Irene Toh, editor of the Red Wolf Journal, has shared a number of my mountain poems over the years. She recently decided to pull together some contributors’ collections and I am honored to be among those she decided to publish. This is as close as I’ve come to having an actual book of my poetry, so I want to share it with you all.
https://redwolfjournal.files.wordpress.com/2023/04/twilight-fox-by-robert-walton-2.pdf
Filed under Accolades, Front Page, poetry
“These tales are told by a master storyteller. The vivid descriptions of the old west in central California held my interest. Long live Joaquin Murrieta!” — a recent recommendation from Goodreads reader Marilee. Head to Amazon if you’d like to know what she’s talking about! https://www.amazon.com/Joaquins-Gold-other-Tales-California/dp/B09RTX6G3G/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Filed under Accolades, Front Page, Western Tales
Poetry has always been a vast puzzle for me. Discovering how words and images best fit together sometimes takes me years — or decades — of attempts. Balconies Belay is one such poem. I began it thirty years ago, but it only coalesced in recent weeks. Irene Toh has included it in Red Wolf Journal and plans to include it in her Fall 2022 edition A Change of World. I’m both pleased and honored! https://redwolfjournal.wordpress.com
Scroll down a bit to find the poem.
Filed under Front Page, poetry
Hidden gold, bloody bandits, vengeful miners, mad ghosts, shipwrecks, rattlesnakes— all these and more are to be found in my stories about Joaquin Murrieta. The individual stories have all been published separately and several have won contest awards. They are now published together for the first time as both a Kindle e-book and a paperback.
Set in Central Californian locations — what is now Pinnacles National Park, the Santa Lucia Mountains, Jolon, Old Mission San Antonio de Padua and San Francisco, among others — the stories blend 19th Century historical characters and events into the action. I’ve intentionally aligned the book’s content with California Social Studies Standards. Its readability is above 90% on the Flesch scale and varies between a 2.3 and 2.9 in grade level, so most young people should be comfortable reading the stories on their own. I also created classroom activities for all of these stories — now in use as part of the reading fluency program at Chalone Peaks Middle School — that are available on TPT.
I’m proud to share this collection with you and hope it will open California history for you and yours.
Here’s the link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RTX6G3G/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Filed under Front Page, published story
Mike Russell, Bill Hunt and Bob Walton in the West Side parking lot, 1977
Friend, neighbor and civic leader Karen Jernigan invited me to speak at a meeting of Pinnacles Gateway Partners on March 14th. This group is devoted to sustaining, supporting and promoting Pinnacles National Park. My very pleasant task was to share some climbing stories and photos with members of the group, many of whom have no experience with rock climbing. Longtime leader of the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth founder David Brower initiated technical climbing at Pinnacles in 1934. Tens of thousands have enjoyed the Park’s crags since then. Aside from enjoying our sport, climbers have also shouldered the burdens of protecting and enhancing Pinnacles. We work with the good people of the NPS to support their mission. Climbing culture is strong at Pinnacles and that culture is one of stewardship. I shared that with the Gateway folks. Here’s a link to an article about my presentation: https://benitolink.com/features/pinnacles-gateway-partners-welcomes-veteran-rock-climber?fbclid=IwAR3a8ES_MGZmY78LN8b83Zb41rZF7lXYjYuTdh4UyID36Z2nWdjTDxxkYZk
Filed under Author Visits, Front Page
Author • Educator • Mountaineer 
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