Melissa L. Cook's Blog
December 10, 2021
Larry Kaniut: The Almighty Bear Story Writer
As a tenderfoot in Alaska, I curled up on the couch in the tiny Nelson Lagoon teacherage that I called home to read the "Alaska Bear Tales" by Larry Kaniut. Bering Sea waves crashed onto the beach outside my window as the wind howled throughout the evening. I snuggled under a flannel blanket, shivering from the constant feeling of being cold.
Earlier that day, I knew I would be bored with no television reception, and it was the boys’ night to play on the family computer. That meant I required my own source of entertainment, at least until the kids’ bedtime. That’s when my husband and I would fight it out for a seat at our latest, greatest computer - a dinosaur by today’s standards, but back in 1995, it was a godsend. Since I won the last computer time battle, I knew I probably needed a book that night. Looking through the school library, a bright red book with a growling bear on the front jumped off the shelf and into my hands.
"Alaska Bear Tales" kept me glued to its pages every night until I finished it. Looking back, I suspect the bright red color was probably indicative of the bloody stories awaiting me. You don’t think that could have been just a coincidence? Probably not.
I was reading this bear tales book because Alaska brown bear prints were all over my front porch, and I was terrified each morning getting into the school Suburban because I couldn’t see a thing - not one thing! But I could see the prints in my driveway and on my doorsteps when the sun came up, and they proved we were not alone out there.
You would think reading a book about bear attacks would strike fear into my heart, and then I would be stuck in the house, unable or unwilling to exit in the morning to drive to work. I won’t lie; I always feared the bears when I couldn’t see. However, the Alaska Bear Tales helped me understand bears and how people ended up victims of attacks. Knowledge is power. By understanding, I had a better grasp of my situation. In the end, I stopped walking around the Suburban to get in; I climbed in the driver’s side instead and slid over to the passenger seat. Now that I think about it, maybe I should have driven, and my husband could have walked around the beach side of the vehicle every morning. Haha
Fast forward 25 years. A tenderfoot no more, I wrote a book about my twenty-year Alaska adventure. As I finished my manuscript, I scanned the bookshelf, searching for a potential endorser. Larry Kaniut’s name was all over my shelf. "Alaska Bear Tales." "More Alaska Bear Tales." "Cheating Death." "Alaska Bear Tales for the Ages." Well, that was easy; I penned a letter and mailed it straight away. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. Darn. "Larry isn’t interested," I thought. I moved on and found two other best-selling authors to read and endorse my book.
Weeks before the manuscript went to print, my phone rang. “This is Larry Kaniut. I don’t know if you know who I am, but I received a letter from you today and thought I better call since you wrote it a year ago!”
“I absolutely know who you are!!” I danced around the house, smiling ear-to-ear, whispering with my hand over the phone to my husband, “It’s Larry Kaniut. The 'Alaska Bear Tales' author.” He nodded in excitement with me.
Larry and I went on to have a lengthy conversation about Alaska, our writing, our teaching, and our books. Two days later, my inbox was overflowing with notes, edits, and several options for endorsements. I still pinch myself when I think about it or see his name on my cover! His name is on MY cover! Can you believe it? I still can’t!
Today, I call Larry my friend. We send occasional emails back and forth. He has quite the sense of humor and way with words. I can tell through our correspondence that there is never a dull moment when he is around. I have no doubt Mr. Kaniut is beloved by his many students and loads of Alaska fans to boot.
And just for the record, Larry… No lies here. Not one! LOL
(re: “I look forward to seeing your lies.” - Larry Kaniut in reference to this piece, 12/9/21)
Earlier that day, I knew I would be bored with no television reception, and it was the boys’ night to play on the family computer. That meant I required my own source of entertainment, at least until the kids’ bedtime. That’s when my husband and I would fight it out for a seat at our latest, greatest computer - a dinosaur by today’s standards, but back in 1995, it was a godsend. Since I won the last computer time battle, I knew I probably needed a book that night. Looking through the school library, a bright red book with a growling bear on the front jumped off the shelf and into my hands.
"Alaska Bear Tales" kept me glued to its pages every night until I finished it. Looking back, I suspect the bright red color was probably indicative of the bloody stories awaiting me. You don’t think that could have been just a coincidence? Probably not.
I was reading this bear tales book because Alaska brown bear prints were all over my front porch, and I was terrified each morning getting into the school Suburban because I couldn’t see a thing - not one thing! But I could see the prints in my driveway and on my doorsteps when the sun came up, and they proved we were not alone out there.
You would think reading a book about bear attacks would strike fear into my heart, and then I would be stuck in the house, unable or unwilling to exit in the morning to drive to work. I won’t lie; I always feared the bears when I couldn’t see. However, the Alaska Bear Tales helped me understand bears and how people ended up victims of attacks. Knowledge is power. By understanding, I had a better grasp of my situation. In the end, I stopped walking around the Suburban to get in; I climbed in the driver’s side instead and slid over to the passenger seat. Now that I think about it, maybe I should have driven, and my husband could have walked around the beach side of the vehicle every morning. Haha
Fast forward 25 years. A tenderfoot no more, I wrote a book about my twenty-year Alaska adventure. As I finished my manuscript, I scanned the bookshelf, searching for a potential endorser. Larry Kaniut’s name was all over my shelf. "Alaska Bear Tales." "More Alaska Bear Tales." "Cheating Death." "Alaska Bear Tales for the Ages." Well, that was easy; I penned a letter and mailed it straight away. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. Darn. "Larry isn’t interested," I thought. I moved on and found two other best-selling authors to read and endorse my book.
