Opinion Column

Yoshida pens a charitable book

By mark garber

The Gresham Outlook, May 1, 2010

Proceeds from Linda Yoshida’s book ‘Flaherty’s Crossing’ will be donated to the fight against colon cancer. She wrote the book while sitting by her father’s bedside while he was dying of colon cancer.

Contributed artwork

East County seems to offer fertile ground for budding authors.

As reported on the front page today, Gresham Police Officer Barry Ozeroff has his third book off the press. He joins a lengthy list of local residents — including the likes of Gresham Planning Director Mike Abbate, “The Shack” author William P. Young and former Mayor Gussie McRobert — who’ve recently ventured into the world of publishing.

And now comes Troutdale resident Linda Yoshida, who not only has a book in hand, but a worthy cause to promote with her words. Writing under the pen name “Kaylin McFarren,” Yoshida has conjured a fictional story based on her own experiences as she watched her 63-year-old father die of colon cancer. The result is “Flaherty’s Crossing,” which is out in trade paperback from Champagne Books — a small press that typically publishes romance novels.

The genesis for the book came, Yoshida says, when colon cancer was taking her father’s life.

“I started writing originally when I sat at my dad’s bedside while he was dying,” she says.

Her intent was to record the story of his life and death, “but it evolved into a fictional account.” That account still includes elements of biography, but also mystery, romance, family relationships and just plain human emotion. But beyond plot twists, there’s another element to this book that makes it noteworthy — Yoshida is donating the proceeds from its sale toward research being done to cure the disease that claimed her father’s life.

The book, with an initial press run of 2,000 copies, is being sold online now and will be available at all Fred Meyer stores come June. The money raised will go to the cancer research institute at Portland’s Providence Medical Center. Researchers there — 60 in total — are investigating how the body’s immune system can be used to treat and prevent cancer. For more information, visit www.flahertyscrossing.com, a website that includes a link to the cancer research center.

Once the first 2,000 copies of her book are sold, Yoshida says, the publisher will proceed with a hardback version whose sales also will be dedicated to cancer research.

“I wrote it as a labor of love,” Yoshida says, “and to create attention for a cause.”

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