Spend a little time around published authors and you’re certain to hear this common lament: Regardless of how you publish, it’s tough to get your book noticed. Once the launch window passes—generally within three months (or less) of the book’s release, reader and publisher interest wanes. Authors are a tenacious bunch, committed to seeing a […]
Deb: The Cost of Book Promotion Read More »
HATHAWAY SQUATTED LIKE death itself over the remains of the deer, dirty to the elbows with her innards. The smell rising from her open cavity burned like ammonia. Fluids stung his hands and forearms. His shot had entered behind the shoulder and low, spiraling through the doe’s organs like a drill bit and bursting her
Alaska Shorts: “Buckets” by C.B. Bernard Read More »
CHARLIE JOHNS KNEW it was going to be a strange year when he found a three-headed dandelion blooming in mid-October. Charlie sat drinking his coffee in front of the picture window at his home on Petroglyph Beach. His dog, Ossa, an old Australian shepherd, sat beside him. Charlie was Wooshkeetaan, Eagle, from the Shark House.
To-day I made the ascent of the highest mountain in this region, which is not improperly called Ventosum. My only motive was the wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer. I have had the expedition in mind for many years; for, as you know, I have lived in this region from
Alaska Shorts: “Ascent of Mont Ventoux” by Petrarch Read More »
CHAZ PULLED HIS mother’s Outback into the snowed-over parking lot and parked it under the Alaska Recreational Area sign, gaping through the windshield at the three bodies clad in snowmobile suits lying face down on the still-frozen surface of the lake. Another meth deal gone sideways? Maybe. The locals in the jacked-up school buses and
Alaska Shorts: “Special,” by Richard Chiappone Read More »
The drops of rain clung to the outside of the window pane through which I stared. There was no discernible order, but, once in a while, several of them would join forces to create enough mass to cause the new, larger drop to slide to the bottom of the window. There they gathered with others
Alaska Shorts: Through the Pane, by Allen Ray Newton Read More »
Bill Vaudrain I’m once again on the Seward Highway, headed south out of Anchorage. Another trip to Alaska, this is the latest of many that over the course of the past several years have helped keep my battery charged and life in focus. I pull into the Tesoro in Girdwood, stopping for gas, some coffee,
Alaska Shorts: Stopping at Girdwood, by Bill Vaudrain Read More »
K.M. Perry I tried to be a good girl so I wouldn’t need to sit on her lap anymore. Every morning I went to mass with my friends before attending the local parochial school with my favorite nun who wore blue jeans when she played kickball with us at recess. I wanted to be a
Alaska Shorts: “Secrets of My Mountain” by K.M. Perry Read More »
Stacey Mednick I walk down the vacant path shouting “no bears” in my head. I should be wearing a bell to ward them off. But I’m quiet, so quiet. Rain gear doesn’t rustle, boots not squelching in the mud. The bear would jump out and say “Gotcha” before the claws came down. Tracks through my
Alaska Shorts: No Bears, by Stacey Mednick Read More »
They’d been begging to take me up mountain for days, but I kept us in the classroom. I am their new white teacher, dedicated. Our schoolhouse is built upon stilts poised above the permafrost. The building’s red has begun to match the fiery colors in the changing tundra; it’s late August in Alaska’s northern most
Alaska Shorts: Up Mountain, by Samuel Chamberlain Read More »
