David Brown has written and self-published three books, and a fourth is in the works. He stopped by Refuge Coffee in Spenard on a late winter morning.
This is the first in a series about people finding or rediscovering creative pursuits later in life. The reporting project is funded by a grant from the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism. If you have a suggestion of a person who has explored their artistic or creative impulses upon retirement or when other life demands lessened, email editor@seniorvoicealaska.com.
David Brown looks like he is headed for a day of fishing when he takes a seat in a Midtown Anchorage café. He's wearing Lacrosse rubber boots, a sweatshirt and sunglasses hooked to a neoprene Croakie.
Turns out, fishing is only one of his great interests. Another, nurtured over a lifetime, is writing. He doesn't remember if it was a childhood bout of measles or mumps, but he knows he was about 7 years old when he was ill in bed, and he received a book to read. He read it and thought to himself, "I can write as well as this guy."
Over a lifetime, Brown has freelanced articles for his hometown paper, the Woonsocket Call, and the Castro Valley Forum in California. Those opportunities allowed him to interview people like Sammy Davis Jr. and 1950s rockabilly pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis. And he got to report from Fenway Park - sports being another of his interests.
His father had founded an insurance business in 1928, and Brown followed him in it. When he wrapped up a 31-year career in the industry, he found himself in writing workshops, where he honed his craft.
"It's funny, what fate creates for us," he said thoughtfully.
But Brown also knows that it's what you do with opportunity. He met his partner, Maureen Hanlon, whom he effusively calls his "better half" at a jazz club on Providence. She was listening to the music as intently as he was. "Jazz is my game," Brown said.
The song "Misty" came on, but he couldn't quite screw up the courage to talk to her until after the set. Then he said, "If I wasn't so shy, I would have asked you to dance. Would you have accepted?" They went out the next night and have been together since.
In 2003, Brown moved with Maureen to Alaska, and found himself immersed in the kind of place conducive to writing: long winters, a supportive community of fellow writers, and plenty of excursions into nature.
He got involved with the Alaska Writers Guild, becoming its president at one point, and benefited from its annual conference. Soon, he was on a writing jag that hasn't let up.
Brown has produced three books in the last 14 years, a true crime book called "Deacon's Crossbow," a memoir/biography "Shadowing Dizzy Gillespie," a collection of 52 short stories called "Fragmento."
Brown says he doesn't know what writer's block is. He writes in an old-fashioned black-and-white composition notebook, but mostly he writes on his computer. On fishing trips to the Kenai Peninsula, he'll often pull off the road, carried away by inspiration and start writing. He remembers a phrase or a moment, and he jots it down, to be used later. At one point, he remembers is father saying, "You weren't even a spit yet," and he likes that turn of phrase and tucks it away.
He said he tends to overwrite, and then edits his work. He wants to emulate his idol, Dizzy Gillespie. "I'm trying to make every note a note of consequence."
Small moments capture his fancy. Though we meet on a cold day in March, a small gnat or fly buzzes around and momentarily alights on Brown's nose. Later, in an email, he said that moment was the most important of our encounter.
Brown has an impish quality, his prominent blue eyes shining with curiosity and bonhomie. A lifelong friend published his first three books.
His next book is tentatively called "Octonotes." I ask if it has to do with octaves, as Brown is a jazz fan. No, it's because he is an octogenarian. He's cagey about his age, nonetheless. He admits it's greater than 81 and maybe 82, maybe 83.
"I think of life as a series of runs," he mused. Like baseball. "I'm on the last run. It might be my last. Whether it lasts two years or 15, who the hell knows."
You can find out more about David Brown's books at https://www.bravedownbooks.com/
