Olson, Michael Keith

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Olson, Michael Keith

PERSONAL:

Son of Robert "Pat" Olson.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Santa Cruz, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Journalist, agriculturalist, freelance farm consultant. Worked variously as writer, photographer, and producer for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Examiner, NBC, ABC, the Australian Broadcast Commission, and KQED Public Television; Food Chain syndicated radio program, producer and host; MO MultiMedia Group, Santa Cruz, CA, president.

WRITINGS:

MetroFarm: The Guide to Growing for Big Profit on a Small Parcel of Land, TS Books (Santa Cruz, CA), 1994.

Tales from a Tin Can: The U.S.S. Dale from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, Zenith Press (St. Paul, MN), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Agriculturist and journalist Michael Keith Olson travels globally in his work as a consultant for farm projects. Over the course of his career, he has also served as a writer, producer, and photographer, his work appearing in such publications as the San Francisco Chronicle and the Examiner, and on network news programs for ABC, NBC, Australian television, and public television. Olson hosts and produces the syndicated radio program, "Food Chain," and is the president of MO MultiMedia Group in Santa Cruz, California. His first book, MetroFarm: The Guide to Growing for Big Profit on a Small Parcel of Land, stems from his interest in food production and farming, and is a guide to how to maintain a small farm within the confines of the city.

Olson's follow-up effort, Tales from a Tin Can: The U.S.S. Dale from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, is an homage to his father, Robert "Pat" Olson, who served on the U.S.S. Dale for three years following the attack on Pearl Harbor. In researching the project, Olson intertwined material gleaned from a series of oral histories produced by crew members with information from the ship's log and other data he considered likely to give readers an accurate historical perspective. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called Olson's effort "an impressive accomplishment, bringing vividly to life the actions of a single warship that fought across half the world." Booklist contributor Roland Green considered the book "a sound addition to World War II naval literature."

When asked what first got him interested in writing, Olson told CA: "The desire to entertain and inform, which I saw, at a very early age, as a way of earning one's way in the world."

Olson cited authors Ernest Hemingway and Robert A. Heinlein, NBC, and "all things ancient China," as influences on his work.

He described his writing process as "The War of the Worlds: three a.m. to seven a.m."

When asked which of his books is his favorite, he answered: "Each of them, because they each represent a slice of my life."

Olson said he hopes that readers of his books "will get their money's worth."