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- Accessories are Everything in the Wild
- Alaska by Heart
- Alaskans Die Young
- Battling Against Success
- The Birthday Party
- Bucket
- Caught in the Sluice
- Colors of the Morning Sky
- Cut Bait
- The Devil's Share
- The Great Alaska Zingwater Caper
- Happy Hour
- Humpy Cove
- Keep the Round Side Down
- The Long Dark
- Lost Frontier
- Nature Runs Wild
- Raven's Prey
- The Red Mitten
- Santa Christina and Her Sled Dogs
- Wake Up Call of the Wild
- Yukon Murders
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Ordering
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Titles
Accessories are Everything in the Wild
Alaskans Die Young
Alaska by Heart
Battling Against Success
The Birthday Party
Bucket
Caught in the Sluice
Colors of the Morning Sky *NEW!
Cut Bait
The Devil's Share
The Great Alaska Zingwater Caper
Happy Hour
Humpy Cove
Keep the Round Side Down
The Long Dark
Lost Frontier
Nature Runs Wild
Raven's Prey
The Red Mitten
Santa Christina and Her Sled Dogs
Wake Up Call of the Wild
Yukon Murders
Accessories are Everything in the Wild
By Nita Nettleton
Adult
$13.50, paper
ISBN 0-9706712-8-8
This sequel to The Wake-Up Call of the Wild has our heroine on an overland trek: A walk in the woods, Jane thinks, a simple hike up and back on the Chilkoot Trail with her niece Caly--that will make a great summer respite from the day-to-day challenges of keeping house (or rather, keeping cabin) in the Talkeetna Mountains...but of course nothing ever goes quite as planned in the life of Jane Doe, a.k.a. B. Wood, ace author of children's books, a life that is still opening like a flower-maybe a jaunty spring Southeastern skunk cabbage. Once again Jane proceeds under peculiar pressures, this time with a real dead guy (on ice) included. At least she has enough chocolate along for emergencies...
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Alaskans Die Young
By Susan Hudson Johnson
Adult
$14.95, paper
ISBN 0-9706712-37
It seemed a fine project for a woman with an incurable itch to write: research the background of a couple of victims of accidents and one suicide, create a fictional set of connections among them, generate a homicidal villain, and thus produce a book. And so Heather Adams set out to write her mystery novel, but somehow the world wouldn't cooperate. There was her irrepressible grandson Andrew, always capable of providing distraction. There was her dutiful son Rowe, always ready to help even if she wanted none; there were her own cantankerous parents, demanding help from her even though they lived a continent's width away. There were visiting college chums; there was the fifty-below weather of a Fairbanks winter. Everything seemed to conspire against Heather's completing her book project-including the circle of writing friends who had inspired her to tackle it in the first place. Slowly, Heather began to fear that her fiction was becoming far too real for comfort-or for safety. If an actual murderer did lurk out there, the would-be author was right on track for becoming the next victim.
Neither noir nor gory, this book is one of McRoy & Blackburn's "cold cozy" novels, a kind of comfort food for the mystery reader's mind. Long-time Alaskan and retired teacher Susan Hudson Johnson brings a thorough knowledge of the north and a deep understanding of the mysteries of the human heart to life in the pages of Alaskans Die Young.
What reviewers have to say about Alaskans Die Young:
"The publisher describes Alaskans Die Young as one of a series of 'cold cozy' novels, neither noir nor gory. The book delivers on that promise, managing to convey both a sense of dread and a touching respect for the dead without lurid scenes. It is perfect for a relaxing read in an easy chair with a mug of steaming coffee on the side."
