As many know, I get busy and fall off the radar around this time every year. For five years now I’ve been doing seasonal SCUBA diving work. As interesting as that might sound, it’s anything but glamorous — chiefly, I pull weeds out of marinas and swim areas. It’s strenuous, exhausting, dirty work, and I’ve enjoyed every minute. I thought I might show a little of that — here are some pictures from the most recent job I was on pulling weeds and garbage at a swim area …
Empty tank — time to get a new one … and a sandwich!Time to pop back in…This looks so Baywatch — right?!This was at the end of the day — my boss asked me to do surface work, which involves swimming around and catching picked weeds floating around that didn’t get collected in our bags while under water.Get your mask in the right spot and don’t get water on the inside … it’s quite preferable!I usually work in the water for 4-6 hours — moving efficiently is key — even when swimming without gear.No matter how efficient one works, at the end of the day it can be difficult to get up and out of the water.
So why do I disappear in spring? Frequently, this work takes me away from the Whidbey Island Baking Company headquarters. The jobs are in the spring, so I have to go do the work when I can get it. Between jobs I’m busy staying on top of everything else. This keeps me a bit too involved for my Recipes Of The Month and working on my books … but it’s good to get away from time to time, right?
As you’ve seen from following my blog, checking in with my upcoming publishing projects page, or from my comments on Facebook or Twitter, I am busily working away on my next one … no Two, no THREE books! While one of these is a recipe book I’m excited about, the one at the forefront is rather unique indeed.
Not actually me but you get the idea
Since July 2018 I have been actively working on a fundraiser project for a veterans organization I am a member of. The goal has been to produce a book of (get ready for this…) Military & Patriotic Highland Bagpipe Tunes & Their Histories. The original intention was to have this book published in time for spring/summer of 2019. Then I got some contract work as a professional SCUBA diver (no, really) and I had to adjust … well … a LOT of my time and endeavours.
Bill Millin visiting France 6 June 1944
This Highland bagpipe sheet music book has sets of tunes representing the US Military, US Civil War, WWI, WWII, along with a Scottish and American patriotic set, and two other sets of historic military themed tunes. To give better relevance to the WWII set I realized I needed to open the section with explaining who Bill Millin was and what he did on D-day, 6 June 1944. This launched me into a rabbit-hole of research! This essay is nearly complete — which is GREAT because it is the largest of the remaining steps to accomplish to completing this book. Word has gotten around as to what I’m doing with this Bill Millin essay, and something came back to me.
You might be amused to know…
On Tuesday I met with a retired USMC military historian. We spent 3 amazing hours talking about Bill Millin history at a local coffee bistro. He is interested in assisting me with information gathering and being a sounding board for my understanding of it all. This gentleman has offered to draw from his resources. He also had some interesting points on what it takes to effectively present history to a general let alone specific audience.
Pegasus Bridge, 9 June 1944; Horsa gliders visible in the background.
Right now I need some enlightenment to finish my essay about Millin for the bagpipe sheet music book. The outfit he was in was involved with the famous Pegasus (bridge) objective which was taken just after midnight by men of the 6th Airborne on 6 June 1944. What I need to know more about is what happened after they left the bridge. With this essay complete, the rest of my book project is downhill on roller skates while eating cake!
IN THE MEAN TIME …
Please check out my recipe book “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies“. I published it just over a year ago — not only am I quite pleased with it, I’ve been receiving rave reviews from others! It is available on Amazon and Smashwords — I also have some free recipes available here on my site. If you have read it and enjoyed it — please take a few minutes and write a review — on Amazon, Smashwords, and now I’m on Goodreads. This not only helps me get noticed as an author, it helps other readers to know what to expect.
The legend of Bill Millin is well-known in the Highland bagpipe community. The short story that everyone knows is that “Piper Bill” went ashore on Sword Beach* — he carried no firearm, wore a kilt, played bagpipes, and never got shot by German forces because they thought he had gone insane. While all of this is true and I already knew from lore, I have been formally researching the whole story and it is far more detailed.
(*Queen Red, the furthest east section of the invasion)
Bill Millin with his bagpipes landing on the Queen Red section of Sword Beach.
