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I couldn’t squeeze this into the bio section of my blog, so I’m using it here instead.

Mark Stanley has been writing stuff that very few people read since he learned to read about four decades ago.  He finds it depressing to think that his only creative outlet for the last 16 years, as an archaeologist at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle, has been trying to get “fancy” with business emails. What’s worse, they were GOVERNMENT business emails. Not the best venue for an aspiring creative nonfiction writer.  He thinks forcing himself to write a blog post every day may change his mood.

His topics of interest range from the microscopic to the spiritual, but with a strong emphasis on the historical.  He was educated in anthropology because it was the most eclectic subject in the university catalog.  He was trained in archaeology because that’s the only way, practically speaking, that a person can survive as an anthropologist.  He hired on as an Air Force archaeologist to pay the bills, and to avoid spending protracted periods of time in the Florida sun, hunched over an artifact screen.

From his air conditioned office, hunched over his computer screen, he has dreamed of far off places, obscure historical personages, and mysterious phenomena.  He plans to begin writing freelance articles for magazines to feed his research habit.  These writings will almost certainly be related to travel, history, and ethnography.

His job has exposed him to some interesting things.  Eglin AFB is half the size of the State of Rhode Island.  More than 2000 archaeological sites have been found there so far, and there are many more still to be found.  Most of them are prehistoric Indian sites, dating back as far as the last ice age.  Many others are 20^th century homesteads, turpentine camps, old grist mills or military sites, like the remains of two JB-2 missile launch sites from World War II.  As Eglin’s cultural resources manager, he also manages 13 historic districts, including the Camp Pinchot District, which in 1908 was the headquarters compound for the Choctawhatchee National Forest.

Research for a biography of Florida adventurer William Augustus Bowles has dictated his reading choices in recent months.  That trend will continue for many years if he doesn’t figure out how to earn extra income.  That same project will color the topics emphasized in this blog:  Southeastern Indian history and culture, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Chickasaw; the American Revolution in the South; the deerskin trade; history of the Bahamas, Spain, Florida, Mobile, New Orleans, Pensacola, St. Augustine, Charleston, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Barbados, Nassau, Jamaica, and Canada in the 1790s; Tory Maryland; Philadelphia and Long Island during the Revolution; and biographies of key characters – Esteban Miro, William Panton, Lord Dunmore, Alexander McGillivray, Benjamin Hawkins, Bernardo de Galvez, Sir Guy Carleton, and John Graves Simcoe.

Previous research obsessions have included his father’s Stanley genealogy.  This is a project he would like to resume.  Last time he checked his trail went cold somewhere in Kent, southeast of London, in the 1630s.  Through family history research, he discovered tantalizingly that he is a first cousin four times removed of W.K. Kellogg, the inventor of breakfast cereal; a direct descendant of one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut; distant kin to those Stanleys who make the little tools; and a cousin of an iconic Chicago photographer, Harry Callahan.

There are other interests that may warrant a post or two in the coming months.  Mark is very fond of food. He likes to eat it, of course, but is even more fascinated with the history and geography of ethnic cuisine.  He is willing to share his knowledge of food origins with readers capable of giving practical tips on how to prepare it.

He has no problem singing in public, especially after a few microbrews at the karaoke bar, but must be nearing catatonic drunkenness before he will dance.  He will not be blogging about dance but has, at 45, come into the possession of an acoustic guitar, and would like to learn how to use it to accompany his singing.

And now a little on mysterious phenomena.  Raised without religion, Mark has made a point of collecting and reading everything he can on religion – Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, animism, Mormonism, shamanism, atheism, scientism, New Age-ism, and all the other isms.  He delights in pointing out the similarities between seemingly divergent belief systems to the frustration of the true believer.  He is not an atheist.  On the contrary, he believes somewhere out there is Universal Truth.  To attempt a closer approach to that Truth he feels it is important to learn all he can about quantum mechanics, crop circles, parallel universes, ghosts, lost civilizations, anachronistic archaeological discoveries, the Holy Bible, and evolution – for starters.

When not basking in the air conditioning at his desk, Mark shares his free weekends with his two young daughters, India and Siena, and, alternately, his best friend, Tracy Matlack, who lives in North Georgia.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 1:03 am and is filed under Mark Stanley. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.