Shelter Cove Publishing began in 1998 by me, Mim McConnell, when my husband, Mike, was looking for a publisher for his first non-fiction book, Hand Troller, and I was looking for a way to sell my photo notecards.
We started out with a laptop on a 30' sailboat and now I conduct the business from my home office in downtown Sitka.
The name comes from a favorite quiet cove on Kuiu Island in Southeast Alaska. The logo image was made from a photograph. The simplicity of design reflects serenity, my favorite state of being.
Let's Go Walking by Jim Drury, Photography by Mim McConnell (Paperback - August 2008)
"Poet James Drury and photographer Mim McConnell have conspired to offer us a singular glimpse of a spectacular landscape, Sitka, Alaska. In word and image, poet and photographer find the wonder, the whimsical, the beautiful, and more as they walk through this truly amazing southeast Alaska. Taking Jim's carefully crafted narrative poem, Mim's photos add expand the possibilities for each reader to come to a new appreciation for a landscape that is truly hard to capture. They have given their best effort however at doing exactly that: describing a world that is impossible to completely capture."
James H. Drury (1948–2015) was a beloved pastor, husband, papa, guitarist, and author. He is also the author of A Sharpness of Grief: Poems, Stories of a Journey to Healing and Sins of the Five Fathers. Mim McConnell is the owner of Shelter Cove Publishing and designed Let's Go Walking. Her powerful sense of composition and her ability to capture the essence of wilderness places adds an amazing depth and richness to the poet's words.
"Let's Go Walking is a celebration of the love of a poet and a photographer for one of the most astonishing and beautiful places on Earth. Here are images -- ravens, storms, returning light -- offered with a gratitude and gladness so deep that they might be prayers." --Kathleen Dean Moore, author of
The Pine Island Paradox: Making Connections in a Disconnected World (World As Home, The)"
Hand Troller by Mike McConnell (Paperback - Jan 2002)
Hand Troller is a look into a vanishing lifestyle that many dream of but few ever experience. Join Mike and his running partner Dick as they troll for King and Coho salmon in the icy waters of South East Alaska. Travel from Ketchikan to the small fishing village of Port Alexander on Baranof Island, where you will meet many interesting characters and experience day-to-day life on a small commercial salmon troller. Feel the thrill of hooking and landing King Salmon so big they shake the whole boat and the exhaustion of a fast and furious Coho bite at Cape Ommaney. Come aboard, grab a cup of coffee and let’s go fishin’!
"I recently read this book while cruising Southeastern Alaska on our pleasure boat. Being right in the middle of the area where the story unfolds gave me a chance to respond to the accuracy of the world he describes. The writing is excellent and the stories riviting. It is the life of a hand troller with all of the hard work, difficulty, joy and comedy on both land and sea. Mr. McConnell is a facinating person and writes with such intelligence and humor that you feel you have some idea of what drives a person to live this life of hardship and adventure in the beauty of Alaska. I appreciated particularly that this book is never overwritten or over dramatized. I'd love to read more of this man's work. If you love the sea you will greatly enjoy this book." Molly Crenshaw
by Mike McConnell (Paperback - Jan 2002)
Bear Tales and Deer Trails is a collection of hunting stories that take you into the heart of the Tongass National Forest. Come along with Mike and his hunting partners as they stalk bears and deer for food as part of their subsistence lifestyle. Each chapter begins a new adventure in the bays, muskegs and mountains of Southeast Alaska. The stories are full of interesting characters, vivid descriptions of the landscape and a look into a disappearing way of life. You will find information about guns, hunting techniques and lore about the animals themselves. The stories are true and drawn from the author’s personal experiences. This is the Tongass when wild was still part of wilderness!
Mike McConnell was raised in a small farming community in eastern Montana. He arrived in Southeast Alaska in 1969 where for the at least thirty years he lived a subsistence lifestyle hunting, trapping and fishing. He has also worked in the mining and logging industries and as a commercial fisherman. He now lives in Sitka with his wife Mim. His books are about people, places, and the adventures he has experienced.