Sled Dogs in the Desert

The important place of sled dogs in American history as portrayed by the amazing sled dog paintings of my friend Veryl Goodnight is the subject of the book I published in November: Sled Dogs in America: The Art of Veryl Goodnight, by Veryl Goodnight and Helen Hegener. Veryl’s historically accurate paintings have elevated the history of sled dogs to an exhibit at the prestigious Smithsonian-associated Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Veryl and I will be giving two slideshow presentations at the museum on February 6th, followed by a reception. It promises to be an exciting event!

Running for nine months, through April, 2025, the unique exhibit we helped curate showcases not only the paintings done by Veryl, but includes the history behind the paintings as I researched it for my 2023 book, The History of Sled Dogs in North America. Also included are many of the props and supporting pieces Veryl used in creating her paintings.

Although I’ve seen many photographs of the displays, I got my first actual look at the sled dog exhibit last week, and it was quite humbling to walk into that very prestigious museum and see my name on the walls, along with the photos I’d researched and the history I’d written!

But just as thrilling was to see two of the titles published by my Northern Light Media on the top shelf of the museum bookstore!

Veryl and I signed their copies and marveled at the depth and quality of the other items for sale!

I smiled to see people walking through the exhibit carrying copies of the book Veryl and I had produced together, and it was wonderful to talk with the docents and the visitors about the history and Veryl’s beautiful artwork. Our visit last week was impromptu, but it gave us a wonderful advance look at how exciting it will be when we return to present our slideshow and talk on February 6th!

An Old Dog Learning New Tricks

Since starting my own publishing company in 2007, I have always printed my books with Amazon KDP, or Kindle Direct Publishing. Their fairly simple, almost intuitive management has been wonderful to work with. The photo-heavy format of most of my books made it difficult to create ebooks from them, which is obviously KDP’s forte, but the printing side served my purposes well for more than two dozen books.

And then one day it didn’t. I was close to the end of formatting a book last winter and decided to check something specific about margins, and I discovered to my utmost dismay that the layout size I had chosen for this book was not an option for KDP!

Taking a deep seat and drawing on my past experiences in publishing, I decided my best option was IngramSpark, a service of Lightning Source, which had always delivered quality printing and distribution services when I was producing books more traditionally, and not using the print-on-demand format. Print runs of thousands of copies was outside my budget when I started Northern Light Media, however, and the print-on-demand model proved to be an excellent choice, but I wanted to notch up the quality of my books, and I wanted different distribution options. To be sure, IngramSpark is a much more complicated program to work with, but I am optimistic about my ability to understand the particular hoops I need to jump through with them. I am certain that in the end I’ll be much happier with their approach to publishing than with Amazon KDP.

By the same token, I have used the Apple program Pages to lay out and format all of my books since the beginning. It has done everything I wanted it to, and by creating my own templates, with my own pre-formatted settings, I’ve been able to produce books which checked all of the boxes I felt were important. But times change, I learn more and more as I go along, and I was no longer satisfied with the results I was getting with the Pages program. So I looked into, and have been learning, the page layout and design software Affinity Publisher. Once again my past experience as a publisher has informed my decision, for I found similarities between Affinity and the QuarkXpress program I first learned layout and design with back in the 1980s, and understanding the basic principles of layout and design, fonts and styles has made the whole learning process easier.

So far I’m pretty pleased with Affinity, although I still have a long way to go before entrusting my newfound skills with it to one of my books. If all goes well, however, I may be switching all of my books over to this program, and revising several of them in the process.

After 17 years as a publisher it feels strange to be making these transitions to a new layout program and a new printing and distribution company, but at the same time it feels like leaving high school and going off to college, taking the skills I’ve learned and applying them to further learning, which will result in even more skills and a greater confidence in my abilities and achievements.

Book Reviews

Screen Shot 2016-06-12 at 9.55.34 PM Authors always love to see book reviews, and this author is no exception. With a dozen titles currently in print I’ve seen quite a few reviews, but I still smile when one crosses my path, as this review of my latest book, Alaskan Sled Dog Tales, did earlier this week. David Fox gave my book a very nice review for the Anchorage Press, writing: “Relying upon material written from the late 1890s through the early ‘30s, she catalogues how sled dogs provided Alaskan residents the ability to traverse enormous distances, deliver critical supplies and maintain communication from within and outside Alaska. The episodes she recounts are stirring, filled with human and animal bravery. Some are simply mind-boggling, filling the reader with awe and enormous respect for dog and driver alike.”

