Currently living/working: It was a quieter month, but I appreciated the balance of it. We have several projects underway, but we had zero deadlines all of January, which made it more relaxed (but it also means I tend to procrastinate more). And shouldn’t be surprising, we are still at our cabin in Healy; in fact,…
Most of you all know we are cat people. But in Alaska, it’s all about the dogs. Alaskan Husky is the unofficial breed of “sled dogs” here (Siberian Husky might be the other breed you’ve heard of), and there are plenty of dog teams all around the area. Dog sledding, also known a “mushing,” is…
Let’s talk about money! Well, kind of. There just isn’t enough transparency in publishing, so I figured I’d blog about my own experience, which again, is minimal, but nonetheless, hopefully helpful to any dreaming authors out there. I’ve talked previously in one of my book blog posts about how everyone’s publishing journey is unique with…
I wrote a “Gear Testing 101” blog post back in 2018 about how we penetrated the world of gear writing back in 2013, and the ins and outs of the business, but I thought it’d be fun to revisit some details. As Justin & I wrapped up 2020, I realized about 70% of our workload…
Currently living/working: The grind of our multiple income streams continued in December with intense deadlines and edits back and forth for both Backpacker and The Voice (the trade magazine for SNEWS). These quieted down and wrapped up right before Christmas, and we were determined to recharge our batteries for a solid reset, which included 2…
Today is winter solstice, the first “official” day of winter. (Although, it’s very much been Jack Frost here for months, as evidenced by the snow cover since mid-October and several days of below zero temps already. But I digress.) Solstice in Alaska also distinguishes the extreme variance of seasonal daylight. Winter solstice marks the shortest…
My trail memoir, Between Each Step, released 11/15/20, which means today it turns 1 month old! And because my book is now our bootstrapped side business, we’ve been busy bees during this first month. Justin has been a serious rock star partner—he has played the simultaneous role of secretary, office manager, sales manager, accountant, shipping…
Currently living/working: We are still wintering in Alaska, and November was a freakin busy month with writing deadlines, book madness and finishing up Leave No Trace. So we spent a lot of time hibernating in our cabin hunched over our laptops. Backpacker Magazine: We submitted just about 100 items for the holiday gift guides, all…
My publisher was very clear on a few pieces of advices, one being: “Do not try to figure out the Amazon algorithm. You will go down a rabbit hole within a rabbit hole within a rabbit hole.” You all know Internet rabbit holes. One minute you are searching for “marketing tips for new authors” and…
Update: I’m still not comfortable with self marketing. I still can’t get my elevator pitch down. Justin is still a hammer making one suggestion after another for marketing my book. And my book is ranked above Obama’s memoir released this week. KIDDING ABOUT THAT LAST PART! (Can you tell I’m feeling punchy because Between Each…
Currently living/working in: We are happily in Alaska, where winter is in full swing. Work is busy! And by work, I mean the multiple projects/jobs we are juggling. In fact, I feel like this deserves a list-type snapshot with some of the bigger, more pressing deadlines (actually helps me see the big picture too!) Backpacker…
Remember a few days ago when I announced I am a PUBLISHED AUTHOR?? Here’s the thing. Between Each Step has been SEVERAL years in the making, from the time we hiked, to the time I started writing the manuscript, to the time it hit your bookshelf (that’s me happily assuming you’ve pre-ordered it …). Bottom…
On Feb. 5, 2016, I announced on the blog that I was getting serious about book writing. The post was part-reflective, part-goal-making, but I fully recognized that the process would be glacially slow and I ended the post by saying: “Wish me luck. Maybe I’ll have a book written by 2020.” Oddly enough, we are…
I believe most people think we have a view of Denali from our cabin. Sadly, no. We have a view of beautiful mountains that are part of the Alaska Range, but not “The Great One” or “The High One” (the Athabascan translations of Denali) As a comparison, our surrounding mountains in Healy reach between 4,000-6,000…
Currently living/working in: We are well passed the halfway point of our Leave No Trace contract—still from Alaska. The full schedule continues. We finished up in-person programming at the campgrounds in Denali National Park and did some cleanups in September before the snow covers any summer trash! For October, we’ll be focusing more on online…
Here’s one of the many truths about Alaska living: the standards for fresh fruits and veggies are quite low, availability can ebb and flow, and “in-season” produce doesn’t really exist in Alaska. #alaskaproblems Often, the shelves of store-bought produce are empty, and I guess I kind of expected that. When we do come upon stocked…
We’ve all been pretty grounded lately and sticking to local areas, but in the largest state in the US (Texas can fit in Alaska 2.5 times), “staying local” is really a misnomer! So when Justin & I were coming up with a mini-trip to put in the books for this summer, we opted to drive…
Currently living/working in: We’re two months into our Leave No Trace contract—still from Alaska. It’s been a surprisingly full schedule even though we are not traveling around like we normally would be! We weren’t sure what kind of in-person programming we could do, but since Denali National Park is open, we’ve been filling in lots…
We live about 15 minutes from the entrance of Denali National Park, which means we are lucky to have endless acres of a playground for hiking. I did a roundup about the “front country” hikes a few years ago in this blog post and we love all of them! But there are SO many awesome…
Currently living/working in: We’re one month into our Leave No Trace job—from Alaska—and all is going well. Besides lots of meetings and trainings to get up to speed, we’ve mainly been working on content projects, including 3 blog posts, 1 Instagram Live Video (follow @Leavenotracecenter on Instagram if you aren’t already!), and our first webinar…