Bøger af Jim Kjeldsen

Dr. John McLoughlin presided like a feudal king out of Fort Vancouver on the lower Columbia River during the fur-trading era. In the days when the Oregon Territory was governed jointly by the U.S. and Britain, he was the sole governor over an area that covered one-twelfth of the Earth's surface. After an epidemic reached Vancouver in summer 1830, killing 90 percent of the native population, only one person remained who was capable of governing in the absence of the native chiefs. That was Dr. John, who assisted settlers coming across the Oregon Trail and became known as the "Father of Oregon." As a result, he was fired by the Hudson's Bay Company, which wanted to push out the Americans. His story is told through the eyes of his daughter, Marie Eloisa, who accompanied him as a little girl to Fort Vancouver and stayed with him until his death.

FLASH ON THE RIVER is an adventure tale that takes place on the Upper Mississippi River during the Dakota Uprising and Civil War. Trenton Lewis is a 14 year-old pioneer boy who arrives on a steamboat in Minnesota with his homing pigeons on the day Abraham Lincoln is elected president. This fiction with historical elements is set in the 1860s and takes on Dakota/Lakota language, American slavery, religious sentiments, friendships, and "Flash" the pigeon.

Jim Kjeldsen began writing his first short story at 11:10 a.m.on April 5, 1974, in the lower level of the student union building at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. He's still hasn't finished it. This is his collection since then. He lives in an old river town on the Upper Mississippi River between a state hardwood forest and a national wildlife refuge with his research assistant of 40 years and their dog Isis.

Who killed Connor, the "perfect seminarian?" Father Ignatius Oosterhoff, the rector of a failing seminary on the banks of the Ohio River in Angel, Ohio, gets more than he bargained for when the school's national advertisements for a new type of student draws a beach bum from California, Sylvester Ammons, who is secretly on the run from the law. It soon becomes apparent that he doesn't fit in, especially when his girlfriend has an abortion. However, he witnesses a murder at the school and joins forces with Father Oosterhoff to solve the crime.

"The Carnival of Speculation" recounts the history of Bellingham, Washington, named by Capt. George Vancouver in the eighteenth century. The city is geographically isolated and for a long time could be reached only by water. As such, it was prone to financial scams and quirks that make it unique among American cities. Coal mines underlie the city that could cave in an any time, the area once had the largest trees in the world before they were all cut down, the city was known for its salmon canneries before the salmon were all fished out, the paper industry has left behind vast plumes of pollution, and only the local Lummi Nation has prevented further corporate despoilation. Yet, it is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. This is its story. A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to PNW environmental causes.

Dante Williams is born into slavery in 1852, the same day that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is published. He isn't freed during the Civil War but is sold to a sugar plantation in Cuba, which continues slavery for another ten years. Nevertheless, he does well and is rewarded with a wife, who on Heartbreak Day, every January 1, is sent out on contract as a cook. Dante flees to New York, learns to read and write, returns to Cuba, and exacts his own form of justice before escaping into the interior to join the maroons, or escaped slaves. His is a tale of crushing betrayal, extreme avarice, and clashing values of slavery and freedom.

In the 19th Century, two Norwegian brothers take off for America, one to Victoria, the other to Seattle, to compete as captains in the Mosquito Fleet on Puget Sound. After a fire burns down Seattle, they help rebuild the city, then reunite to form a formidable team in the days before Puget Sound had any roads to travel on.

Father Ignatius Oosterhoff, the rector of a failing seminary on the banks of the Ohio River in Angel, Ohio, gets more than he bargained for when the schools national advertisements for a new type of student draws a beach bum from California, Sylvester Ammons, who is secretly on the run from the law. It soon becomes apparent that he doesnt fit in, especially when his girlfriend has an abortion. However, he witnesses a murder at the school and joins forces with Father Oosterhoff to solve the crime. Together, they both become something other than what they were when they started out, and change the school in the process.