This image was taken www.rt.com/news/vostok

I’ve been really fascinated by the news coming out of Antarctica these past couple of weeks as Russian scientists announce progress on their drilling project over the past couple of decades — to drill through four kilometres of compressed ice at the coldest point on earth to breach the hidden and mysterious waters of Lake Vostok.

I read one report which likened the event to landing on the moon back in 1969. That event certainly captured the world’s imagination. I was Chief Sub Editor of the Fiji Times and Herald  in Suva at the time and recall spending late nights and very early mornings gathering news reports and pictures for the newspaper. This was well before the sophistication of communication as we know it today. But the crowds of Fijian, East Indian, Chinese and Europeans outside the newspaper office  in the early morning waiting for the newspaper to come off the presses is a sight to be remembered. This was before television. (Was there such a time?” my grand daughters ask.)

But back to Lake Vostok. This lake is 160 miles long and 30 miles wide. The presence of Vostok and others on the Antarctic continent were identified by satellite imagery from outer space. The British have a drilling program going  at Lake Ellesworth in West Antarctic and the Americans are targeting Lake Whillans near the Ross Ice Shelf. Key in Lake Vostok into an internet search and a lot of really interesting stuff comes up about lakes which have lain buried for millions of years, kept in liquid form by the pressure of the ice from above and heat from the Earth’s core below.

Unlike the Arctic, Antarctica is a land mass and in some places is compressed below sea level by  the massive ice sheet more than 10,000 feet above sea level. It’s fascinating to take a peek at what scientists are finding. It’s a cold and isolated place and what happens there, what is found in the south polar region often bypasses mainstream media and consciousness. We hear about global warming, its effect on the ice, on penguins, and how wonderful and pretty icebergs can be.

What will the waters of these hidden lakes contain?  We surmise from science that the world may have have at one time been a single land mass (Pangaea), that broke into pieces that slowly drifted into the lands we now know. I have a piece of petrified wood gathered from the Dry Valleys. That tells me there was a forest there once. Geologists have located evidence of coal seams. Again, when and how was Antarctica ever green and contain life? Maybe stuff in the waters and sediments of these lakes will yield a treasure of new information.

One thing the scientists are wary of is any form of pollution in the hidden lake waters from their drilling operations. But that is another subject.

For a good look at the Lake Vostok operation check out this reference and really informative graphic:

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20101225/162509015.html

Grand daughter Emma at the Hermes, just a neato picture I took several years ago.

Without the typewriter I wonder how my careers might have gone. But then, after 28 years with a portable, I’ve since recorded 26 years with the development of the computer. But over in the corner  of my office is my much-loved green machine: a Hermes 3000 I spent the rent money on in the mid-60s. For me, it was the best and last of a line of portables I’d owned since I began life as a young journalist at 17.

Let’s see…my first was a wee green Olivetti. I swapped that with my Mother, a writer, for her more robust Imperial. That worked till I traded for a Remington, then an Olympia, then a red and white Smith Corona until I finally settled on the Hermes. We were hard on typewriters as eyes-on-the-keyboard-use-whatever-fingers-are-necessary operators. That machine has travelled far and wide, from New Zealand newspapers to the white world of Antarctica, to the tropical paradise of the Fiji Islands to the wilderness of the Yukon Territory.  In retirement it’s now on display for my grandchildren who love to tap out their notes.  I had to smile the day one of our youngest’s friends wanted to know what the typewriter was.

Still, even with all this nostalgia, as a writer in 2012 I’m glad to enjoy the wizardry of my Apple orchard. The Hermes has been a wonderful breadwinner for us but is not as adaptable in a coffee shop, aircraft, or  for taking notes in the boardroom.

But I will join with the folks at Ashland Press and adopt a typewriter.

I’ve actually got the opening down as well as a few lines into the first chapter. I’ve keyed in a bit of a synopsis so I know where I might go. I’ve brushed up on the technical aspects of Scrivener, my marvellous writing program, downed two cups of coffee this morning, played around with email and checked out a couple of New Zealand penguin websites. Still I procrastinate, on this, the first dedicated day of “real effort.”

Now, as I sit in my cosy writing space, I’m faced with a little distraction. City trucks and diggers are lined up outside my window. The parade started early this morning and I really thought little of it until the street barricades went up. I live on a corner and a bus route. There’s a junior high down the street a bit which means there’s going to be traffic havoc this afternoon and for who knows how long.