Ak SD Tales cover Yeah, that nicely captures what I set out to do with this book! David Fox shares some examples from my book, and then leaves me grinning with his parting shot: “These trustworthy creatures could be relied upon to do the heavy work, while remaining—as Hegener eloquently reminds us—our most treasured friends.”

Did you see he used that grand word “eloquently?” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines eloquent as “having or showing the ability to use language clearly and effectively; clearly showing feeling or meaning.”

I’m grinning all over again. Thank you, Mr. Fox!

Booksigning

It’s always fun and interesting to take part in book-related events, and I always learn a little more about the history my books touch upon when people who are familiar with those histories – or who lived the history – introduce themselves and we strike up a conversation. That happened several times on Friday when I took part in a four-hour booksigning at my favorite bookstore, Fireside Books in Palmer, highlighting my books about the 1935 Matanuska Colony Project. Also there for the booksigning were several Matanuska Valley pioneers and Sharon Benson, the co-author of another great book, The Life and Times of Matanuska Valley Pioneers.

188. Ruth_Cook_colonist_taking_in_her_wash — Ruth Cook, Colonist, taking in her wash. Photo: Willis T. Geisman, 1935.

The history of Alaska and the Matanuska Valley are really nothing more than the compilation of individual stories, whether those stories are thrilling and adventurous or more mundane and everyday. Each person simply going about their daily lives contributed (and continue to contribute) to the whole which we know as history, and when people start talking about their own personal histories, or those of their family members, friends, or even just people they’ve known, the entire process of history-making is given a clarity which I always find fascinating and rewarding. It’s one thing to write about the design and construction of the Colony barns, but quite another thing to have someone tell about working in one, milking cows and loading hay into the hayloft one summer forty years ago.

189. Mr_Grant_Kensor_Kenser_filling_irons_with_gasoline_as_the_interested_children_1ook_on — Mr. Grant Kensor filling irons. Photo by Willis T. Geisman, 1935.

During the writing of my book on the Colony Project I was able to access the original records at the National Archives office in Anchorage. The office has now been closed, and the records have been moved to the National Archives office in Seattle. Toward the end of the day on Friday a young couple came into the bookstore and I learned that the young man’s parents had been Colonists, and sure enough, we found their name and tract number in my books. I explained about the original files for the Colony families being at the National Archives, which sadly had been moved to Seattle – and learned that the couple lived in Seattle and were only visiting friends in Palmer! They were very excited to learn how they could research their family’s history upon their return to Seattle!

The day after the booksigning I was walking around Palmer’s Colony Days celebration with my grandson Collin and was excited to see four of my books featured at the local museum and visitor’s center. Collin was patient with me in the museum, but it’s not hard to see that he was more than ready to get back outside to the “good stuff” again!

Collin and my books

Dog-Puncher on the Yukon

People sometimes ask which musher is my favorite – speaking of the old-timers, not my currently-racing friends. It’s a tough choice, as there were some amazing mushers in Alaska’s history (and I write about many of them in my newest book, Alaskan Sled Dog Tales), but one which is always near the top of my list is Arthur Treadwell Walden, author of “Dog-Puncher on the Yukon.” Here’s an article about him, and a great photo which I don’t remember seeing before:

Walden and Chinook

“Part adventurer, part showman Arthur T. Walden of Wonalancet, New Hampshire, dazzles the crowd with his sled dog Chinook at the Winter Carnival in Portland in this photograph published on the front page of the Evening Express on February 11, 1922, the same year that the intelligent, loyal canine led Walden’s team to victory in the first Eastern International Dog Derby, a 123-mile race. Then 5 years old, Chinook, bred from a mastiff stray and a descendant of Admiral Robert Peary’s Greenland husky Polaris, was on his way to becoming the most famous dog in America. His future achievements would include leading the first dog team ascent of Mount Washington, a treacherous undertaking that many had considered impossible.”

Alaskan Author Helen Hegener

Category: Books