--Shana Loshbaugh, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
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Alaska by Heart: Recipes for Independence
By Sarah Pagan (written by Patricia Monaghan)
Adult
$15.95, adult, paper (192 pages, 6 x 9)
ISBN 978-0-9820319-5-7
What happens when an Extremeovore cooking show hostess raised on a marijuana farm in Alaska decides to run for president on the American Independence Party ticket? She writes her campaign biography, sharing her famous recipes for such northern delicacies as Hare on Buns and Moose Haggis and telling her own inspiring life story of independence and God-guided success, from her childhood trapline through her invention of the prizewinning "Tokless Brownies" to her media triumph on her Cooking North TV show. She'll let readers in on the story behind her children's gospel band, the Trapper Family Singers, with their string of hits including "Locked and Loaded for the Lord." Finally she'll explain just how different a Pagen presidency will be from anything ever seen before. Her story is inspiring, thrilling, and more than a little frightening . . .
Overcome by the smog of political babble permeating contemporary culture, Patricia Monaghan, Ph.D., found herself possessed by the amazing Ms. Pagen. Thus we now have the hilarious account, in her own words, of the life to date of one of the most remarkable political figures ever to emerge from the Alaska wilderness. Sarah Pagen is just what America has been waiting for. Maybe. In some circles, anyhow.
And if your funnybone has been blunted by too much politics, you can always enjoy the saga of the suffering editor revealed in the footnotes accompanying the text. Alaska by Heart is a comic romp on several levels, poking wry fun at some recent Alaska history. Just remember: it's not real. Yet.
For more about author Monaghan, please see her web site, www.patricia-monaghan.com. For more about Sarah Pagen's candidacy, see pagenforpresident.wordpress.com
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Battling Against Success
By Neil Davis
Adult
$16.95, paper (vii + 230 pp)
ISBN 0-9632596-6-0
$26.95, cloth
ISBN 0-9632596-7-9
Alaska at midcentury offered great opportunities to the restless and ambitious people who had survived the Great Depression and World War II. Some of those who came North succeeded; some came and left; some came and managed to beat down every opportunity that raised its ugly head. That's pretty much the story of the narrator of this autobiographical novel and his family, who wrestled with the trees, the mud, the machinery, the bugs, and most of all themselves while trying to make a living on the northern frontier. Some of the characters whose lives touched on this story are the real people who acted to join Alaska to the Union and to the 20th century-or fought bravely against both. Davis draws the reader into the often funny, sometimes sad, and always rich experiences that bring his young protagonist from childhood into adulthood.
What reviewers have to say about Battling Against Success:
"In this often humorous, but mostly matter-of-fact autobiographical novel, Neil Davis tells the compelling story of growing up on a homestead near Fairbanks in the 1940s... Davis does an outstanding job of bringing all the characters to life... Davis also successfully draws upon a lifetime of experience. His descriptions of the changing seasons and landscape are as accurate as they are interesting. ...Neil Davis has found success with this book."
--Melissa DeVaughn, Alaska magazine
"[H]is sense of humor and detail are engaging....By the end of Battling Against Success, I was won over by this mature young narrator."
--Ellen Moore, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
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The Birthday Party
By Ann Chandonnet
Illustrated by Kathy Fiedler
Ages 4-8
$11.95, paper
ISBN 0-9632596-3-6
After the birthday party on Mrs. Atkins' lawn, a little girl in a purple kuspuk recounts her adventures there to her mother, who sinks slowly down into her chair as the delights unfold in rhyme. Truly everything was fine (depending on your point of view) until that elephant arrived. This illustrated romp through the perils of peppermint pie, leaky garden hoses, compost heaps and large numbers of young birthday guests stimulates the imagination and tweaks the funnybone. Chandonnet, poet and author of historical fiction and cookbooks, has teamed up with watercolorist Fiedler to get right into the exuberant spirit of rollicking good time.
Illustrations for The Birthday Party are well integrated with the text, which tells the story of a little girl who comes home from a birthday party with a torn dress, scraped knees, and stories for her mother.
What reviewers have to say about The Birthday Party:
"Chandonnet's use of rhyme and meter keeps the story moving along.toward the punch line..."
