"A very enjoyable biography of a woman on the cusp of change in the North. Recommended." Choice“Beautifully written biography…much to learn, enjoy, and recommend in this book.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly“A riveting story told by a brilliant writer.” Pacific Historical ReviewThe never-before-told story of Kate Carmack, whose resilience and survival made gold rush historyHeadlines shouted the...

As their individual longings braid and cross, the exposed secrets of mother and daughter test their love. In precise and evocative prose, Cold Spell tells the parallel stories of a mother who risks everything to start over and a daughter whose longings threaten to undo them.“Grabs you from the opening line and never lets go” ~ Publishers Weekly"Vanasse is talented: she can turn ordinary words into the sublime...Readers who enjoy richly drawn characters trying to make sense ...

Take our gift and make us shineThe richest, the most righteousThe stars of our timePod says it began with the crow. Manny says it began with the rat. Flaco says it doesn’t matter—the boys in the band have to roll with the trouble that started in Pod’s barn, when their song summoned a strange little man.Dressed like a gangster, the sinister stranger insists the boys have inked a deal with the “Big Boss.” As their band soars to new h...

With dramatic changes in publishing, it’s a wild and exciting time to be an author. But how do authors, both new and experienced, choose what’s best for their books, and how do they make sure their books get noticed? A successful and well-published author pulls no punches in this practical guide to book production, promotion, and the writer’s life, no matter how you publish—traditionally, independently, or somewhere between. A 5-star Readers’ Favorite! “From getting the manuscript ...

No amount of marketing will make readers love a book that’s poorly conceived and badly written. If you want your book to get noticed—if you want to find readers—it needs to rise to the top. It needs to be your best book.Whether your form is fiction or nonfiction, whether you publish on your own or through a traditional publisher, your book will benefit from the practical perspectives, strategies, and advice of well-published author and teacher Deb Vanasse. In this practical guide t...

Pod does card tricks to prove he's in control. Flaco is rich and loyal beyond words to his abuelo. Manny is desperate to get out of his Bar Mitzvah. Together, what these middle-school misfits want most is for their fledgling band to get noticed. When their made-up song conjures a strange man in Pod's ancient barn, fame follows so fast it's scary. As strange things spew from Pod's guitar, the boys in the band wonder how much of their success comes from talent and how much comes from a dark ...

Would the real Alaska please stand up?  This was the challenge put to ten of Alaska’s finest authors: to share unique and intimate perspectives—some previously published, some new to this volume—that reach beyond the usual stereotypes to an Alaska that can’t be packaged or staged.  These stories, musings, and rants come from authors whose roots run deep in the Far North. There’s Dana Stabenow, author of more than thirty novels, who was raised on 75-foot fish tende...

In Sampler tradition, this 2015 volume showcases the “best of the best” of Alaska-inspired prose, beginning with author Heather Lende, who proves that life in the small town of Haines, Alaska, is anything but ordinary. In an excerpt from her popular memoir If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name, a brush with death is a reminder of the choices, large and small, that inform our existence.Where Lende’s account of danger on ice leaves off, authors Deb Vanasse and David...

GOLD Medal WINNER in the 2014 READERS' FAVORITE INTERNATIONAL AWARDSBRONZE Medal winner in Dan Poytner's Global eBook AwardsScattered Links is a novel that pulls its characters from the gutters and, in the end, celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit.Thirteen-year-old Oksana lives on the streets of Russia with her pregnant mama and abusive aunt—both prostitutes. When Mama swells into labor, Oksana makes a decision to save herself from abandonment, a decision tha...

1861: as America erupts into civil war, Emma Edmonds is roused to such intense patriotism that she joins the Union army...as a man.Raised on a farm by a father who would have preferred a son, Emma can ride, shoot, and hunt as well as any man. She defies convention to become a soldier, an army nurse, even a spy. Dangers surround her, from enemy fire in battle to the risk of discovery by her friends, which would end in court-martial and disgrace. Always she seeks to reconcil...

A gripping novel full of suspense and pathos that Dennis Lehane calls an "electrifying, tomahawk missile of a thriller."Patrick Cusimano’s father killed a boy while driving drunk. Now Patrick is working at a grubby convenience store, and he and his brother, Mike, are the town pariahs. Caro, Mike’s girlfriend, is running from her own painful past, with no idea what she’s running toward. Layla Elshere is a goth teenager who befriends Patrick for reasons he doesn’t un...

In this shattering and iconic American novel, PEN prize-winning writer, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion and anarchy, brilliantly depicting our nation's disquieting and violent contradictions.After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face to face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution,...