I expressed my curiosity to a safety-jacketed, hard-hatted fellow out in the street. He confessed that he’s just a truck driver and is not totally privy to everything that will take place outside my driveway or, for that matter, how long.

So you can see my problem and how easily I’m distracted from my task. Trucks, backhoes, backup beepers and jack hammers now threaten to occupy the wee space on top of my head usually reserved for words, words and more words. Darn, I just had to take another peek outside. They’ve started. The hydraulic jackhammer is rat-tatting away in the middle of the street, punching holes into the pavement. Now I know it is definitely a water pipe job as there is a big blue square sprayed-painted on the road. That will mean mess at some point. There’s a teeny threat of snow tonight.

Maybe I’ll spin a few old vinyls to see if I can create a new distraction just so I can relax a bit and unpack a few brilliant thoughts.

Donner and Blitzen in the courtyard

Christmas shoppers came early and within the hour of opening we’d sold our first book of the day. A happy rumble flooded through our barn as people moved from checking out the reindeer at the entrance (yep, all with the famous names given by Santa) through our booths to the next hall. The merry mood was enhanced further by choral singers swinging through singing the songs of the season.

As for Tide Cracks and Sastrugi, we are thrilled with sales. We’ve covered our costs and met scores of  interesting people over the six days.

We’ve had some pretty interesting questions though, like:

Where’s the North Pole? Not much use me buying  your book because I don’t read. How many people live there? What about the animals?  Did you ever encounter a polar bear? Are there trees?

Most people were very intrigued in meeting a person who had lived “down there” and learning a bit more about the fascinating environment and the research that continues to this day. We also heard from the curious as to who owns what in Antarctica and the benefits of the Antarctic Treaty.

Manning our own booth here has been enervating and nothing but positive…a brilliant couple of weekends among people marketing the work of their own initiative and enterprise.

Spruce Meadows is better known as one of the top three equestrian facilities in the world. By summer the venue explodes into a colorful international arena for all things horse, with competitors coming from around the world. I believe it is one of those must see places in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Last weekend sales covered our booth costs. As well I had a signing session in one of the largest bookstores in western Canada. I can safely report that sales are going well and buyers are keen to read about a time and place of how things used to be done. Antarctica is still that mystical place at the bottom of the world and my travels there appeal to their sense of adventure. Moreover, they express a thrill of meeting a person who has been there.

So, I am a very happy Old Antarctic Explorer.

My publisher has set up a couple of  launch signings: Cafe Books at Canmore, Alberta on November 12, 1-3 pm and Chapters Chinnok store on Macleod Trail SW, Calgary, on November 20, 1-3pm.

I have captured a booth as Old Antarctic Explorer in Reindeer Alley at The famous Spruce Meadows Christmas Marketplace over two weekends, November 18-20 and November 25-27.

I’m trying to get to grips with social media and got a redial surprise the other day when I added LinkedIn to my iPhone. I found this recommendation from the book’s indexer Tia Leschke: ”I indexed Graeme’s book Tide Cracks and Sastrugi: An Antarctic Summer of 1968-69. I think this was the most interesting book I’ve indexed so far. I went right along with him as I worked (from the comfort of my desk). I had to stop myself from getting lost in the story and forgetting to index.”

Coupla tech specs:  the book is 7 inches by 10 inches, contains 290 pages, something like 130 pictures including about 100 colour pages.

Ready to launch, me with the rollaway banner we';ve created for the book launch and signings in November.

This is the beginning of October. But lets hike back 100 years and imagine the tension around two expedition camps — Framheim at the Bay of Whales on the eastern edge of the Barrier ice  and Terra Nova at Cape Evans on the western side of Ross Island in McMurdo Sound. At Framheim, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen was champing at the bit wanting to begin his run at the South Pole. At Cape Evans, the British Captain Robert Scott was methodically preparing his teams (ponies and motor toboggans) for his quest to reach the South Pole . Each party wanted to be first.

The challenge between these two expeditions has defined south polar history. Amundsen and his team returned victorious. Scott and his men succumbed in their tent in a bitter Antarctic blizzard, just 12 miles short of a plentiful supply depot. Earlier, and filled with disappointment, Scott diaried at the Pole:  ”Great God! this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without reward of priority.” Amundsen had beaten the Brits by some 34 days.

