Tanyo Ravicz While in Kodiak, I also buy a box of cracker slugs. These are shotgun shells that when fired will explode downrange and frighten an animal without hurting him. The brown bears at the north end of the island have reportedly been aggressive all summer. Two bears have been shot and killed. At Wildwood […]
Alaska Shorts: Wildwood, by Tanyo Ravicz Read More »
The final post in this month’s series from guest author John Straley. I would like to make something clear from the last post. It takes me four times as long to revise something as it does to write the draft. That’s how I figure out how long to spend working during the revising stage. The
John Straley: Why Should We Celebrate? Read More »
Traditional publishing? Author services? “Vanity presses”? Self-publishing? The options can be overwhelming. When author and former (and sometimes) Alaskan Tanyo Ravicz of the independent author cooperative Running Fox Books wrote to tell me he’d left an author services arrangement to release fully independent editions of his books Alaskans and A Man of His Village, I asked if he’d be willing to share
Ways to Self-Publish: Deb's Interview with Tanyo Ravicz Read More »
Bill Sherwonit When talking about the writing life, I like to tell a story from my geology days, about a boss who absolutely loved the work we did. As I recount in Changing Paths: Travels and Meditations in Alaska’s Arctic Wilderness (2009, University of Alaska Press), “Inwardly I cringed when a crew leader named Joe talked about
From our Archives: The Long and Winding Road to the Writing Life, by Bill Sherwonit Read More »
Alaska Book Week 2014 (Oct. 4-11) is ramping up! The organizing committee (Alaska Center for the Book, 49 Writers, Alaska State Library, Anchorage Public Library) has been working hard behind the scenes and you can now sign up to participate at the Alaska Book Week website at www.AlaskaBookWeek.com. Questions? Contact ABW coordinator Jathan Day at akbookweek
Linda: 49 Writers Weekly Roundup Read More »
Kaylene Johnson It’s the little mistakes that kill you. Shivering, with frozen fingertips, Dick could not thread the zipper of his sleeping bag back onto its track. Stunned, he wondered for a moment if this was it. If this would be the one small detail that tipped the balance. He quickly wrapped himself the best
Alaska Shorts: “Landscape of Anguish,” by Kaylene Johnson Read More »
Here is the third post from July guest author John Straley. I once heard Robert Hass, before he was the Poet Laureate of the United States, say “Being a writer would be great, if it wasn’t for all the damn paperwork.” So we have inevitably come to writing the cursed book. In the earlier blog entries
John Straley: The Paperwork Read More »
I don’t normally enter writing contests (not that I’m opposed to them), but three years ago, I submitted the first three pages of what was then my WIP (work in progress) to the Guide to Literary Agents literary fiction contest. To my surprise, I won – or rather, my beginning did. Even so, I ended
Deb: Is Your Beginning Good Enough? Read More »
Tending to Our Own In death, we turn over our loved ones, ourselves, to strangers; our lifeless corpses vulnerable to the preparation and attention of professionals in sterile, chemical environments. In death, we’ve grown accustomed to the removal of useless organs and the drainage of once vital blood, replacing with embalming fluid preservatives, fighting decay,
Alaska Shorts: "Tending to Our Own" and "Baptized" by Kristina Cranston Read More »
Deb Vanasse and Melinda Moustakis It was a rare treat to get to talk to both 49 Writers co-founders in the same day! On Monday, Deb Vanasse attended the reading by Melinda Moustakis at the UAA Campus Bookstore. Deb’s latest novel, Cold Spell (University of Alaska Press), makes an excellent summer reading choice. Melinda’s award-winning collection of
Linda: 49 Writers Weekly Roundup Read More »
