My Life
Doug Hawley is a former mathematician turned actuary (mathemortician) who writes, snowshoes, volunteers and hikes. He was a volunteer wheelchair jockey (pusher, roll model, unpaid escort) at a hospital, greeter at the Marine Mammal Center, “control” in a balance study at OHSU and docent at China Camp in California, and now is ... a volunteer book seller in support of his local library and a killer of invasive species at Tryon State Park and Lake Oswego's Iron Mountain Park. He lives with editor and musician Sharon, and cat Kitzhaber. He currently resides in Lake Oswego, OR, and has lived in Manhattan (KS that is), Atlanta, Louisville, Denver, LA and marvy Marin, CA.
My Literary Awakening in the Wilderness
In the spring of 2014 while on a work party in a state park, I wondered what we would do when we could no longer do the physical things that we were doing. At that time I was frequently literally lame. My colleague didn’t have a plan B. I decided I wanted to write. A little later I was impressed/depressed/inspired by Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild.” I was then more determined to write and also to explore my past and embark on some adventure. This is foreshadowing.
Physical adventures are limited by creaky joints, so I gave up on any thousand mile hikes, but knee bands (known as bracelets) have improved my mobility. I got bad medical news when the doctor told me not to limit my activity. I had hoped for "sit in your Lazyboy and drink beer."
Now for the back-story. A few years ago I was selected for the second round of "Oregonian" community columnist. After a feud with the editor, I quit in the middle. I had written some things in 1996 and 1999. My artsy friends were not impressed, but they are dead now. The 1996 stuff was so old that I had to get our computer expert to open the files. At the time I wrote the old stories I must have been very bloody-minded – they cover death, suicide and mutilation, with a little biography of non-existent people. Before then I had written my company newsletter in the 1980's and 1990's. It was supposed to sell my software and services, but I grew tired of that and mostly did jokes and commentary. From 1998 to the present I have worked at a bookstore.
I started re-editing and completing the old stories with my live-in editor Sharon, and writing “Wild” related stories. I looked up publishers on the internet. After the first 3,000 vanity press entries (possible literary license to lie), I found a listing of literary journals. “Literary” means few want to read it.
My published output includes, but may not be limited to, speculative fiction, horror, crime, essays, humor, polemics and drama. Most stories have attempts at humo(u)r. There are now over a hundred stories published over three hundred times. The lengths vary from 76 words ("Sleep," the story of a dream) to over 46,000 ("Cities," the memoir in the blog). The most popular story is "smart car" which has been published seven times, including translations into Farsi and Russian. My favorite is "Old," which references local geography, fantasy, romance, second chances, tragedy and "B" horror-science fiction. The country with the highest number of my publications is the UK. The USA, Canada, India, the Netherlands, Iraq, Germany and Hungary also have published some of the stories. "Amateur" in the blog is a history of my writing. Old age and dying, insurance / actuary work, anti-war inclinations, non-traditional religious thinking, relationships, science fiction, horror are a few of the inspirations for the stories.
The Vernonia Trilogy was written about three fictional people from that small Oregon town, a USA president, a self-help guru and a rock star who didn't die at twenty-seven. I chose Vernonia because of the sound - it rhymes with Caledonia.
I avoid the local writing group because of bad experiences therewith, but have done a couple of readings locally for the San Francisco area publisher "Synchronized Chaos" and have done a couple of interviews with publications.
The blog https://doug.car.blog/ has all of my stories except for those that are limited by the publisher, alternate versions of published stories, stories not published, and publication histories and notes about the inspiration thereof.