This morning I visited a class in Vermont!

Let's hear it for video-conferencing!

This morning, at about 8:15 Eugene Oregon  time, I was meeting with a reading class in Vermont, not far from Montpelier. We had a great class together, even though they were 3074 miles away. 

It was interesting and fun for all of us. So much that a handful of students didn't want to leave after the session ended.

They had read my middle-grade first novel "Cheechako." They'd had a chance to think about it and to discuss it, and came to the session ready to ask real questions. It was a hoot, really.  

Video conferencing lets me visit nearly any classroom, anywhere.

I couldn't help thinking how excited I would have been, as a 7th grader in Nenana, Alaska—way back in the late 1950s—to have gotten a visit from a real author. To have been able to ask any question. I had already told my father I wanted to be a writer. He told me, essentially, to get serious. A second opinion would have been helpful. 

Now Internet makes these amazing things happen, easily, quickly ... and free! Programs like Skype, Apple Messenger, or Google Hangouts are available to bring writers like me—or any professional— into schools anywhere. It's the best time to connect to kids who are already starting to figure out what they'd like to do, what they can do, and questions they'd ask of a person already doing it ... if they could. 

I'm available!

If you know a teacher, librarian or reading specialist who would enjoy a virtual visit from a writer, please pass along my contact info. It doesn't matter if they've read any of my books. I've made at least part of my living as a writer, since I left teaching jr. high, way back in the early '80s, and enjoy talking about the process. 

What I like best? Saying to them, "yeah ... why not ... give it a try!" 

J. Edgar Hoover Helped Me Write "Holy Oil"

J. Edgar Hoover

It started with a letter.

It started with a letter from one of my long-suffering pre-readers ... the people I test my new books on. 

He had just finished reading my third Father Hardy mystery, Holy Oil, a mouthwatering mystery compote of romance, murder, disappearance, lust, pre-Alaska statehood intrigue—my best nail-biting climax ever—and some funny stuff.

He said, "I love it!!!!" But then he said that one of my characters, William ... the government agent ... "always seemed to have a near magical solution to the situation. For example, a fully equipped bunker only a short walk from town.

"It just seemed a bit far fetched," 

Hoover and me. 

"Hah!" I replied. And that's when I told him about the secret, Cold War Operation "Washtub," I had  discovered while researching. 

Washtub was an FBI project to train Alaskans to be ready to resist the Soviet invasion. 

Really! Here's the link: https://www.rt.com/usa/184164-soviet-invasion-alaska-washtub/

Under the plan, "stay-behind agents" would hide in so-called survival caches – bunkers loaded with food, warm clothes, message-coding material and radios – and report on enemy movements.

A mystery series set in 1950s Alaska

Return with us now to those thrilling day ... a version of Nenana, Alaska, where I was a child in the wild 1950s. I've written four books about Father Hardy and his friends: Evie—the woman he loves—smart, beautiful and handy with a knife, Andy—the sharpshooter and Italian coffee gourmand, William—the mysterious government agent, and more. 

It's a quirky bunch of people, in a quirky town, at a time when Alaska was changing, oil riches were on the horizon, and the Cold War was hot. 

The first book is called "Indecent Exposure," ... people in Alaska who are indecently exposed, freeze. Followed by "In Gold We Trust," "Holy Oil," and soon, "The Old Rugged (Double) Cross." 

I need reviews!

Photo by Billie

As a self-published author, magazines like the "The Library Journal," or "School Library Journal," won't review my books. I think they only review from big publishers who also buy ads. 

So I rely on you. Thanks to so many of you who have taken a chance on me, read all the books, AND uploaded reviews to Amazon. 

And of course, thanks to Mr. Hoover, who came up with a completely outrageous idea that I could kick some mystery butt with.

Tell your friends, tell your librarians. Thanks for your support and good energy.