It is an honor to be writing about this man’s role in the June 6, 1944, Normandy invasion and it is important to me that I get it right. I have reached out for every information source I can locate. Presently I have a considerable stack of library books on D-Day, audiobooks and e-books, media on order, one film, along with articles and interviews I’ve found online. Something I am particularly excited about is that I have made contact with Bill Millin’s son and grandson online and they have agreed to review my work once complete. Also, it seems that each time I stop by the library to pick up another piece of media I’ve ordered, I find and buy a D-Day or WWII book from their used book rack. Apparently I’m building my own D-Day/WWII library $3 at a time!
The bronze life-size statue of Piper Bill Millin unveiled on 8 June 2013 at Colleville-Montgomery, near Sword, in France.
As I review these history sources I have found some problems in the information. Generally speaking I have books written by historians and articles written by journalists. Some of the errors I have identified due to my Highland bagpipe playing career. Some of the errors seem to be words and concepts the previous writers did not fully understand. The biggest problem I have been finding is historical inconsistencies. Generally the greater collection of errors come from the journalists — these individuals tend to work at a faster pace with less study than historians. Usually I can sift through the historical inconsistencies by applying information from military documents along with identifying the details that are consistent in history books and interviews from Bill Millin himself.
As said it is an honor to be writing about this man. It is an honor as a bagpiper and as the grandson of WWII veterans. My aim is to help clean up some of the history mistakes that have developed and promote the greater story of Bill Millin’s role in D-Day among my piping peers along with my non-piping readers. I am sure that you too will be impressed by this one aspect of The Greatest Generation and the greatest invasion in the history of the world.
Books and Other Media
D-Day / Minute by Minuteby Jonathan Mayo – This book gives a ‘real-life’ presentation of D-Day as each hour passes. It is an amazing book and I would be thrilled to have a copy in my collection.
The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D-Dayby Cornelius Ryan – This is the seminal D-Day history book behind the film. I am presently about half way through it and it is nothing short of AMAZING! With it I watched the cast-of-thousands film by Darryl F. Zanuck for my third-or-so time. While it does not include everything in Ryan’s book it presents much of it with considerable adherence to detail — not common these days with books-turned-film — well worth viewing.
I also have copies of the following e-books from my library however have not had time to get into them yet — D-Dayby Stephen E. Ambrose and D-Day / The Battle for Normandyby (Sir) Antony Beevor. I’m already impressed by Ambrose’s work and from what I’ve gathered about Beevor’s book it sounds to be a valuable text.
Middle-grade and Youth-oriented Books
D-Dayby Charlie Samuels – Part of the “Turning Points In US Military History” collection, for its target audience this book looked excellent!
D-Day / A True Bookby Peter Benoit – This book is similar to the Charlie Samuels’ text … only that I’m uncomfortable with a history book that says it is a ‘true’ history book.
D-Day / The Invasion of Normandy 1944 by Rick Atkinson – I plowed through the Atkinson book looking for information on my subject. In my opinion based on the other books I have studied, the author glosses over details and frequently presents them with gross mistakes.
D-Day / The WWII Invasion That Changed Historyby Deborah Hopkinson – I’m frankly disappointed by this book. Picking it up it appears to be on-par with the work of Cornelius Ryan and Stephen Ambrose (ETC) — the book is large and thick — but that is a first impression only. Upon closer inspection, as an author I can tell you there are a few tricks that have been used to make the book appear more impressive. The two main tricks is that the book is not single-spaced and it is loaded with pictures; take out the photos, make it single spaced, and it is half the length at best. This 2018 publication does not appear to present anything new on the topic and is possibly written in such a manner as to not ‘offend’ the Politically Correct (ETC) crowd &/or to spoon-feed D-Day to the delicate middle-grade blue-ribbon crowd. The good thing I can say about the book is that it is worth it for accessing the D-Day related pictures … other than that, other books are in my opinion better information sources whereas this one is comparatively watered-down. And for my uses … no apparent mention of Bill Millin on Sword Beach or at Pegasus Bridge.
