40 years ago, in 1980, my grandfather John V. Griffin self-published a novel, Icy Cape. It was based on his experience working at the so-named remote outpost in 1961 near Wainwright, Alaska. Men were stationed for months or years at a time along the northern-most coast of Alaska during the height of the Cold War, monitoring for any Russian activity.
25 years ago, in 1995, John passed away at only 59.
In 2020, I reached out to his children to see if we could bring John’s book into the 21st century. Only physical copies existed at this point; no electronic version was available. So, through the wonders of the internet, we found a service that would scan and convert the physical book into an editable file.
From there, myself and John’s son Mathieu edited it for eBook and print re-publication. There were actually a number of corrections needed in the text (self-publishing wasn’t so easy back then), and we both spent many hours combing through everything. Mathieu even created a new digital version of the cover, based on his father’s original design.
Once those two versions were complete, I began to prep the book for an audio version, narrating it myself. It was a great challenge, and after so much time (I read it when I was perhaps 12, likely not understanding most of it), it was wonderful to be so reacquainted with the book and my grandfather’s work.
Listen to a sample and get a copy for yourself over at the official Icy Cape site!