--Nancy Brown, Peninsula Clarion
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Bucket
By Eric Forrer
Illustrated by Eloise Forrer
All Ages
$15.00, paper
ISBN 0-9632596-0-1
Bucket the cat was a reincarnated pirate. He lived with Ellie Kulikan, who owned a boarding house at the end of a dock in a fishing village where old men with floppy hats told tales of such inventiveness that they became the truth and were passed down to the local children as the history of the town. One day the cool, dreamlike sea turns dangerous, and an adventure falls into the life of Bucket and Ellie and their woodchopper friend Olaf. Lost, the three find shelter in a magical place where Bucket had been once before, two hundred and forty-seven years ago, but he can't quite remember its name. Beautifully illustrated by his artist/teacher mother, Forrer's poetic tale of gentle mystery and wry humor reflects his own diverse career on the water, in boat-building, commercial fishing, writing, and ocean freight.
What reviewers have to say about Bucket:
"This is a tale parents won't mind reading again and again...Eric Forrer's writing is as rich as an old-time fairy tale, even when he's describing fishermen who play cards and drink too much home brew. Phrases like 'turning the waves into tumultuous walls of light' and 'she threw insults at them like rocks' are just marvelous. Eloise Forrer's unique, whimsical illustrations were done with colored carbon paper and an iron. The effect is something like woodblock printing, textured and lovely. Refreshingly, the book has no moral or lesson, except that sometimes you should let a story just take you away."
--Donna Freedman, Alaska magazine
"Although Bucket seems to be a picture book, it is really a sophisticated romance. The heavy satiny pages are pleasing, but it is the illustrations made with colored carbon paper and a household iron which keeps one studying each page. The bright, simple shapes are amazingly realistic, especially when texture is created with rubbings of leaves. This book has a strong Alaska flavor...it could take place almost anywhere along the Alaskan coast, wherever halibut is fished. This is a very special book that should be seen and read."
--Sandra Strandtmann, Newspoke Alaska Library Network News
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Caught in the Sluice
By Neil Davis
Illustrated by Alice Cook
Adult
$13.95, paper
ISBN 0-9632596-1-X
$19.95, cloth
ISBN 0-9632596-2-8
Moose John strides daydreaming through the first pages in this collection of mining tales, followed by Wilfred Winchester Wilkensfield III, who discovers an unexpected prehistoric hazard while mining for gold in permafrost. The Olgilvie Gold Fibulator creates bonanzas for miners and Shakespearean actors alike, Double-Dose Dobson demonstrates that he can teach his sons a thing or two even from the grave, and an implacable little lady has a showdown with a gigantic dredge. Davis, a miner and geophysicist, takes his lifetime of experience in mining and the North and spins a few lively yarns around the workings of the sluicebox and the human heart.
What reviewers have to say about Caught in the Sluice:
"Caught in the Sluice [is] a collection of entertaining stories about Alaska characters... usually their hearts are in the right place--except when blackened by greed and treachery...The author's style reflects his sense of how these tales would be told by literate miners. He does not overdo the folksy touch, nor strain for vintage slang, yet still manages to convey a sense of a particular time, place and occupation."
--Bill Hunt, Alaska magazine
"Most of the stories have the feel of a tall tale, but not all of them. Davis includes many authentic details about the old mining methods--sluice operations, milling quartz, the operation of the big dredges and the use of hydraulic giants."
--Debbie Carter, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
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Colors of the Morning Sky
By Eric Forrer, illustrated by Lue K. Isaac.
New!
Adult
$25.00, paper
This fictional biography of a seaman and fisherman of Southeast Alaska, whose life was upended by one extraordinary haul from the cold ocean, features Forrer's deep knowledge of Southeast's waters and illustrator Isaac's appreciation of the light on moving water, and the colors of the morning sky.
