Alaska On the Go: From Blog to Book *NEW*

Curious to know from whence all that Alaska knowledge escapes my brain?

Check out the newest post from what my family now calls "The Book Blog".

Book Progress, In Spite of It All

The Book marches forward, despite sickness, new dog, and an ever-inflating calendar of events and activities. We spent the weekend doing absolutely nothing in order to recharge our family batteries.
But I did manage to meet with my editor last night, and I feel more in order this morning.

Go check out the Book Blog, why don't you, and see why I love my editor.

Happy Monday.

As if I Wasn't Busy Enough....

It's a tool. Or I'm slightly crazy. Maybe both.

At any rate, I have another blog. Alaska On the Go: From Blog To Book intends to follow my book-writing journey from inception to launch, and beyond. Hopefully, way, way beyond.

So check it out, see what, where, and how I'm writing. Enjoy the ride, it ought to be interesting.

Because I Can.

Some days I wonder if I've got what it takes to sit down and actually write this book. So many details, so much research, so many writes and edits and additions that I of course always think of after I've sent off the section to my editor; and I'm only a teensy way through what will undoubtedly be a long, long year of tap-tapping away at my keyboard. The local coffee roaster will be making a bundle off me, I can tell already.

Combine writing a book with, oh, yeah, my family, then sprinkle in the AKontheGO website and a little radio show called Alaska Travelgram, and I realize once more that I've gotten myself pretty deep into a lot of stuff. It can make a girl rather depressed. At least, it did, me, until the incredible forces of Yukon once again came to my rescue with this:

"If you are meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, you destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet. You shame the Angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God. Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and everything in it.

Don't cheat us out of your contribution. Give us what you've got."

- Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

What It Is: Writing Words

I think everything happens for a reason. Right now, I'm perched high above Homer, Alaska, at a friend's house, waiting. But I'm glad to be waiting.

Since Friday afternoon my focus has been on Homer, Alaska, and writing. Setting up camp at my favorite bakery/B&B, I've been all about words, words, and more words. I'm writing a book, see. But the weekend has been more than that.

Yukon is a smart husband, and he knows when his wife needs to fly away for a little while. More important, he knows that to me, writing is akin to breathing; vital, deep, and refreshing if I pay attention to it.

So I've been writing; molding words at my fingertips, fact-checking, proof-reading. I set up my "desk," a little table in my room upon which I set my laptop, reference books, pen, water bottle, and a few apples (writing makes me hungry). I had to move the coffee maker across the room in front of the television, because, of course, I wouldn't be watching any TV this weekend.

The weather was wild, with driving rain, wind, and melting snow; perfect writing weather . I'd sit in front of the modest glow of my Mac for a while, until the word count reached another thousand words, then I'd pull on my Xtra Tuff boots and rain jacket and go outside for a break.

I'd planned on returning home late this morning, but Mother Nature had other plans. 100-mph plans. Anchorage was slammed with a Chinook that brought heavy rain, wind, and ice on every surface. As brave as I had been feeling about flying on small planes this summer, I was not ready to fly on one, today.

So here I am, watching the clouds toss each other an occasional sunbeam. Perfectly relaxed, utterly spent, and waiting.

Trying to Keep It All Together

The most difficult aspect of Yukon's accident and subsequent illness has been the flustery feeling of not quite having my world put together. Normal for me is probably obsessive-compulsive for everyone else, and having to suddenly create New Normal doesn't feel very good (and we wonder where Wolf gets it...).

There is never a good time, I have discovered, for someone in the family to engage in a life or death sort of struggle; but Yukon's could not have come at a worse moment on the Kirkland Family Life Map. A month left of school, Wolf's impending discharge (which has been shifted a few months, for a good reason and one I shall share later this week), Yukon's upcoming trip to Texas, my long list of deadlines. I was stressed before and I'm even more so now.

What's even more difficult is trying to articulate this to Yukon without complaining, a delicate maneuver. My wonderful husband is the epitome of laid-back, accident or no, and moving him along the busy schedule of life at this juncture is becoming a little more difficult, especially since he is not able to drive yet. Medical appointments, blood work, physical therapy, pick up Bear, back to pick up Yukon at the office. Groceries? What are those? Gas for the car? Hey, when did prices go up so far? Took me almost $100 bucks to fill up the Ford Valdez (joke, ask my Travelgram Cohost about that nickname).

Many of you have suggested I take a nap. I would, if I could find my side of the bed underneath Yukon's stash of pillows. See? Here I go.

What I really need is a weekend alone at the beach. I don't think that's wrong of me to wish for it. Is it?

Words and Image and What it Means

In these difficult days following the tragic turn of events in Tuscon, Arizona, it has been my daily pledge to pay attention to how I express myself.

Funny, almost, how I lamented the drying up of my print media formats in favor of the immediacy of web-based social media just the other day. Not funny, though, is a battle royale among those who think and/or don't think media had anything to do with the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and many members of a crowd gathered to meet her.

