Kona fishing captain Kenton Geer is riding a wave of success with the recent launch of his first book — a book not originally written as a book.
In a scene near the end, a country song plays in the background as Capt. K ruminates, as he is wont throughout. “I’ve often said you can easily replace the word ‘cowboy’ with ‘fisherman’ in just about any song.”
While reading his book, “Vicious Cycle” it is easy to see the analogy. One particular cowboy song comes to mind that symbolizes Kenton’s approach to his relationships with the sea and the various women in his book.
“Night Riders Lament” by Michael Burton is about a girl asking a cowboy why her beau chooses life on the open range:
And she asked me
Why does he ride for his money?
And tell me why does he rope for short pay
He ain’t gettin no where
And he’s losing his share
Boy he must have gone crazy out there
The next verse continues with the cowboy’s response, “ah, but they’ve never seen the Northern Lights — a hawk on the wing — spent spring on the great divide, or ever heard the camp cookie sing.” If Kenton Geer were a cowboy, he might’ve written this.
But he’s a fisherman who wrote this: “It’s the way a hot cup of coffee indulged in the company of shearwaters and flying fish feels like heaven on earth. It’s the way an albatross is as beloved as a family dog….it’s the way you feel the ocean and the way she seems to feel you.”
“Vicious Cycle” is subtitled “Whiskey, Women and Water,” so no, this is not a tome of bedtime stories for kids. He originally wrote these stories at the suggestion of a therapist as a way to cope with depression, not for publication. They started life as the personal musings of a mostly single, adventurous young fisherman — euphoric when lucky — introspective at best when not.
The end result is loquacious, raw and unfiltered and that’s the way he wants it to be. According to Geer, he and the other folks in the book lived it that way.
“Writing as a tool to work through depression is a different process than writing for publication,” Kenton explained. “But when my therapist read the pieces she asked if I had considered sharing them with others. When I said no, she suggested that I might want to.”
Kenton continued, “So, after two years of writing stories that lived only in my head and iPhone, I took a gamble and posted one on social media. It was about the relationship between a fisherman and the sea. A love story really, that also talked of relationships between a fisherman and a woman. I put it up, went to sea for a week and when I returned I had over 400 messages!”
Geer thought a minute and said, “You know, I think a lot of what we read and what is out there is too polished. If someone doesn’t like what I wrote, then they probably won’t like me because that is exactly who I am. And that’s okay. Yeah, my stories are a bit rough and raw, but they’ve actually been polished up by my editor, if that tells you anything.”
There can be a chasm between writing therapeutic stories for yourself and laying ones deepest personal thoughts out for the world to read. If one gambles, jumps and misses the other side, the fall can feel like an endless downward spiral. When asked what propelled him across, he said it was mostly the encouragement from readers on social media.
He also singled out one particular friend, Jason “Tiny” Walcott. Tiny had survived a kidnapping — at gun point — on a boat in the Bahamas and wanted to write a book about his experience. He believed in Geer’s writing, and invited him to a conference for new writers called Author 101. It was, however, in Florida.
True to form, Capt. K gambled and hopped a plane. When organizers learned that someone had dropped everything to fly from Hawaii to attend, the MC recognized Kenton in the audience. Shortly thereafter, an editor approached him saying, “I only work with writers of my choosing. If you came this far, I think you just may be a writer I want to work with.” He became the editor who “polished” Geer’s stories, but only just.
The rest, as they say is history. Well actually, history in the making. The book launched as a best seller on Amazon because of Kenton’s social media base. The book continues to sell, so who knows where this will all end up.
Here in Hawaii, many islanders are very careful about what they name their kids, their boats, even their dogs. Many wait until they have a feel for temperament before they give ka inoa. For instance, if a young boy appears to have a kolohe side to him, parents might not name him Mahina because later he may tend towards getting into mischief on full moon nights, causing the family grief.
I asked Kenton if he thought maybe changing the name of his boat from “Vicious Cycle” to something more malia might eliminate life’s dramatic ups and downs. He just laughed and said, “Not in the least. I think life is a vicious cycle for me because that’s just the way it is. Others like me agree; only when we reach rock bottom do we get fed up and determine to reach new highs. That’s when we achieve what we only dreamed of before. Right now, even after losing a boat and a marriage, I am happier than I have ever been. It’s because of what I learned along the way.”
You have to take his word for it. I mean, who else can say they love an albatross as much as much as some love their dog? But then again, who else can say that their first book — a book that wasn’t written as a book — was a best seller the first day it was on Amazon?