When Amundsen first saw the sun in late August after the long polar night, he was itching to get underway, believing that Spring would be something akin to his Arctic adventures. The Antarctic really does not have those shoulder Spring and Fall seasons.  It’s either sun or no sun.  He hung around Framheim and believing warmer temperatures were coming headed out on September 8 in something like -41degC. The mercury went the other way, plummeting to -57degC. On September 12, his team headed back home quickly but it did cost them a few dogs and almost the lives of a couple of his men.

The Norwegians waited till October 19 ( NZST time) before finally pointing their dog teams south to the Pole.

Meanwhile, over at Cape Evans, Scott and his men continued preparing their ponies and testing motor toboggans. The motor group left on October 24 and the ponies headed south on November 1. At this point Amundsen was already some 300 km ahead.

Fast forward 57 years to the 1968-69 New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme when October  was also an important month for my colleagues and I. In a year of economic restraint, our task was to assemble a tractor train and head northwest on the frozen surface of McMurdo Sound to the dry Wright Valley with materials to assemble New Zealand’s first mainland Antarctic winter over station. We billed ourselves as the last of the great tractor trains — a 12-year-old Tucker Sno-Cat and a D4 Caterpillar bulldozer each pulling three sledges, and two track-fitted Ferguson farm tractors, each hauling a rubber tired trailer.

This remarkable event is highlighted in my book Tide Cracks and Sastrugi: An Antarctic summer of 1968-69 which will be available through Amazon.com and others in late November. Copies will be printed here in Calgary and available through graemekc@telus.net. The B&W version sells for $25 CAD and the colour $35 CAD.

As the northern hemisphere slowly wraps up for winter, the southern hemisphere opens up to summer. It ‘s the same on the continent of Antarctica. But this year holds special significance  as a centennial year to reflect on those who pioneered the way.

Self publishing is not simply a case of writing, slapping in a couple of pictures and heading to the local print shop to get a few copies of the greatest manuscript since Somerset Maugham.

My book, Tide Cracks and Sastrugi: An Antarctic summer of 1968-69, is in the final stages before printing. Getting to this point followed a well defined trail laid out so patiently by my publisher Kim of Polished Publishing Group (PPG).When I thought I was near the end of the writing part, I sent it to my editor and she worked it, then worked me over to get it right and to make the script into what it is. Sheila’s builds and suggestions were amazing and she extracted much new material from the hidden places of my brain to complete a story of a very personal journey. She found in me linkages which would build value into the story.

Her valued advice meant I spent many a Spring day on major rewrites. This preceded whittling about a thousand photographs down to the handful that could be incorporated into the book. Because the book deals with just one small life on the frozen Antarctic desert at the end of the first decade of modern exploration, I really considered my old photographs necessary to illustrate the conditions of the time. That winnowing of a memorable collection took some time and while I started out at a limit of 80 pictures, I ended up with 130. PPG’s designer John proved to be a terrific ally in putting visual sense between the covers. I love his cover design and the treatment he has given Tide Cracks.

The back (left) and front cover

From weeks in the design phase, the book passed to another in the PPG team, Tia whom I now regard as Indexer Supremo. I was excited about the results of her work, the depth and cross referencing outclasses the content of the book!  Before this, I hadn’t recognized the art and expertise involved in indexing. To me an index was always something at the end of the book. I didn’t have a clue as to how it got there and was very relieved to know that this was an activity I would not have to sweat through.

With the index added, the book headed to the Print on Demand folk for a hard copy. When that returned to the publisher, it was Jen’s turn. She is a professional proofreader, combing through the text with fresh eyes and a fresh approach to ensure the book meets a totally professional standard.

Her changes are now being incorporated and in about a week I will get to see my first hard copy. I’m excited. I’ll get one last read through before signing off with the Publisher and receiving the files for printing.

I promise I’ll be back in a few days with an update.

Devastation and tragedy are all around.

Pray for those who have lost family and friends

Pray for those still trapped in the rubble

Pray for the rescuers, for the medical teams, for the welfare teams.

This beautiful city and its people are crushed and hurting.

A mid-city scene as I saw it just a couple of weeks ago. What now?