During the last number of months (or years?) I have been writing blog posts here and on my BagpiperDon.com site about things going on in my personal life. This started with writing about a used truck I bought that needed attention (as-in repairs) and finally put me in the kind of vehicle I’ve dreamed of owning — I called these posts “Adventures in Truckdom”. When I started doing contract SCUBA diving work this past summer I wrote about those experiences, too — titled “Adventures in Divingdom”. Each of these have no shortage of sharing what has gone on and includes me laughing at myself. Today it seemed appropriate to write a different sort of episode — today I’m writing … book
ADVENTURES IN AUTHORDOM
Which goes like this …
MYODGC being my first book
For the past number of months I’ve been close to finishing my 2nd book — this being the Scottish & American military & patriotic Highland bagpipe tunes & tune histories book. For the most part I had to put it aside this summer — things just got too busy to give it the time and focus needed. The diving work (which was great!) took time, working on my day-job search takes time, juggling everything else takes time — priorities. I knew that once summer started winding down I could get back at it.
Bill Millin plays his pipes for fellow soldiers in 1944
The project is nearly complete however there are some chunks to go. Chief among these are writing a chapter opening — in this case, history around a bagpiper who landed on Sword Beach on D-Day, unarmed, and played pipes in traditional military fashion to lead his fellow invaders ….. and even though he as under heavy German fire he never got shot.
I have gathered a good bit of information around this historic gent — I’ve even made contact with his son and grandson on Facebook. This piper holds a special place in the piping community, and it’s important to me that I get this writing right. The kicker though is this …..
Landing on Queen Red Beach, Sword; Millin is in the foreground at the right with his bagpipes and backpack.
Of the various information sources available, some of them have mixed degrees of inaccuracies. Part of my job is to sift through the minutia — do my best to separate the dubious bits from what appears to be the truth. To accomplish this I’m leaning toward the information that is consistent, the information that comes from cited sources, sources that are military record, and interviews that were from the man himself. Part of the reason why I want to get my writing right is to honor the man. Part of the reason is because of his importance to the Highland bagpipe community, and it is a HUGE honor to be writing about him. And part of the importance is to help keep history accurate — some of these sources are muddying-up the facts.
So last night I got my first real opportunity to dive-back-in. I reviewed all of this information, which includes these odd sections. It’s a bit overwhelming but I can see the work ahead. The long and short of it I know is this — once I have this bit of D-Day history written for the WWII chapter …. the rest of the work to complete the book project is all downhill eating cake wearing roller skates.
When will this be done? Well … soon enough! Besides, I have 2 other part-done book projects that are looking for me to get back to …
July is my busiest month of the year! Usually this is due to all the events and dates I participate in as a Highland bagpiper while staying on top of everything else. This year it seems like it has been a whole different juggle…
I just got back from the Seattle Highland Games. These games have been going on for nearly 75 years and is the second largest event of its kind on the US west coast, held annually on the last weekend of July. This year’s event was a long, hot weekend — and another great event! For me it proved to be a good book sales weekend.
As I left Whidbey Island I delivered additional copies of Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies to Kingfisher Bookstore in Coupeville and at Goose Community Grocery in Bayview. While in Enumclaw (where the Highland Games were) I sold a number of copies including some to veterans whom I give a military discount. Something I’m particularly excited about is that I made contact with a friend of mine from my last round of college — Richard has a gift basket business and he is looking to feature my book. More on that ASAP! My book business went so well that I think I need to re-order for my supply. If you’re interested in a book or e-book for yourself, please order on Amazon.com. Also, my e-book is 25% off through July 2019 on Smashwords.com.
Usually my summer schedule begins to mellow after July. For 2019 that doesn’t seem to be the case. Coming up in August I will be …
Juggling time between helping Meg with Kingfisher Bookstore during the Coupeville Arts and Crafts Festival and participating in a meet-the-author event at Goose Grocery the same weekend, and…
On Tuesday I met with a retired USMC military historian. We spent 3 amazing hours talking about 
So last night I got my first real opportunity to dive-back-in. I reviewed all of this information, which includes these odd sections. It’s a bit overwhelming but I can see the work ahead. The long and short of it I know is this — once I have this bit of D-Day history written for the WWII chapter …. the rest of the work to complete the book project is all downhill eating cake wearing roller skates.
