The Road to Courage is the fascinating account of your upbringing and your family’s adaptation to rural life in the Alaskan wilderness. Why was this an important book for you to write?

I began writing stories of life in the Alaskan wilderness as part of a healing journey. My brother, James, with whom I had been very close, was lost in a commercial fishing accident at age 23. Forty busy years later, I recognized that my unresolved grief was affecting my closest relationships. Following a class on writing memoirs, I wrote over sixty chapter-length stories of our lives together, about twenty of which are included in The Road to Courage. At some point in the process, my memories transformed from wounding to life-giving. This book is an incidental but satisfying outcome of figuring out what to do with all the stories.

During the writing process, I also came to value the legacy of Old Valdez, destroyed in the 1964 earthquake, and the importance of preserving its story.

What is a common misconception you feel people have about life in Alaska?

Many people I’ve talked to imagine Alaska as a land of endless snow, igloos and Innuits, or misfits struggling to survive in isolation.

The truth is that Alaska is vast, and Alaskans are uniquely diverse, with a wide range of skills and personalities. Forged by the rugged landscape, the unforgiving climate, and social isolation, they tend to be independent, self-reliant, and charitable but with a well-tuned “BS meter”.

What were some of the challenges faced by your family you felt were important to share with readers?

Poverty was a defining challenge. Arriving in Valdez with $5 and everything we owned in the back of a truck forced us to be quick learners. Mom and Dad, having grown up during the Great Depression on self-sustaining farms, brought numerous skills for living off the land. As the book relates, the significance of seasoned Alaskans generously sharing their knowledge cannot be overstated.

The climate challenge required crucial lifestyle adjustments when twenty hours of light in the summer and twenty hours of darkness accompanied by forty feet of snow in the winter became our new reality.

​What story are you currently in the middle of writing?

I am revising the sequel, which includes tales of finding a homestead and Dad teaching us boys to hunt. The underlying theme is in the question: If you turn two young boys loose in a frontier town without supervision, what could possibly go wrong? The title, The Trouble with Courage, hints at the answer.

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