I've been known to string a few words together from time to time. My first semi-triumph was getting an honorable mention in a high school short story contest sponsored by the Atlantic Monthly (my story was written on stone tablets). I started out by majoring in English Lit and Creative Writing in college, until I fell in with questionable company, took up the guitar, and started singing folk songs. In the meantime, I made several attempts at writing science fiction, but it came to naught. Gotta actually finish what you start.

During the early 70s, while working for a radio station as an announcer and newscaster, I also got assigned to writing commercial copy. I spent a year writing and producing radio commercials (God forgive me!). In the mid to late 80s, I got a job as a technical writer, writing residential weatherization reports for the Bonneville Power Administration. Really gripping stuff!

Someplace about that time, I decided to write a history of the folk music scene in the Seattle area. Much of the country, e.g. New York, Boston, Berkeley, etc., didn't even know there was a folk music scene in Seattle, despite the size of the scene and the quality of many of the performers (it took me awhile, but I think I've figured out why nobody knew we were here). I soon discovered that a "history" was more of a task than I wanted to tackle (the scene was big enough that even I didn't know everything that was going on), so I decided to turn it into a "memoir" or a collection of reminiscences. So far, I've written in excess of 115,000 words, which is some pretty serious wordage, and I'm only up to the early 60s. It's going to take a bit of pruning and editing before I send it to a publisher. Everything I've written so far relates in one way or another, but the idea of reading a book about the adventures of an obscure balladeer in an obscure part of the country might be a bit intimidating if even the trade paperback edition of the book is about three inches thick. I'm hoping to get if finished in the coming year. No vanity press on this one. I already have a couple of possible publishers lined up.

Published writing so far includes an article in the "Last Chorus" section of "Sing Out!" Magazine and sixteen articles as guest writer for the "Musical Traditions" column of Victory Review.

I think that lifts me out of the "wannabe" category.

When I finish the book, I plan to turn my hand to a couple of other writing projects.

Don Firth