“This is one of the funnier, more intriguing books I have read in a long time. The author has an amazing ability to intertwine his adventures into the unsolved mysteries of SE Alaska.” –Chip M., Amazon Reviewer.
I first came across Bjorn Dihle’s writing when I was doing research for my series of blog posts about Thomas Bay, Alaska and the legendary Kushtaka (see categories Monster Busting and History). There was a lot more on the subject than I expected, but Bjorn’s account was by far the most enjoyable. I wound up reading everything I could find online written by him. I also sent him an email via the paper he wrote for, The Juneau Empire, and was surprised and delighted when he responded.
We wrote back and forth for a while, some of the time about the book he was in the process of writing, “Haunted Inside Passage,” some of the time about our various adventures in the wilderness. Then one day I got an email by someone named Mary Catharine Martin, or MC, as she preferred to be called. She said she’d read my blog and wanted to tap me for writing a column in the paper she edited, Capital City Weekly. As it turned out, she’d been introduced to my blog by her boyfriend, Bjorn Dihle. (For more on MC, click on April 2017 under Archives.)
When I mentioned it to him, thanking him for the opportunity, he shrugged it off and said that all he did was show her my blog, my writing did the rest. This is typical Bjorn, more kind and generous than he likes to reveal. He usually disguises it with his sense of the absurd, which is highlighted in all of his writing, including “Haunted Inside Passage,” and in my interview with him below. (For more on “Haunted Inside Passage” see the category Books.)
Mary Catharine Martin (MC) and Bjorn Dihle
ADOW: What made you decide to write Haunted Inside Passage in anecdotal form, inserting yourself and your experiences into the text? (That’s always my favorite book of this type, it makes me feel like I’m part of the adventure.)
Bjorn Dihle: The short answer is I’m basically a three-year-old boy trapped in a grown man’s body that wants to be the center of attention. The long answer is I appreciate narratives like Hunter S. Thompson’s and other nontraditional writers [such as Milan Kundera and his “Book of Laughter and Forgetting”]. Take “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” a classic whose basis lies in Thompson being sent to cover an off-road motor race. The story is as much or more about Thompson’s antics and reflections as it is about the subject matter he’s supposed to be writing about.
For “Haunted Inside Passage,” I wanted to create a narrative that would both entertain readers and give them a decent portrayal of aspects of Southeast Alaska history. To do that I interjected my own absurd riffing to counter the weight of often dark history. By making it personal I hoped to inject more life in the narrative.
EXCERPT:
“I remember one commercial fishing captain I worked for, a kind but tightly strung man, who threatened to throw me overboard when he caught me whistling.
“‘You’ll summon a storm!’ he yelled.
“‘I’m sorry,’ I said, peeling a banana.
“‘You brought a banana aboard! That’s bad luck!’ he squealed, swinging a salmon gaff at the fruit. ‘Throw it overboard and go wash your hands with bleach!’
“….I learned a lot that season about what you can and can’t do on a boat. For instance, gingers have no souls and have been the doom of many a fisherman. Bananas are the devil’s fruit and have doomed many mariners. Certain words and phrases like ‘drown’ and ‘good luck’ must never be said on a boat and can lead to doom.”
ADOW: What age were you, what made you realize, SE Alaska was like no other place on earth?
BD: Pretty early, I suppose. There’s a 1,500 square mile icefield on one side of my home and an archipelago full of brown bears on the other. All that country is open to explore, which is an incredible gift to an introvert suffering from wanderlust like me. I spent a number of summers in Montana when I was a kid and would always miss the fishing, hunting, and woods of Alaska. Montana is great but still pales in comparison if you love wild places.
ADOW: How do your girlfriend, MC, and your dog, Fen, feel about how they are portrayed in the book?
BD: They’re both considering suing me. My golden retriever, Fen, is particularly distraught. I’m trying to bribe her back with red wine and prime rib dinners and long beach walks but a silence as vast as the Great Wall of China has grown between us. We’re currently going to family counseling but MC gets so mad during these sessions that she throws books, chairs and, once even me against the wall.
EXCERPT:
“On a dark December day, I walked with my golden retriever, Fenrir, past the ruins of the Treadwell Mine. Still a puppy, ‘Fen’ chased seagulls in the ocean’s surf while I moped along behind. My girlfriend, MC, and I named her after the wolf in Norse mythology that killed Odin and destroyed the world. Her aptitude for apocalyptic behavior has proved low thus far, though she occasionally jumped on frightened strangers to lick them and drank voraciously from the toilet no matter how hard we tried to discipline her. MC was the bad cop and I was the pushover in our dog rearing.”
