Charlie Sheldon
Charlie went to Yale and received a Masters Degree from UMass in wildlife management. He then spent 15 years in the fishing industry as deckhand, mate, skipper, and consultant, mostly on the East Coast, fishing for groundfish, lobster, swordfish and red crab, and later worked for the New England and Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Councils as a consultant preparing fishery management plans and conducting at-sea gear technology work.
From 1984 to 2012 he worked for various seaports on the East and West coasts as planner, project manager, and executive. He retired after serving as the Executive Director of the Port of Bellingham, Washington, in 2012. For the next four years he went back to sea as a merchant seaman, Able Bodied and Bosun, aboard container and military ships.
After coming ashore he turned full time to writing, although throughout his life he had written five novels, published articles, even won a prize a half century ago. He did research for three years while still going to sea and working before beginning Strong Heart in 2013, in between gigs at sea, and he has now finished a three volume series of related but independent books, Strong Heart 2017, Adrift 2018, and Totem, due out in the fall of 2021, all with Irontwine Press in Bothell Washington.
Charlie hikes in the Olympic mountains whenever he can, rows for exercise in Puget Sound, cooks for his wife Randa, pesters his grandchildren, and continues to draw and write.
From 1984 to 2012 he worked for various seaports on the East and West coasts as planner, project manager, and executive. He retired after serving as the Executive Director of the Port of Bellingham, Washington, in 2012. For the next four years he went back to sea as a merchant seaman, Able Bodied and Bosun, aboard container and military ships.
After coming ashore he turned full time to writing, although throughout his life he had written five novels, published articles, even won a prize a half century ago. He did research for three years while still going to sea and working before beginning Strong Heart in 2013, in between gigs at sea, and he has now finished a three volume series of related but independent books, Strong Heart 2017, Adrift 2018, and Totem, due out in the fall of 2021, all with Irontwine Press in Bothell Washington.
Charlie hikes in the Olympic mountains whenever he can, rows for exercise in Puget Sound, cooks for his wife Randa, pesters his grandchildren, and continues to draw and write.
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Strong Heart
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Adventure-coming of age-magic realism
One rainy night 13-year-old Sarah Cooley appears on Tom Olsen's doorstep and announces she is his granddaughter. Tom, about to head off on a long camping trip into Olympic National Park, drags Sarah along with his two friends, William and Myra. Sarah sees something. They don't believe her. Then she disappears, only to return with an impossible story.... 
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Adrift
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Adventure, magic realism
The container vessel Adrift, in the Gulf of Alaska, catches fire in early December, forcing the crew to abandon ship and take to the lifeboats. The lifeboats go missing. A desperate salvage company races to grab the ship before the ship owner's tugs can beat them to it. The relatives ashore hatch a desperate plan to find the missing sailors..... 
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Totem
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Adventure, magic realism
Buckhorn Mining company is about to start operating deep within Olympic National Park on a deeply grandfathered permit. Sarah Cooley and her friends end up crosswise with the mining company surveyors and extractors. Meanwhile strange elk kills around the perimeter of the park are terrifying local ranchers. Everything come to a head in Bear Valley, far in the park..... To be published Fall 2021 
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