0 - 2014 - 49 Writers, Inc.

Ways to Self-Publish: Deb's Interview with Tanyo Ravicz

July 29, 2014 / By 49 Writers

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 […]

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From our Archives: The Long and Winding Road to the Writing Life, by Bill Sherwonit

July 28, 2014 / By 49 Writers

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

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Linda: 49 Writers Weekly Roundup

July 25, 2014 / By 49 Writers

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

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Alaska Shorts: “Landscape of Anguish,” by Kaylene Johnson

July 24, 2014 / By 49 Writers

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

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John Straley: The Paperwork

July 23, 2014 / By 49 Writers

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

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Deb: Is Your Beginning Good Enough?

July 22, 2014 / By 49 Writers

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

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Alaska Shorts: "Tending to Our Own" and "Baptized" by Kristina Cranston

July 21, 2014 / By 49 Writers

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,

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Linda: 49 Writers Weekly Roundup

July 18, 2014 / By 49 Writers

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

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Alaska Shorts: "Digging Robert's Grave," by Don Rearden

July 17, 2014 / By 49 Writers

Don Rearden Through a mouth full of Copenhagen he gave some of his last words of wisdom to me: “No good when you die in the winter. Gonna leave too much work behind.” A couple hours into digging and I understood what he meant, and I wanted to shoot the guy came up with six

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John Straley: Staring Into the Fire

July 16, 2014 / By 49 Writers

Here is the second post from July guest author John Straley. As he told us in his first post, “I thought I would write about craft questions I have never taught or lectured on before…and I hope to respond to questions that may come in over the month and enter into a dialogue with any

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