about
Muskeg Press was born in December 2009, but its owner Chris Armstrong (pictured) worked in the publishing business for many years previous to his company’s inception.
Born in Ottawa, Chris was raised on an acreage outside of the nation’s capital, where he developed a love of reading & writing. After graduating from high school, Chris attended Carleton University and attained a Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) degree. He wrote short news articles for Centretown News, The Charlatan, and the Ottawa Citizen, receiving no remuneration for his efforts. He quickly realized the wisdom of Samuel Johnson’s words: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”
So, he absconded Ontario for Alberta, the Canadian land of opportunity. Over the next few years, Chris would be employed as a reporter for a variety of weekly publications, and he also managed to play in a few baseball games.
After he saw snow in August, Chris had quite enough of Alberta and left for a job at a weekly newspaper in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. He fell in love with the place & its people and decided to settle in the small city on the North Coast. In between softball games, dog-walking, and hiking, Chris worked for a weekly newspaper, a television/radio station, and the public library. He also freelanced stories to the CBC & The Beaver, and edited Heads Up, a trade magazine. Finding journalism a bit restrictive, he also branched out and wrote a few plays and skits that were produced by Harbour Theatre, a local thespianistic troupe.
While plying his journalistic craft, Chris sought a way to hone his researching abilities and harness information more effectively. The place to learn both skills, he discovered, was in the profession of librarianship. As a life-long book-lover, he knew it was a good match, so attended McGill University for two years and attained a Master of Library & Information Studies.
During that time, Chris worked for academic libraries on campus, as well as the marketing co-ordinator for the North Coast Library Federation. After graduation, he was employed at an engineering firm in Vancouver, where his research led to the development of a series of patents in the chemical industry. While he enjoyed the job, he missed Prince Rupert; in 2009, he left the big city for the small city and settled back on the North Coast. A few months after he returned to Rupert, he founded Muskeg Press. Since then, the company has been involved in a variety of projects:
- published Muskeg News, a popular community newspaper/website, from July 2010 to October 2011;
- co-published No More Secrets, the cookbook of one of Northwest B.C.’s most popular restaurants, Cow Bay Café;
- wrote the corporate history of a social-services organization;
- served as the deputy electoral officer during an election;
- wrote a variety of grant proposals for various organizations;
- designed websites for local businesses.
Chris is always looking for new projects & ideas — email him today if you need help with any type of information.