It was a Very Good Year
2023 Highlights for Northern Light Media
As I look ahead at all of the exciting new projects scheduled for 2024 I cannot help but take a look back at 2023, for there were many exciting developments for my publishing company, Northern Light Media!
The year began with a bang—the publication of my book, The History of Sled Dogs in North America: From the Bering Sea to the Atlantic Ocean—in December, 2022, meant the first few weeks of 2023 were filled with wonderful reviews and book orders and everything that surrounds the launch of a book of this caliber! To have the book described by reviewers as “extraordinary,” “comprehensive and complex,” “the Gold Standard on sled dogs,” and “the Sled Dog Bible” made all of the long hours of research and writing worthwhile.
In January I published Northern Journey, A Report from the Frontier, by Lew Freedman, whose name is familiar to many Alaskan readers. The long-time journalist and author is a sportswriter and was the sports editor of the Anchorage Daily News for almost two decades. He has authored more than 100 books on everything from mountaineering to hockey, from rodeo to stock car racing, and from the history of baseball to long-distance sled dog races.. His first book for Northern Light Media, Fifty Years of Iditarod Adventures, was published in February, 2022.
In April I was a featured author at a fundraiser for the Anchorage Library’s “Beyond the Stacks” dinner and auction, and it was a fun evening of sharing with fellow authors and book-lovers.
Most of Spring, 2023 was spent working closely with Alaskan artist Jon Van Zyle on the history of the founding of a 1,200-mile sled dog race between Nome, Alaska and Anadyr, Chukotka, Russia. Jon was a co-founder, race organizer, and judge, and the book we were working on, The Hope ‘91 Sled Dog Race, led to Jon and I being interviewed in May by Channel 2 KTUU News reporter Eric Sowl at Jon’s home in Chugiak. You can watch the video on the KTUU website; we published the book in June.
Also in June I was delighted to see my July/August issue of Alaska Magazine included a splendid review of the book I published in 2021, “I Wish You Could Come Too”: The Alaska Diaries of Dr. James Taylor White, by the late Dr. Gary C. Stein. Reviewer David A. James explained the importance of the journals Dr. White kept during some of Alaska’s key historic events, noting the book is “….a capstone to Stein’s career and an invaluable resource for better understanding daily life in Alaska prior to, and during, the Gold Rush.”
I was deeply moved by David’s wonderful review, as working with Dr. Stein for close to a year to bring the book to print had been a highlight of my publishing career.
I spent the summer researching a book which was quite out of the ordinary for me. My daughter has always been involved with horses and rodeos, and her interest led to women’s bronc riding, which led me to learn more about it, and the more I learned the more fascinated I became with the history! I put together what I thought was a pretty good book, but my daughter saw room for improvement, and she has taken the book far beyond my original expectations, with publication re-scheduled for later this month. The history, the legacy, the politics, the entire story is an amazing ride!
In September Lew Freedman was pleased to announce that the book we’d published in January, Northern Journey: A Report From The Frontier, won the First Place Award for the Best Outdoor Book category in the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers (AGLOW) annual contest. He wrote, "I take great satisfaction in the recognition of this book since it is more personal than most any other I have written."
With my daughter hard at work on the lady bronc riders book, I turned my attention to another one by Lew Freedman, the newest book from Northern Light Media: Adventures on the Iditarod Trail: Fast Dogs, Freezing Mushers and the Alaska Wild, which features engaging interviews with mushers from several decades of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Having been the ADN sports editor during the Iditarod’s early years, Lew truly knows the sport, the players, the trail, and the questions to ask. As he writes in the epilogue, which is a tribute to 1980 Iditarod Champion Joe May, a key component is “. . . how you become hooked on dogs, and racing, and how it can take over your life . . .”
In this book Lew explores that question as some of the race’s most interesting and compelling competitors share their adventures on the Iditarod Trail.
In the final weeks of 2023 I became increasingly interested in some work I’d been doing with the Anchorage Mushing District, and I spent more and more time reading histories, studying maps, and trying to find answers to some questions I’d held about the Iditarod Trail for many years. I began asking my friends, and the more answers I collected the more questions arose, and it soon became clear there were many complications and confusions in the story of Alaska’s first National Historic Trail. At this point I’m still gathering resources and considering options, but a book about the route, its colorful history and complex future, is looking more and more like my next project!
All of the books are available via the links above, or from any bookstore, online or off.
Thank you everyone, for supporting my writing and publishing!
Helen
Helen you are a gem! Sue