I collect word pictures and rocks.

I love a good hamburger with yellow mustard, and couldn't live without a glass of unsweetened iced tea. I have moved 23 times and my many moves have made me adaptable.

Walking in open spaces lifts my spirits and clears my head.

And then there is the satisfaction of working alongside people with similar goals, and as a team, building relationships, accomplishing much, and having fun in the process. My life is full and good!

'A' is for Alaska: Teacher to the Territory is out-of-print. The updated manuscript is almost ready to send to the graphic artist, who has already updated the front book cover. I'm thrilled that she has created a bright and clean new cover that will grab readers' attention.

I'm excited that the Wisconsin Country Register has asked me to be a regular contributor for their publication. Country Registers are in nearly every state and province. For eleven years, I wrote for the Kansas Country Register. I enjoyed the challenge of tying together elements from Kansas and Alaska. The acceptable 550-word count made me choose words carefully and craft succinct sentences and scenes. Unfortunately, the editor, who made me feel like her favorite columnist, retired.

Then, unexpectedly, the editor for the Wisconsin Country Register contacted me. She had read my columns for the Kansas Register, which were posted online. I asked her why she wanted me to write for her. She said: "I loved your stories! First, you're a brilliant writer in the way you craft the flow, and it was always fascinating to learn more about your upbringing, and more about Alaska. I would always say to my publisher - they're like a gentle hug from a relative. You bring the reader into the story with such ease, and make it so relatable."

Now my columns will blend features of Alaska/Wisconsin/Minnesota and the word count will increase to 1,000. What fun! My first column, "The New Year—a White Blanket of Snow," will be in the January/February 2025 issue. (And, it will have pictures.)

My first serious writing efforts were for a church newsletter and then an inner city ministry.

My first published material was a short Christmas reflection published in the December 1981 issue of "The Christian Leader." I was paid $25 — and felt like a real writer.

My first book was Memories & Meals. In 1983, a group of us put together the recipes and history of Deer Creek Christian Camp, Bailey, Colorado. Word processing was just coming into existence. Typing and retyping was the mode of operation. The software "publisher" was unheard of. I placed every perfectly typed page on the floor around my living and dining room to figure out which page would be right and which one left. Today, Memories & Meals is the only history of the camp. I still have requests to purchase the book, of which there are no available copies for sale. If another collaborative effort were to be ignited, I'd be happy to work on that project.

Since that time, I've been published in newspapers, magazines, and books. (full writing credits)

What launched me into bookwriting? My father hand-scribbled some of his flying, hunting, and medical adventures. I chose one and shaped it with a lead, setting, character description, tension, and dialog. Then I submitted it to Alaska Flying magazine. It was accepted. I chose, shaped, and submitted another. It was accepted. Why not branch out? I sent his stories and some of my own articles to Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, The Christian Leader, Christian Medical Society, and other publications. They were accepted. Having accumulated a handful of Alaska stories, I naively thought that writing a book wouldn't be much more difficult. I was inexperienced. I was enthusiastic. I was a hard worker. I was persistent.

Writing a book is far more intense than writing an article. It requires seeing the entire project, conceptualizing how chapters will fit together, working with flashbacks to give the back story and to stall the climax, yet not losing the reader. Too much and too little detail needs to be weighed. The entire book needs to be balanced with the same amount of time allocated to elements in each chapter. Individual chapters have to be thoughtfully crafted within the carefully strategized book.

In 1991, Rx (prescription) for Adventure: Bush Pilot Doctor was born. Since that time, it has been through four revisions and re-publications. It's definitely a fasten-your-seat-belt type book and readers keep buying it.

What are my specific challenges as a writer? There are many:

• To piece together a story from my parents' letters that were written starting in 1943.


• To sort out information that I find intriguing, but is not necessary for the story.


• To not over-repeat information, flashbacks, or stories among the books.


• To develop a strategy for the series.


• To put together a Critique Group that asks suitable clarifying questions, understand good writing technique and style, and offers options on slant or development of the story.

There are many prescriptions for adventure. In the Prescription for Adventure series, there are prescriptions of:

• Rural and wilderness medicine
• Bush flying
• Rural and wilderness teaching
• Living in a remote Alaska village
• Leaving a familiar close-knit culture and venturing to a mysterious destination - away from family and friends
• Relocating frequently
• Hunting
• Using personality gifts, experience, and education for the service of humankind
• Fulfilling the role of mother and wife within adverse situations
• Exhilaration and humor of facing adversities in Alaska

What are your prescriptions?

• Using your natural abilities and individual passions with the result of an adventure?
• Doing something outside your comfort zone?
• Exploring the unknown? Wilderness, mountain top, ocean, third-world country, inner city?
• Volunteering?
• Living in an environment conducive to adventures?
• Taking on physical feats with unknown outcome?
• Trying something new?

Here are some of my adventures.

Articles Published in the Peninsula Clarion

• 2001, "The Red Baron and the Flying Gator."
• 2001, "What Float Plane Passengers Need to Know."
• 2001, "First Snow: Brother Determines Start of Family Tradition."
• May 13, 2001, "You'll Find Her in the Garden."
• Dec 17, 2000, "Sun Worshippers."

Other Articles Published

• 2006, "Sourdough Memories: Going Home to Alaska's Kenai Peninsula," Go World Travel
• Mar 2000, "No Ordinary Day" (Excerpted from Prescription for Adventure: Bush Pilot Doctor), Selected for the Third Annual Central Peninsula Writer's Night.
• Apr 1989, "Flight by Faith," Moody Monthly.
• Spring 1989, "Bush-Pilot Doctor in the Last Frontier," Christian Medical Society.
• Nov 1987, "Learning to Fly...Can Open Unusual Doors," Alaska Flying.
• Feb 8, 1987, "Bush Doctor," "We, Alaskans." Fairbanks News-Miner.
• Feb 1987, "The Flying Physician: Rx for Excitement," Alaska Flying.
• Dec 1986, "No Ordinary Day," Alaska Flying.