Getting Your Hands Dirty

We’re in Indiana visiting family but I wanted to write about something cool that happened before we left Alaska. A couple days before leaving Alaska we took a hike on a trail that borders the back of our property. We wanted to check the remains of a fire that had burned just a half mile from our house while [...]

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River Time

A couple days ago we put our boats in the Clearwater, a friendly little spring-fed river that S-curves its way through the spruce forest. After eight miles, the Clearwater flows into the Tanana River, which is a highway of suspended silt, a major tributary of the Yukon River, and wide enough that we could paddle [...]

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Alice in the Underground

I lucked out and got one of the last seats available to an amazing play called Alice in the Underground, written by Cassidy Phillips with help from teens in the Street Advocacy and Outreach Program (SOAP) in Fairbanks, Alaska. SOAP’s mission is to provide protection and support for teens who are homeless or in danger [...]

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Sparse but Specific

First off. Thanks to everyone who entered my contest. The winner is Christine Fonseca. I’ve got a copy of The Chosen One ready to mail to her. Last week I spent an evening paddling an inflatable kayak down Goldstream Creek. The optimal time to float Goldstream is just after the surface ice breaks up and [...]

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Spread the Awesome: Author Spotlight: Carol Lynch Williams

I first met Carol Lynch Williams in 2007 at the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference she organizes every year. After the conference Carol and I continued our friendship via email and it’s still going strong today. She’s always there with a kind and encouraging word, or a joke. And now, by a stroke [...]

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