What reviewers have to say about Colors of the Morning Sky:
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Cut Bait
By C.M. Winterhouse
Adult
$16.95, paper
ISBN 0-9706712-0-2
Death, gossip, and shifty luck plague the quiet weekend Leona Skavitch expected to share with her husband on their little boat in Alaska's Prince William Sound. Leona can't stay away from any of it, butting her way into what even she has to admit are other people's affairs, and in the process infuriating her husband, the police, and nearly everybody else in a small town suddenly both snowbound and bloodstained. Before long, she's found herself following a tangled line of clues into very deep trouble indeed...
What reviewers have to say about Cut Bait:
"'Once, long ago, my mother said to me, Leona, someday you're going to dig your own grave with that mouth of yours, you mark my words.' Who can resist such a narrator? C.M. Winterhouse, the newest writer on the Alaska mystery scene, has created a meandering and irresistible sometime sleuth in her debut novel, Cut Bait.'"
"Despite her prosaic sense of duty, Leona is given to flights of memory and musing, and it is really her narration that distinguishes 'Cut Bait' from other mystery novels."
"Her quirky sense of humor and generally indiscriminate attempts to stage-manage the people around her keep the reader laughing. Unlike some Alaska mysteries in which the only local color is the landscape, 'Cut Bait' is filled with characters and situations that seem convincingly Alaskan."
--Sandra Boatwright, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
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The Devil's Share
By Kris Farmen
Adult
$16.95, paper
ISBN 978-0-9820319-3-3
Can we ever own land--or does the land instead possess us? That question underpins this elegantly written account of a young man's action-filled year in the Wrangell-St. Elias wilderness, where mountains rise to pierce the sky. There he faces the dangers hidden behind both the smiles of humans and the beauties of the vast country where Canada and Alaska meet.
In the spring of his eighteenth year, Jack enters those mountains to work at a lakeside wilderness lodge near his birthplace--a homestead from which his family had been evicted by federal action when he was a toddler. What starts out as a simple summer job assisting a family friend with his guiding business becomes a complex struggle for survival among the snares set by bears and glaciers, smugglers and park rangers, bitter weather and one beautiful, troubled young woman. Jack's adventure makes for a unique coming of age story; a genuine mountain man cannot fit comfortably in the early years of the twenty-first century, and he becomes truly a man out of time.
Alaska author Farmen, who has lived and worked in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, knows both the mountain landscape and the corners of the human heart; here his knowledge fills the pages with gripping prose.
What reviewers have to say about The Devil's Share:
"The Devil's Share...crosses multiple literary genres--it's a Western, with cowboys; it's pulp, with drugs and murder; it's a love story; it's Alaskans, set in the Wrangell--St. Elias wilderness....a quick read, but Farmen (who also writes for this newspaper) crams in the elements of adventure, danger, romanticism and coming of age without the book's feeling cluttered. Jack's initial ideology is regularly challenged and adjusted as the book progresses, and when the book ends, that journey lingers with the reader. "
--Brendan Joel Kelley, The Anchorage Press
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The Great Alaska Zingwater Caper
A fable involving boreal politics and geology
By Neil Davis
Adult
$14.95, paper
ISBN 0-9706712-2-9
Meeting by accident in Mexico, a lawyer, an accountant, and a government researcher hatch a plot to scam money from the Alaska public trough. A peculiarity in the organization of Alaska's state government and the current political climate provide them with the opportunity--they think. As they move along, the plotters involve the feminine crew of a fishing charter boat in their plan, and the ladies end up playing a larger role than anyone anticipated. Will the members of this group pull it off, get rich, and live happily ever after?
What reviewers have to say about The Great Alaska Zingwater Caper:
"In his latest novel, well-known author T. Neil Davis draws on his experience as a scientist, long-time Alaskan and keen observer of the workings of Alaska state government to present a delightful fictional account of industrial development in Alaska. This is a novel that works at several levels... The author's science is sound, his facts are solid and the plot is good. This is an enjoyable and important book that will be a frequent topic of conversations among Alaskans this winter. Don't be left out of the conversation, read the book!"
