Reading Books Set in Alaska!

I love them! I remember reading Tisha when I was in high school, thinking I want to go there! When my aunt Carol moved to Alaska, I was nearly speechless. We’d been living together in my grandparents’ home (I was 13 or so) and because there is only 15 years difference between us, she was my hero, and she (I’m pretty sure) loved having a fan club. She got a job working at the Book Cache, and I was pretty sure I’d do anything to get there.

Heh. That was a long time ago.

Then for years I didn’t want to read anything set in Alaska, because I knew I’d be writing fiction and using the state as my setting. All the years I spent traveling Alaska were going to go into those books. So, out of fear of inadvertent plagiarism, I avoided reading books set in Alaska.

But with several novels published now, and a firm establishment of my own writing style, I decided to pick up a Dana Stabenow book off the paperback trader rack in the library: So Sure of Death. Oh, what I’ve been missing! I was lucky enough to have been guided to a novel set in the Nushagak area–a place I am desperately longing to visit. Her writing is so descriptive and that’s something I love. And having visited small villages along the Kuskokwim, I feel like I stepped right into the mud in front of the post office-grocery store-only fuel station around. I even wrote Dana a fan letter, gushing about how much I liked it. Now I need to track down more books in her Liam Campbell series.

Now I’m even more inspired. I want to revisit villages along the Kuskokwim River. In The Seiner Series novels Secret Bay and Midnight Bay, there’s quite a tie-in with Interior Alaska salmon issues. I helped write and edit those two books, and I love them for the broader scope of Alaskan salmon issues. And while they aren’t whodunit mysteries, I hope we brought a similar element of suspense through the books.