There's more to the mushing experience than just dogs. Several Alaska mushers also share their thoughts about facing the weather, competition, survival, what drives them, how they do it, and what it's like out there on the trail.
Tricia Brown fell in love with Alaska in 1978, when she first moved north from the Chicago area. For the next twenty-one years, she wandered the state and wrote for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and the Anchorage Daily News, and later edited Alaska magazine before entering book publishing in 1998. For five years, she was acquisitions editor for Alaska Northwest Books and WestWinds Press, a job that took her to Portland, Oregon. Tricia has written six children's books: the award-winning "Children of the Midnight Sun," "Groucho's Eyebrows," "The Itchy Little Musk Ox," and "Alaskan Night Before Christmas." Two new kids' books came out in 2011: "Patsy Ann of Alaska," from Sasquatch Books, and "Musher's Night Before Christmas," new from Pelican Publishing.
For the grown-ups, the 4th edition of "The World-Famous Alaska Highway" was released in April 2011 by Fulcrum Publishing. Among her many other nonfiction books for adults are "The Iditarod Fact Book" and "Silent Storytellers," a beautifully illustrated book on the totem poles of Totem Bight State Historical Park near Ketchikan, Alaska. A grandmother of six, Tricia and her husband Perry currently live in Oregon. She travels to Alaska often to speak, research, and write.
Tricia is available for school and library visits anywhere in the country. Bring a taste of Alaska to your community. Check her website at www.triciabrownbooks.com for details on how to arrange a day or half-day visit to your favorite school or library.