Yes, Sarah Palin's name entered the fray almost immediately, mostly due to a SarahPAC splash page showing crosshairs over certain states and their districts. I'm not going to talk about that, specifically, because this is not a political discussion. But I'd like to share a comment made by someone near and dear to me, who responded to a statement (not by me) on Facebook, talking about SP. "I don't understand why people hate her so much, just for speaking her mind."

Let me dissect that statement and its relevance to the events of the weekend. First, "hate". We have become a society, somehow and someway, determined to put down, disparage, and downright fight against those who do not agree with our opinions, political or otherwise. Perhaps the "mainstream media" had something to do with this; when we are provided 24 hours a day of shouting, at-a-glance news reporters driven by the assignment to dig up all they can so that the 24 hour news can indeed occur, we go to places not previously visited. Who, what, when, and why take on a whole new meaning when the public is right in (the media's) face, now, later, and in the middle of the night. We want more, and we want it now.

As to the phrase referring to Sarah Palin "speaking her mind", let me just say that everybody, not just a woman who thrives on spotlights and attention, is guilty. We have Facebook to speak our minds, we have Twitter, MySpace, blogs, comment sections, and Apps allowing us, with no sense of conscience, to say what we want, when we want; trouble is, we are not saying it to anybody in person. I truly believe that when we say something directly to someone else, we are able to read their body language, see their eyes shade with disappointment or hurt or anger, we can feel their excitement or withdrawal. When we hit that "publish" or "comment now" button, we do not have anybody staring back at us but our own reflection upon a screen. Think about it.

Perhaps the mother of a timeless writer, Laura Ingalls Wilder, said it best, way back in 1881.

"If wisdom's ways you wisely seek,

Five things observe with care,

To whom you speak,

Of whom you speak,

And how, and when, and where."

Will you?

I'll Show U

Last night I went to bed grumpy after wrestling with You Tube, trying to upload a short and probably uninteresting video of an AKontheGO trip to the Alaska Zoo, because I was told I had to.

Not to discount anything my most beloved Mentor suggests to me; he is a wise and upwardly mobile, if not downright social media-ish travel media guru who has taken me from the depths of family travel mediocrity and launched AKontheGO, and me, into his world.

But it's a crazy world of Twitter and Facebook and podcasts and websites and uber-fast, ultra-frenetic media I'm not used to. Like many journalistic "dinosaurs", I started with print media, telling my story in 1,000 word features that gave me ample time to utilize my who, what, when, where, and why. It was comfy, like the old pair of fleece pants and worn out moccasins I wear when writing. Like the Olympic National Park mug I drink my coffee from. Familiar, soft, and flavorful. I wasn't sure about the change-up.

New words entered my vocabulary; terms like "embed". Now I don't know about you, but I am embed around 9 p.m., usually after trying to figure out why the heck I couldn't upload the podcast from the radio show last week or pounding my head on the keyboard because I forgot the sequence for un-privatizing the aforementioned You Tube video. Dammit Jim, I'm a writer, not a Geek. I could care less why something goes here or there, I just want it to do it.

Yukon is no help. Like my father, who led to the decimation of my inbred patience gene, my husband insists on going back to the beginning of the proverbial book and asks the questions to which I already know the answers. Sheesh, doesn't anybody understand me and my needs?

Okay. I'm done.

After a few cryptic texts from Mr. Mentor I finally figured out the upload, but not the way I wanted it. Sigh.

I'll tackle the rest tomorrow. I'm going to sit down and put in a VHS tape in my 1990's VCR. That I know how to do.

We're On a Roll

Somehow the family travel bug has been passed around Alaska and AK Fam, i.e. Us, is right in the middle of all this information-gathering.

The AKontheGO.com web site has flourished after a summer of trips and treks around the 49th state, and now with winter poised for pouncing upon we unsuspecting Alaskans, everybody wants more.

Not knowing quite how to handle this attention, the AK Fam has had to do some scrubbing and polishing, to be sure. The AKontheGO web site has some new looks, a new calendar of events, and a way to finally listen to our radio broadcasts.

Yes, broadcasts, plural. AKontheGO is now partnering not only with the Alaska Travelgram each week, but with our local NPR station for a new show called Kids These Days. A welcome listening option for me as a parent, KTD is geared towards parents and caregivers of kids birth-18, and is a perfect fit for us to promote and encourage outdoor recreation with the whole fam-damily. So for those of you who have been bugging us for online access, there you go.

One more opportunity jumped out at me today, this time in the visual realm. Not my comfort zone, for sure, but KTUU television's GoToAK.com travel web site really wanted to connect with Alaskan parents. After a day trip feature in June where Bear and I escorted a local anchor along one of our favorite trails, the station asked if AK Fam would be interested in a monthly segment on family travel.

I guess we were, because sometime in October we'll be jumping, and landing somewhere in Alaska for our first installation of GoToAK's AKFam. Or something like that.

Venture on over to the AKontheGO web site and let us know what you think. Besides the cute pictures, I mean. See if you don't want to buy a ticket today and come visit us.

Big time.