--Dan Hawkins, The Ester Republic
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Happy Hour
A Novel of 1970s Alaska
By Don G. Porter
Adult
$14.95, paper (vii + 230 pp)
ISBN 0-9706712-2-9
Alaska bush pilot Alex Price was content with his day job flying between the villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, until an urgent call from his best friend, the elegant novice bar owner Renaldo, brought him into the city of Anchorage, and into danger.
In the early 1970s, Alaska hovered on the edge of the Age of Big Oil. The state and its citizens were still collectively broke, but the smell of money was in the air--and like the smell of blood, it drew predators from far away. Renaldo had no patience with bagmen set to carry off his bar's profits, and sent them packing (and bleeding) instead; now his life was threatened, and he expected Alex to save the day, or at least find answers to a few important questions: Who were these guys offering "insurance"--or else--to the city's drinking establishments? Was Fairbanks the home base for their troubles, or was it maybe Moscow? And what could the good guys do about it? Then as now, Alaskans will try anything--as long as they don't have to sober up completely first. The embattled Anchorage barkeepers can't agree on much, but they pull together long enough to draft Alex as their own personal combination of Wyatt Earp and Sherlock Holmes. So now all he has to do is prevent Russia, or at least an outlaw offshoot of it, from reclaiming Alaska, or at least its drinking emporiums' earnings--and keep himself, Renaldo, and his colleagues alive and healthy in the process.
It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it, or die trying...
Much of the enjoyment in this tale of merry mayhem and murder (with cocktails) stems from its underlying authenticity: author Don G. Porter knows his Alaska, from the bar scene of forty years' back to the ins and outs of piloting small planes over empty northern territory. Check out his biography and list of other books on his web site, www.dongporter.com.
What reviewers have to say about Happy Hour:
"Merry Mayhem Abundant in Raucous Adventure...'Happy Hour' is a good-time entertainment set in urban Alaska...a new twist on an old-fashioned shoot-'em-up action tale, set in the recent Wild West of Anchorage and Fairbanks in the 1970s...The author shows his local knowledge by weaving in realistic references to landmarks (natural and unnatural)...'Happy Hour' is great, guilty fun."
--Shana Loshbaugh, Fairbanks Daily News Miner
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Humpy Cove
A new Alex Price Alaska adventure!
By Don G. Porter
Adult
$14.95, paper
ISBN 978-0-9820319-1-9
Like his character Alex Price, author Don Porter has held both commercial pilot and private investigator's licenses and has flown for years in rural Alaska. The author's deep knowledge of the territory, the people, and the life of a bush pilot shines through in the many vivid details that color this tale of cold-blooded murder in the cold North. This is the third Alex Price novel Porter has published with Mcroy & Blackburn.
What reviewers have to say about Humpy Cove:
"'If you fall in, toss me the lunch before you hit the water.' So says Alex Price as the Alphonse and Gaston routine ('After you, my dear Alphonse--No! No! You first, Gaston!') is played by Alex and his former college roommate, Renaldo, in Don G. Porter's latest Alaska action adventure, Humpy Cove. The repartee between the two is fun, fast, and furious throughout the book, as is the action. The tale begins with the two hammering through the short seas of Resurrection Bay in Renaldo's boat on a dark and stromy day. Renaldo is headed for the site of his future hotel, Humpy Cove.... Alex and Renaldo fight and figure their way through following seas and following killers to solve the mystery of Humpy Cove."
--Bill Marsik, author of Gemini
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Keep the Round Side Down
By Tim Jones
Illustrated by Susan Ogle
Adult
$14.95, paper
ISBN 0-9632596-4-4
$23.95, cloth
ISBN 0-9632596-5-2
A grizzled old fisherman raises a boy of mysterious origins on the shores of the spectacular, resource-rich but unforgiving Prince William Sound. Sven dubs the boy Orca, after the whales who bring the baby boy to shore, and gives him as good an upbringing as he can, teaching him the ways of the sea. Orca grows up learning to set nets and read from a first aid manual; he spends his hours listening to the tall tales of garrulous sailors and the sound of rain on water, until the crucial summer when Miss Priscilla M. Braithewaite of the Alaska Department of Social Services, Division of Child Welfare, comes to pay a call and perhaps change his life forever. Jones' novel is illustrated with numerous wash drawings by noted Alaska artist Susan Ogle.