Weeks before the manuscript went to print, my phone rang. “This is Larry Kaniut. I don’t know if you know who I am, but I received a letter from you today and thought I better call since you wrote it a year ago!”
“I absolutely know who you are!!” I danced around the house, smiling ear-to-ear, whispering with my hand over the phone to my husband, “It’s Larry Kaniut. The 'Alaska Bear Tales' author.” He nodded in excitement with me.
Larry and I went on to have a lengthy conversation about Alaska, our writing, our teaching, and our books. Two days later, my inbox was overflowing with notes, edits, and several options for endorsements. I still pinch myself when I think about it or see his name on my cover! His name is on MY cover! Can you believe it? I still can’t!
Today, I call Larry my friend. We send occasional emails back and forth. He has quite the sense of humor and way with words. I can tell through our correspondence that there is never a dull moment when he is around. I have no doubt Mr. Kaniut is beloved by his many students and loads of Alaska fans to boot.
And just for the record, Larry… No lies here. Not one! LOL
(re: “I look forward to seeing your lies.” - Larry Kaniut in reference to this piece, 12/9/21)
November 14, 2021
How to Write a Book from a Thousand Sticky Notes
The Call of the Last Frontier: The True Story of a Woman's Twenty-Year Alaska Adventure
Piles of sticky notes of all shapes and sizes appeared here, there, and everywhere stacked one on top of another ten to twenty deep. And it wasn’t just sticky notes - newsletters, printed emails, journals loaded with handwritten short stories, and jotted notes. This collection of memories, saved for a future book, covered my desk in November 2016. It took me twenty years to collect a thousand or more sticky notes. Now I wondered, how do I write a book from a thousand sticky notes?
Words come easy for this chatty one, meaning writer’s block is not part of my vocabulary. However, on that day and for the weeks to come, I suffered from an organizational block. First, I typed up all of the notes one-by-one. I’ll divide the notes by topic, I decided and began sorting the endless supply of stories. Soon the topics became chapters, and before I knew it, I was on my way… to nowhere. My collection of short stories on Alaska spiraled out of control with way too many tales per chapter. No, that wasn’t going to work. The road to nowhere had landed at a dead end.
I know there is a book in my thousand sticky notes, I reminded myself two years later. Being no quitter, I returned to my computer. This time, I organized those notes chronologically, nurturing the seed of "The Call of the Last Frontier: The True Story of a Woman’s Twenty-Year Alaska Adventure" until it sprouted.
"The Call of the Last Frontier" is my bush Alaska memoir. This was my life for twenty years. Those thousand little stories weaved together like thread creating fabric. Some fell on the cutting room floor, others found themselves in folders for future newsletters and posts, but the best of the stories, well I’ll let Larry Kaniut (best-selling author of the "Alaska Bear Tales" series) tell you his summary of them: “It’s all here—living in bush Alaska, fighting off men, packing a pistol for bear protection, suffering the ravages of weather, flying with white-knuckled fear, facing down hundred-mile an hour winds as well as fearing erupting volcanoes. And that’s only part of their journey. You had to be there. Oh, wait. Melissa’s book takes you there.”
A few days ago, I pressed the submit button online to release my memoir. The thousand sticky notes are gone and in their place sits a proof copy of my book with a picture of me standing on a beach wearing the same red coat I wore when I first walked the Bering Sea shoreline in Alaska 26 years ago. It seems like just yesterday.
Piles of sticky notes of all shapes and sizes appeared here, there, and everywhere stacked one on top of another ten to twenty deep. And it wasn’t just sticky notes - newsletters, printed emails, journals loaded with handwritten short stories, and jotted notes. This collection of memories, saved for a future book, covered my desk in November 2016. It took me twenty years to collect a thousand or more sticky notes. Now I wondered, how do I write a book from a thousand sticky notes?
Words come easy for this chatty one, meaning writer’s block is not part of my vocabulary. However, on that day and for the weeks to come, I suffered from an organizational block. First, I typed up all of the notes one-by-one. I’ll divide the notes by topic, I decided and began sorting the endless supply of stories. Soon the topics became chapters, and before I knew it, I was on my way… to nowhere. My collection of short stories on Alaska spiraled out of control with way too many tales per chapter. No, that wasn’t going to work. The road to nowhere had landed at a dead end.
I know there is a book in my thousand sticky notes, I reminded myself two years later. Being no quitter, I returned to my computer. This time, I organized those notes chronologically, nurturing the seed of "The Call of the Last Frontier: The True Story of a Woman’s Twenty-Year Alaska Adventure" until it sprouted.
"The Call of the Last Frontier" is my bush Alaska memoir. This was my life for twenty years. Those thousand little stories weaved together like thread creating fabric. Some fell on the cutting room floor, others found themselves in folders for future newsletters and posts, but the best of the stories, well I’ll let Larry Kaniut (best-selling author of the "Alaska Bear Tales" series) tell you his summary of them: “It’s all here—living in bush Alaska, fighting off men, packing a pistol for bear protection, suffering the ravages of weather, flying with white-knuckled fear, facing down hundred-mile an hour winds as well as fearing erupting volcanoes. And that’s only part of their journey. You had to be there. Oh, wait. Melissa’s book takes you there.”
A few days ago, I pressed the submit button online to release my memoir. The thousand sticky notes are gone and in their place sits a proof copy of my book with a picture of me standing on a beach wearing the same red coat I wore when I first walked the Bering Sea shoreline in Alaska 26 years ago. It seems like just yesterday.
