After the satisfaction of publishing his navy tales, local man Mel McConaghy has embarked on his second publishing excursion.
This time, he has put together a collection of road stories from his years as a professional truck driver in a new book entitled My Life Through a Broken Windshield.
The book has been released as an e-book, meaning for $2.99, readers can download the manuscript from www.smashwords.com onto a digital reader - such as a Kindle or iPad - or as a PDF file or text document to read on their computer or print out at their convenience.
For the past couple of years, the 75-year-old retiree has been relating these stories through various media such as on local radio and in columns in Northern Star and
Pro Trucker magazine.
Born and raised in Prince George, McConaghy never thought of himself as an author - and still doesn't.
"I couldn't write because I'm a Grade 8 drop out and dyslexic," McConaghy said. "But I'm an old storyteller and an old BS-er."
And McConaghy has more than four decades worth of trucking stories to tell. The book opens with the author recounting a few harrowing moments down a mountain in dense fog, where he found himself questioning his career choice.
"What an emotional rollercoaster. From complacency to panic to tranquility, all in half a kilometre," he writes.
"My life has been a matter of doing anything that everybody tells me you shouldn't do or you'll die," McConaghy told The Citizen.
The second chapter details how he got his start in working, but McConaghy said one of his favourite stories is the chapter entitled Seven Days to Divorce Court. That section is dedicated to a tale of the time McConaghy took his wife - to whom he's been married for 54 years - along for a trip to the Yukon.
"When you take one self-opinionated man and a very strong-willed woman and put them in at 36-inch bunk, you're going to run into problems," McConaghy said.
But he learned something important from that week.
"The last thing you do at night is reach over, give your wife a kiss and say 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you,'" McConaghy said.
My Life Through a Broken Windshield is available on www.smashwords.com and through McConaghy's website at www.melmcconaghy.com, along with a collection of his other short stories and audio features.
