Posts by Gar LaSalle
Trappers: Life as a Northwest Fur Trapper
The Widow Walk characters Rene Marte and Ebin Cull, as well as the denizens in the Red Pelican Inn, are Northwest trappers. Marte is a “Métis” the term that is used for people of First-Nation and European mixed race descent. Cull is a former African slave who has migrated north. These characters are typical of the men…
Read MoreThe Pig War
Oregon Country: A Brief History of a Land Shared by the US and Britain Widow Walk is a work of historical fiction based on true events that occurred between the years 1852 to 1859 in the Pacific Northwest, then called the Washington Territory of the “Oregon Country.” One of the central pieces of history in Widow…
Read MoreThe Geography and Climate of Widow Walk and Isthmus
I anticipate that Isthmus, the first sequel to Widow Walk, will be ready for readers by this Christmas. The geography and climate of the two regions in which Emmy Evers and her family traveled were distinctly different. Widow Walk is set in the Pacific Northwest region, including parts of present day Washington state, the San Juan Islands,…
Read MoreGaribaldi the Abolitionist
In anticipation of the publication of Isthmus I believe it is important to learn about some of the significant historical figures who influenced the characters in this book and also would have had some impact on Emmy Evers and her family. General Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Italian Risorgimento dominated the headlines of newspapers throughout the western world in…
Read MoreFuss and Feathers
In anticipation of the publishing of Isthmus, the second book in the Widow Walk Saga, I believe it is helpful to describe some of the historical characters who are part of Isthmus. General Winfield Scott was, before the American Civil War, the most famous and celebrated military commander since Andrew Jackson, having achieved fame as the result…
Read More“El Verdugo” in the Isthmus
In anticipation of the publishing of Isthmus, the first sequel to Widow Walk, I believe it is important to describe some of the history of the Panama region during the time Emmy Evers and her family would have traveled there en route home to Boston. Let us start with one of the most notorious and legendary individuals…
Read MoreThe Camino Real of Panama
THE CAMINO REAL This past week I traveled with Christian Strassnig the director of Cultour (www.cultour.info) and Camino Real Project (http://caminorealproject.wordpress.com) into the Jungle of the Chagres National Park where he, his colleagues from the Instituto Nacional de Cultura and the mestizo peasant community recently recovered portions of the Camino Real, a paved four-foot wide…
Read MoreSpirit and Communication
We are in Charboneau les Bains au Lyon, in the Rhone Valley, the “gastronomic capital” of France, exploring the ancient city, its countryside and sampling the differences between Parisian and Lyonese cuisine. It is a welcome rest from the hassle-hustle of the business life from which I soon retire and the quietude of this rural…
Read MoreAngels and Lecterns
We returned to New Orleans this past week to meet with over 800 medical directors of our nation-wide Emergency Medicine, Anesthesiology, Hospitalist, Orthopedics and OB/GYN services. During the three day event, we listened to several speakers, including former HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, discuss healthcare financing, leadership, management and clinical topics, frame the future and provide…
Read MoreDefense Attorneys and “Diary of a Moonlighter”
I just returned from New Orleans where I had the opportunity to present two topics to 160 of the attorneys whose 140 firms represent TEAMHealth in various venues throughout the country. We are fortunate that in our management of over 12 million annual patient care encounters in our Emergency Departments, Hospital In-Patient care, Anesthesiology and…
Read MoreMy final LEAD course
This past week we completed the 35th LEAD (Leadership and Development) course which I began in 2002, shortly after assuming the role as National Chief Medical Officer of TeamHealth. Since inception, we have had the privilege of teaching and inspiring over 1600 medical directors. This was my final course. I will discuss what it means…
Read MoreThe Affordability of Compassion
To a great extent, the ability of a society to contain its pathology, and the disposition of its problems, is dependent on what it convinces itself it can afford. Shown below are two short teaching fables “Big Orange” and “The Take Down” that I use to train our health care providers about the incorrect and…
Read MoreWidow Walk Audio Book Now Available
The Widow Walk Audio Book is now available featuring narration by John Aylward via Audible.com, Amazon’s Audiobooks. Aylward’s brilliant narration brings a new, chilling dimension to the Widow Walk experience! Here is a sample from Chapter 12 The Widow Walk Audiobook is available here: http://bit.ly/1irMxsI
Read MorePreview: Widow Walk – audio book narrated by John Aylward
The following is an excerpt from Chapter Twelve of Widow Walk : Anah narrated by John Aylward Widow Walk, the audio book, will be available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in February John Aylward John Aylward, whose eloquent narration brings the remarkable Widow Walk tale alive in a different dimension, has been an accomplished, well…
Read MoreThe “Widow Walk Suite”
Attached is one of the movements in Tom McGurk’s Widow Walk Suite, composed for the audio book version of Widow Walk. I will post one of the sections from John Aylward’s beautiful narration in the next blog entry. The audio book for Widow Walk is scheduled to be released in January. Thomas McGurk, composer of “The Widow Walk…
Read More