ADOW: If you were to write another book set in Alaska, what would it be about?
BD: I have a book of hunting, fishing, and outdoor humor stories called “Never Cry Halibut” being published next year. I’m considering writing a book about the relationship between people and brown bears. It’s a subject that fascinates me–I love “nature” and exploring the ideas of things that scare us and, well, brown bears definitely scare just about everyone. I’m really hoping to bring sexy back to nature with writing that book.
I have other book ideas too and will choose one after summer winds down. Right now the only thing I’m working on is a novel about UFO conspiracy culture that’s more of a cathartic sinful indulgence than anything else. MC no longer wants to hear my jokes so I just write them into that book to entertain myself.
EXCERPT:
According to the prologue in “Haunted Inside Passage” Bjorn was advised by a friend that he’d never get anywhere as a writer if he didn’t make it “sexy.” In his cover letter to the publisher who eventually put out his book, Bjorn claims: “I made it clear my book could only be optioned into a film if Tom Hardy played me and Scarlett Johansson played my girlfriend, MC, an incredibly intelligent writer whose one flaw is that she’s clumsy and burns herself whenever she tries to cook.”
He also claims he’s intesnely shy, with the exception of “that time at my little brother’s wedding in Newfoundland when I challenged 300 or 400 Canadians at the reception to a tag-team wrestling match against me and the groom. (All I remember is yelling, ‘We will destroy you, Canada!’ before my speech was prematurely ended.)”
ADOW: The bio on the back of the book says that after surviving a cruel childhood nickname you went on to find success as a writer, commerical fisherman, teacher, and wilderness guide. Can you share with us what you did to overcome this early heartbreak in order to soar to such lofty heights?
BD: I hunted down everyone who ever made fun of me and set fire to their homes, slashed the tires of their cars, and blackmailed them with naked photographs.
One guy–T-Rod, a big jock who was particularly merciless–I abducted and left duct taped to a flagpole at a motorcycle gang revival with a cardboard sign that read “I love my Prius.”
ADOW: Duct tape. So Alaskan. Can you please give us more details about the interesting quote on the back cover: “Bjorn taught me how to love again.” The quote is credited to Sasquatch.
BD: We all have our histories. Let’s just say I spent a lot of my twenties wandering alone in wild places. I was lonely….What happened in the wilderness stays in the wilderness….
Lest you think “Haunted Inside Passage” is pure comedy–it’s definitely not, detailing some of the more poignant, haunting, unhappy, and unexplained events in SE Alaskan history–here’s a final excerpt that shows Bjorn’s serious writing chops and his more contemplative side.
EXCERPT:
“The swirling gray dimmed as we, afraid to travel any farther, dug a snow shelter and pitched our tent. After dinner, I stared up into the darkness, listened to the storm, and thought about glaciers. They’re challenging and otherworldly, moving like a living thing, break open with yawning crevasses, and jumble into treacherous icefalls. Glaciers can inspire a visceral dread. I felt like a self-sentenced criminal, imprisoned in the Pleistocene Epoch. Before dawn, I crawled out of my cocoon and was buffeted by winds as I studied the nebulous wind. A ground blizzard raged, but the clouds had vanished to reveal towering mountains and a canopy of stars. An eerie expanse of white seracs, blue where the wind had exposed the ice, surrounded us. We made coffee and broke camp as mountains slowly came to life with the flush of dawn….Staring out at the the distant white of Atlin Lake surrounded by the dark blur of taiga, I thought of glaciers not as desolate geographic features, but instead as titans that created and destroyed the world.”
Bjorn writes “Haunted Inside Passage” with humor, but with sensitivity, too, and reveals that he has a listening ear, people feel comfortable sharing some of their most disguieting experiences with him. On subjects that could be milked for cheap sensationalism, Bjorn unerringly finds the human aspect, the part that touches you and makes you wonder and care, and hope, one day, to learn the answers.
Photo that accompaned Clara Miller’s excellent review (http://juneauempire.com/art/2017-04-14/southeast-s-spooky-stories-collected-juneau-writer-bjorn-dihle) Bjorn’s book in Capital City Weekly, April 12-18, 2017.
COMMENTS
Sara Tucker
9/13/2020 04:47:58 am
love looking at all your info tales and photos
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