Kern House Publishing
Kern House Publishing has been formed as a family business to market books by the Kerns.
Jim Kern, founder of the Florida Trail, the American Hiking Society, Big City Mountaineers, Hiking Trails for America and Friends of the Florida Trail. Kern has published two coffee table books.
In Trail Reflections, 50 Years of Hiking and Backpacking, Jim takes you around the world on hiking adventures in search of remote scenic splendor.
He previously published The Wildlife Art & Adventures of Jim Kern Photographer. The book is a celebration of 50 years of Wildlife Photography. It includes vivid accounts of extraordinary events he encountered on expeditions in search of the rare and endangered wildlife.
Most recently, Jim published Broken Promise: The Plight of Our National Trails. The book is an appeal to Congress to schedule oversight hearings on our National Scenic Trails. In 1968 Congress granted eminent domain to the Appalachian Trail to complete this 2,190 mile footpath. Since then, it has failed to provide e.d. for the other ten. The A.T. is continuous and secure from end-to-end. The other ten are incomplete and struggling with gaps in their trails that total 25% of the ten trail corridors. It’s been 42 years since the last oversight hearing on trails issues, much too long. Congress needs to address this glaring disparity. These ten should either be completed or abandoned as a National Trail.
Jim is available for speaking engagements.
Matt Kern, Jim’s son also published two books.
FACE, A Teen’s Journey into Manhood Inside the Florida Prison System
From the beginning of the seventh to the end of the eighth grade, Matt went from being an A student to flunking out. While repeating the eighth grade, he was the MVP in three sports and was stealing cars on the weekends. One night in April 1988, he and two friends went out to steal a car. One of the friends shot and killed the driver. Trying to avoid a mandatory 25 years in prison, Matt accepted a plea of 60 years because he hoped he could reduce time served from 30 years to 12.
Unbeknownst to his parents, Matt thrived in prison. As the youngest man among 1,100 inmates at Florida’s DeSoto Correctional Institute, Matt used his wits and strength to survive. He became known as “Face” as he bargained his way through the system. He made and sold wine and loan sharked, among other things. With his profits he bank-rolled a gambling operation. But in his 6th year of incarceration he hit a man with a pipe in the middle of the night. He was sent to Close Management or “Solitary” for 13 months. For the first time he had felt guilty for something he had done. It was the beginning of a spiritual awakening.
In solitary Matt experienced a deeper and extended spiritual renewal. While considering the difficulty of relating the Gospel story to other inmates by flipping back and forth between the four Gospel accounts, he thought, Why not tell the story once by selecting the most appropriate verses from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? Matt immersed himself in the task. Two months later his father received in the mail several pages of book, chapter and verse in sequence. With the help of a computer program that printed out each verse on command, The Consolidated Gospels was created.
Eventually granted clemency and released, Matt describes his experiences in Saving Face, with his family members, and persons who knew or befriended him while he was in prison. Matt also chronicles his return to society and a normal life. This compelling story reveals the details of how choices can ruin a life, what life is really like in prison, and how God still works in miraculous ways.