[from the stabenow.com vaults, first posted February 28, 2008]
How cool is this? Okay, literally as well as figuratively, as that’s the Gerlache Strait next to Wiencke Island off the Danco Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Follow the links to find out where all those places are.
In the foreground is mapmaker Cherie Northon on board the Star Princess (she made the map of Mnemosynea for me, and she will be doing a map of Kate Shugak’s Park later as well, with the help of the Danamaniacs), holding a copy of Blindfold Game she found in the ship’s library.
“I finished the book in about 3 days (in between iceberg, albatross, humpback, and penguin sightings),” she writes, and says further, “I thought it was quite captivating and had lots of threads that were slowly woven together like a Gaucho’s poncho showing the pampas cross (I picked up a book on Argentine textiles because I’ve been trying to track a certain design, which is why I use this metaphor).”
That’s two firsts for me, one of my books south of the Roaring Forties, and the work being compared to an Argentine textile. Gotta love that.
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Alright finish 2nd Star – Started A Handful of Stars – Finished E. Moon Vatta series and got current on Hendee ” Damphir ” series . . . .” Bourne Identity ” has jumped into the mix . . . HELP I’M LOSING GROUND !
I can’t help you, Ed, I’m swamped in my own to-read shelf, and I can’t even get to it until I get the next Kate done and in. You’re on your own!
I love your books on AK and have read all of the Shugak books, Liam Campbell series as well as Blindfold Game and your latest, Prepared for rage. I would like to see more Campbell books but please stick with one description for Jim Chopin. I have read in your books that he is almost 7 feet tall, dark blond hair, then a few inches over 6 feet and dark hair. I hate it when I read a series and a character keeps appearing and looking different in each book. Also in your book The Singing Dead, you named one of the main characters, Anne Gordaoff married to Doug Gordaoff, but Angel was supposedly her gr.grandmother, not his. Yet at the end of the story Kate finds the old grave and marker and it lists Angel’s granddaughters as Leonie Halvorsen Gordaoff and Angelique Halvorsen Shugak. Unless Anne married a cousin or other relative and her maiden name was also Gordaoff, this doesn’t jibe with Angel being her gr.grandmother. Nitpicking I know, but I like my people to make sense when I read about them, not read one time they are cousins, the next the cousin is an aunt or uncle. Happens in too many books but must say your stories are wonderful and having visited Alaska many times, I do love reading about it and it’s people. Kate and Mutt are wonderful too but I do miss Jack and Kate together. Would like Jim better with her if you hadn’t called him “father of the park” so many times and inferred he had strewn illegitmate children from one end of Alaska to another. Kind gives me the yuck factor with him! You have toned that down a lot so that he isn’t quite such a jerk so maybe the relationship has a chance after all and he does haul Kate out of a lot of scrapes so have to credit him for that.
Great to hear that you’re enjoying the work, Lil (I think), and thanks for writing to say so. As to the inconsistencies, I could say “Bad writer! Bad writer!” and leave it at that, but in my own defense after sixteen novels in the same universe, with Liams and sf and short stories and Alaska magazine articles and stand-alone novels in between, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the details. I have been talking to the Danamaniacs about creating a Kate data base to alleviate this problem. Watch the website, I’ll let you know soonest where you can contribute.
Hi Dana,
I realize you’re in the midst of working on the latest Kate Shugak book, but has any progress developed in publisher receptivity to “Silk and Sand?” The characters were intriguing. I can foresee, as you’ve laid the story out thus far, a probable final conclusion, but you’re pretty good at throwing in a few twists. In any event, the story should be interesting, and, as you have mentioned in previous blogs, there are times the characters take on their own lives and do their own things. Am looking forward to seeing what they will do.
Carol G
So am I, Carol! I should have another Silk and Song excerpt up by the end of the month. Stay tuned…
Just read the excerpt of Silk and Song. Thanks for making the effort to branch out with a different focus. Historical fiction books are good to read; such as Edward Rutherford and Thomas Costain. Had a short trip to Valdez last fall to visit my Coastie son; will return this year to see more of the vastness that is Alaska.
Thanks, Jan. At least you’re not breathing fire and smoke that I’m veering off from the Kate Shugak series. Again.
You’re welcome. Actually, from my advanced perspective (I’ll be 65 in June), my belief is the more dimensions each of us has in our personhood, the better, unless too many pop up and make us go over the edge!
Dana, ya gotta love ship board libraries. Sounds like a fun cruise.