What reviewers have to say about Keep the Round Side Down:
"Tim Jones grounds this sea-based adventure with a touch of realism... His novel for young adults borders on the magical..."
--Debbie Carter, Fairbanks Daily News Miner
"...This is great reading..."
--Nancy Brown, Peninsula Clarion
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The Long Dark
By Slim Randles
Adult
$12.00, paper
ISBN 0-9706712-1-0
Imagine a place where people know each other by the color of their parkas, where dogs are citizens, and where a handshake is as good as currency. Imagine a time when the wild went on forever, and the only link to the outside was a brave pilot with a shy smile. Imagine a world blanketed in snow and warmed by people....
Delightfully, that time is now, and that place is Alaska--but not just anywhere in Alaska. Here, the little towns are the last great secret of the Last Frontier; true Alaska living is found in small villages full of scruffy cabins and original characters. Author Slim Randles knew and loved one such town, presented here as the fictional Kahiltna. In this classic of Alaska fiction, the array of mushers and pilots, cheechakos and sourdoughs who call Kahiltna home are exuberantly true to life, as are their adventures, from the hilarious to the horrible. In the season of the long dark, it is the small town that lets Alaskans fend off the isolation and chill of winter near the top of the world.
What reviewers have to say about The Long Dark:
"The Long Dark sits squarely in the classic Alaska tradition of sourdough literature, and reading it is a pleasant way to pass a winter night."
--Sandra Boatwright, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
"Slim Randles can set one heck of a scene... He just sinks you in there, and hopes you'll be willing to swim. The receptive reader is very willing to follow his lead... A quiet undercurrent of humor keeps the reader contentedly turning pages, looking forward to the next clever plot development. He has a good hand with a yarn."
--Ann Chandonnet, Juneau Empire
"...every person bitten with the 'Alaska' bug can send The Long Dark to family members in the lower 48 who cannot understand why people stay here... Suitable for all ages, it is a small book by an excellent story teller, well worth your time and money."
--Jeanette Gaul, The Aleutian Eagle
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Lost Frontier
By John Foley
Adult
$16, paper
ISBN 978-0-9820319-6-4
When young Baird thought about the upcoming summer, he saw a near-perfect season. His dream job, as a guide for climbers on Mt. Rainier, looked like a nearly sure thing. But he didn't get the job, and worse, another guide got his girl. The consolation was a solo trek in the Alaska wilderness. The trip started out well--until he met a gang of juvenile delinquents led by a violent killer. Now all that stands between Baird and certain death are his skills and his wits.
Author John Foley researched Lost Frontier at Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, which accounts for the accurate depiction of the arctic wilderness. A former newspaper reporter in Alaska and Chicago, Foley is now a high-school English teacher in Arizona. He has written other short stories and novels, including Hoops of Steel, which was named a Book for the Teen Age in 2008.
What reviewers have to say about Lost Frontier:
"Foley writes with a flow and clarity that carry the reader along, effortless and entertaining."
--Shana Loshbaugh, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
"What a page turner! As an ex-Outward Bound instructor, I can see that Foley knows his stuff. This tale is as wild as Alaska itself and as exciting as a whitewater trip down the Colorado River. Lost Frontier grabs you by the throat on the first page and doesn't let you go."
--Bobbie Pylor, author of A Dog's Way Home and The Dogs of Winter
"Lost Frontier takes you deep into the adventure of Alaska, a place that can bring out the best--and the worst--in anyone. A great read for kids from 16 to 96."
