Appalachian Trail is on YouTube. It is a summary of a presentation I gave at Boxboro, Massachusetts last summer. It covers hiking from Georgia to Maine and gives a great summary of the equipment, animal and people encounters and what it takes to carry an amateur radio station on such a trip.

The audience is engaged and enjoyed many humorous moments as I explored all of the mistakes and mishaps one encounters when walking 2, 176 miles (3000+ km) through the woods. A radio amateur, Burt Fisher, K1OIK, posted the video and reminded me last night that it was on YouTube. Somehow, over time, I had forgotten it was there…thanks Burt.
Enjoy!
Dennis “K1” Blanchard

eBooks Leading Print Version This Month.

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It’s interesting to follow trends when one has a book published. Last month, with the holiday gift lists being filled, it was print versions by far. The ratio was about 2:1. However, this month it is most definitely the eBooks in the lead. Today is only the 6th day of the month and there are many new readers, but the e-readers are in the lead by 2:1. 

I suspect that all those new Kindles , Ipads, Sony readers and other devices are the reason. That, and THREE HUNDRED ZEROES  has just showed up in Smashwords.com, and Nook.  Smashwords.com distributes to Apple’s Ipad, Sony, Diesel, and other readers, but the distribution takes a few weeks and as far as I know, that has not completed the cycle yet. If you have just about any eBook reader, check out Smashwords.com, they have 25,000 books available and offer something for just about everyone. There are even a number of free books. Some number are novels or non-fiction and so on that are part of a series; read the first one for free and if you like the author’s work you know what to expect in the other volumes.
If you are an author be certain to look into the Smashwords.com program. Getting a book into the system is reasonably painless and your book can be online in just a few hours.
The printing industry is in the doldrums lately, especially for hard cover books, but soft cover and eBooks are doing well. As an “old fashioned” fellow I somehow experience more of a thrill when I see the print version sales numbers, I can identify with print books: I grew up with them. Still, I can appreciate the convenience and carrying capability of the e-readers and I would be very foolish to ignore such a large population of readers. 
About half of my reader emails are now coming from folks that have read THREE HUNDRED ZEROES electronically and it appears that they are thrilled with the experience. Looks like I’ll have to get a reader myself, may you can help me decide on which one? (hint: it will have to be rugged enough to haul around on a bicycle and long distance hikes)
Dennis “K1” Blanchard

Fiction or Non-Fiction?

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I’ve always been a bit awestruck by the term “non-fiction.” To me it in some way denigrates writing about things that are real. It reduces writing about things that are true or reality based to something that is “non,” or lesser. According to Dictionary.reference.com, fiction is something: “feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story” and yet non-fiction  is defined as “opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality.” 


Now I’m certain this is a chicken or egg debate and nobody will ever be able to define which came first. I would argue however that writing about reality is something that we can all relate to more readily than fiction, after all, I suspect most of us live in the real world (with the exception of certain politicians of course). 

Non-fiction is certainly the more popular genre of reading, but for the life of me, I can’t grasp why? Is it the escape from reality? Is it the mental transport to another place where we know we can never exist? I don’t have those answers but I do know that it grates me every time I hear the term “non-fiction.”

Your thoughts?

Dennis “K1” Blanchard

To All My Readers, Have A Great New Year!

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It is the end of another year and what a year it has been. I’ve traveled up and down the east coast of the US, met many old friends, and made lots of new ones. I was especially moved by the reception I’ve had at so many of the public libraries, ham radio clubs and hikers groups that I’ve given my Appalachian Trail presentation at. 
Although the weather didn’t cooperate, I managed a day as a “Trail Angel” up in New Hampshire along the AT and it was thrilling to meet this year’s crop of thru-hikers on their way to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. Jane and I also managed to do a day hike up the twin peaks of Mt. Hancock—I highly recommend it. Mt. Hancock was in the first Chapter of  THREE HUNDRED ZEROES
Writing and publishing a book has been a wonderful learning experience for me. I still learn new things every day and I think it is helping me stay young to be so involved in something. Admittedly, I confess falling behind in some of my activities and as part of my New Year’s resolutions I’ll have to see if I can spend more time involved with my ham radio and bicycling avocations. 
This coming year does hold some promise for a long hike. Jane and I are considering hiking the 500 miles of the Camino Santiago in Spain. I’ve just completed an interesting book about it, THE CAMINO CHRONICLES, by Susan Alcorn , and she made it sound like a great challenge.
The year wouldn’t be complete without again mentioning the new book by Bil “Skywalker” Walker, HIGHS AND LOWS ON THE PACIFIC COAST TRAIL, a very different experience from hiking the AT.
This blog is primarily for topics related to THREE HUNDRED ZEROES, i.e.: hiking, amateur radio and heart surgery. If you have something you’d like to share with readers, feel free to mail it to me at: dennis@threehundredzeroes.com or just enter it at any of the “comment” links on this blog and I will receive it. I’m still anxious to hear from hiking heart surgery survivors. I know I’m not the only one. 
Have a great New Year and hope that it is the best one yet. See you down the trail…

Author of: Three Hundred Zeroes: Lessons of the
Heart on the Appalachian Trail

A non-fiction adventure travel
story on the Appalachian Trail

Finalist in the 2010 Next
Generation Indie Book Awards Contest

Available on Amazon.com,
Smashwords and
Kindle.