Inspiration and Perspiration

It is rather strange how this project came to be and how it has taken over my life! It all began in a subtle way decades ago. I read the books by Bud and Constance Helmericks titled We Live in Alaska and We Live in the Arctic at about age ten or twelve and was captivated. Then of course there was Jack London and Robert Service and so on. For a desert rat living in Arizona, Alaska seemed incredibly exotic and intriguing. I'd seen some snow and cold because it seems the weather was a bit harsher in those days and we spent a lot of time outdoors in some remote corners of the state but sled dogs, igloos and seal skin parkas were something to capture the imagination and stir a mix of wistful awe and reflexive shivers.

So fast forward to the middle of the first decade of the 2000s. By then I knew of the Iditarod and the women who had won it, Libby Riddles in 1985 and Susan Butcher four times starting the next year. I began to follow the race on line and met the new crop of mushers as well as some of the long-term racers and became enthralled with the incredible feat of driving a dog team 1000 miles across the wilderness at the trailing edge of winter, a winter such as no one ever saw in the southern tier of the lower forty-eight!  Then in 2012, a woman musher named Aliy Zirkle burst into prominence outside of Alaska when she came in second and followed that with two more second place finishes, closer each time to the winner. I had a new heroine.

Having been widowed for over ten years, I still found myself floundering along,

trying to reinvent my life. I'd get going on some effort and project only to stall out and more and more find myself looking back instead of ahead. I was not ready to be old and abandon belief in a future! Somehow this spring the idea of actually going to Alaska began to take shape and almost at the same time the idea for a book emerged. I've been a writer since childhood so the notion of a book was not something new and incredible. However, a non-fiction book meant breaking new ground. I could go back to my academic days as a history major doing research and writing about the past; I could recall my technical writing efforts as a civil service employee of the Army and Air Force and bring those skills to bear, too. And I'd also bring the emotions and description that I put into my poetry and women's fiction novels into the mix. Voila, a project to be the pinnacle of my writing career!

In a matter of a day or two the project took shape and I began this journey. I would write about the amazing female athletes and their incredible dogs--the women mushers who tackle the challenges of long runs with the pinnacles being the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest, the "other" thousand miler. Now there is also a 1000K race in Norway too, but I had not yet heard of that. What role models and inspiration they could be to today's young women who are struggling in a complex and confusing world.

So here I am. I've just left the starting line, seeking to run my own race of sorts as I move toward the goal of seeing this book become a reality. I'd be very honored to have you along the sidelines as I cover this trail! No major endeavor can be accomplished without support and encouragement and teamwork. My family and close friends are with me here and I know I could not do this without them.