--Mike Doogan, author of Skeleton Lake, Fashion Means Your Fur Hat is Dead, Our Alaska, and other Alaska books
Check out award-winning author John A. Foley's web site, johnfoley.eileenefoley.com
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Nature Runs Wild
By Nita Nettleton
Adult
$13.95, paper
ISBN 978-0-9820319-0-2
Time has rolled through Alaska's Talkeetna Mountains since Jane Doe recovered her memory, her career as a children's book author, a supply of chocolate, and her family. She's done just fine since then, finding a new life and even sharing an adventurous hike over the Chilkoot Trail with her niece Caly. All's well--except she thinks she's nuttier than one of her own excellent chocolate-chip cookies. She hears music, dances with dust bunnies, and is bedeviled by an alter ego in her dreams, the unflappable and ultracompetent Ms. Berry Pie. Sanity may be overrated, but Jane thinks it would be nice to have some to spare. Just a little, maybe. What to do?
Get out of the house and get some distraction, that's the vote of her wise (if also faintly loony) neighbor. So she takes a job for the summer, a nice straightforward job as a cook at a wilderness lodge--except, like everything else Jane tackles, it doesn't stay straightforward for long. Jane's entertaining adventures offer valuable lessons--such as never, ever, try to bum a cigarette from a grizzly bear.
Like her character, author Nita Nettleton finds her adventures keep coming. Now enjoying life in Utah, Nita misses Alaska but stays in touch.
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Raven's Prey
By Slim Randles
Adult
$16.95, paper
ISBN 0-9632596-8-7
$24.95, cloth
ISBN 0-9632596-9-5
Cloth Edition Sold Out!
The wilderness of Alaska can be judge, jury, and executioner to anyone foolish enough to try to cross it alone, but the wild places know nothing of human ideas of justice or sanity. While the police are satisfied that the murderer of four men at a remote camp in the Talkeetna Mountains will not long survive, Jeep George, hunting guide and best friend to one of the victims, knows that the dangerous country into which the killer has fled can be friend to those who understand it and respect its rules, even if they flout those of human society. Jeep decides to track his deranged prey, relying on the skills gained from the two cultures of his grandfathers. The trail leads halfway across the state while Jeep learns that hunting a man means being hunted himself. Long-time journalist, guide, and outdoorsman Randles uses his years of experience in Alaska to bring this exciting but thoughtful story to life.
What reviewers have to say about Raven's Prey:
"Readers will enjoy the mystery, a wonderful cast of characters, and the Alaskan trivia they will absorb along the way. Randles' descriptive skills do credit to his deep knowledge of Alaska, the people, and the way of life, as he takes you along on the hunt of a lifetime in the far north."
--Gail Skinner, On the Scene magazine
"Raven's Prey is a compelling read, a novel that satisfies many tastes without pandering to any of them."
--David Steinberg, Albuquerque Journal
"A good story that's well written and keeps the reader in suspense, it is also more enjoyable for us because of its accurate portrayal of Alaska's wild country and wild characters--some of whom are us. Slim gets four snowshoes for this one."
--Chuck Besser, The Ester Republic
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The Red Mitten
By Sarah Birdsall
Adult
$15.50, paper (vi + 202 pp.)
ISBN 0-9706712-7-x
$25.95, cloth
ISBN 0-9706712-6-1
Memories have a way of coming back, drowning the present with the ghosts of the past. Out of Alaska's little-known lake country comes this darkly elegant tale that is part romance, part mystery, even part ghost story: the red mitten leaves its unique mark on many people. Chief among them is Katie Gibson, a dream-haunted young woman scarred within and without by the events that led to her self-exile from her childhood home in western Alaska. Returning now as an adult to the harshly beautiful shores of Lake Ilmenof, she must confront the memories-and the reality-of the two brothers who were her friends and lovers, the father who seemed to turn away from her and her mother just when he was most needed, the friends who peopled her life at the lake, and the tragedy that brought that life to a halt. It is only by uncovering the truths underlying that tragedy that Katie can once again begin to live fully, and to move toward love.
What reviewers have to say about The Red Mitten:
"Birdsall's novel is a mystery on many levels, an unsettling love story that hooks into America's wounding complexity, its meeting of Indian with non-Indian, modern life with remnants of traditional village life. Beautifully done in terms of 'spirit of place' and characters of that place-a haunting loon call of a novel that one still hears long after the reading of it."
--Susan Deer Cloud, award-winning author of In the Moon When the Deer Lose Their Horns
The Red Mitten has been awarded a bronze medal in the 2007 Independent Publishers annual competition (IPPY).
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Santa Christina and Her Sled Dogs
By George William Kelly, artwork by Amy Cameron
Children
$14.95, cloth
ISBN 978-0-9820319-4-0
"Santa Christina is the wife of Santa Claus," begins this cheerful tale of some doings at the North Pole, in Alaska and the Arctic, and even in New York City. Everyone knows that Mrs. Claus is a kindly helpmate without whom Christmas just wouldn't be the same, but few knew until now that she is also a splendid athlete, a star at Alaska's official state sport-- dog mushing. How this came about and some of the wonderful things that resulted make up the story in Santa Christina and Her Sled Dogs. Amy Cameron's lively illustrations bring George Kelly's charming story to vibrant life, full of happy dogs, playful reindeer, and enough presents to please girls and boys the world over.
What reviewers have to say about Santa Christina:
"...a top pick for first and second grade readers."
--The Midwest Book Review
"Nice story, great pictures and a fun book to read."
--Lance Mackey, Iditarod and Yukon Quest race champion.
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The Wake-Up Call of the Wild
By Nita Nettleton
Adult
$12.50, paper (viii + 136 pp.)
ISBN 0-9706712-4-5
When our heroine wakes up in a remote Alaska cabin, alone but for a young wolverine, bruised and bloodied and without memory of who she is and how she got there, what does she do?
She makes pancakes.
Before long, the woman who christens herself Jane Doe decides that life in the Alaska wilderness suits her just fine, at least in summer. She has entertainingly eccentric visitors (though she isn't entirely sure they're all real), plenty of water, adequate food, many pleasant chores to fill her days--in fact, she seems to lack only two things in an otherwise reasonably comfortable existence: chocolate and a memory.
In this refreshingly different take on tales of life in the wilderness, the fun comes from watching Jane's struggles to overcome both lacks. In the process, she discovers who she really is-and it's not the woman she used to be. The Wake-Up Call of the Wild is a lightly wry look at the ordinarily heavy topics of identity and survival. It could happen only in Alaska.
What reviewers have to say about The Wake-Up Call of the Wild:
"Amnesia is a cliched plot device. Wolverines are not. Mix in a remote Alaska cabin and odd neighbors and you have the quirky fundamentals of Nita Nettleton's debut novel, "The Wake-Up Call of the Wild." It is a bit mystery, a bit self-discovery, and a lot of gutsy, womanly wit...It has great momentum, with its fluid prose and unexpected developments..."The Wake-Up Call of the Wild" is a lark, a gentle and witty tale...it is well written and a charming entertainment."
--Shana Loshbaugh, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
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Yukon Murders
By Don G. Porter
Adult
$14.95, paper
ISBN-13 978-0-9706712-9-5
ISBN-10 0-9706712-9-6
The place: the flat and frosty empty country of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in western Alaska. The time: not very long ago. The hero: don't call him that. He'd hate it if you called him that. All in all, bush pilot Alex Price would rather be flying, just flying. True, he had added a private investigator's license to his commercial pilot's ticket. The state troopers can always use someone they can call "Detective" in court, and serving as an extra set of eyes and ears--or an extra gun hand--for the police made a nice change from shuttling the mail and supplies to the mines and villages throughout Bushmaster Air's territory. But that was before someone began killing a few leading citizens in the tiny villages of the delta--and the clues at the murder scenes all pointed straight to Alex's best friend. Now it's up to the bush pilot to play detective for real, before things get even worse . . .