Laurel Downing Bill's Blog, page 2
June 1, 2017
Just released – Call of the Wild!
Hello Alaska history fans!
It’s been a busy few months for us, which is why my blog posts have been sporadic. As many of you know, our 4-year-old grandson, Toben, was diagnosed with leukemia in August 2016. He began aggressive treatments in September – they finished the end of April with the cancer in remission. He will be on chemo treatments at home with occasional clinic visits for the next two to three years, but the prognosis is good that he will fully recover and be cancer free. He will be starting kindergarten this fall just like a normal little boy.
While in California helping Toben and his family this winter, I read The Call of the Wild by Jack London for the first time. It’s the story of a big dog named Buck who is dognapped from his comfortable home in California and sent north to be a work/sled dog during the Klondike gold rush.
What a great story! I just knew that Alaska history fans would love it, too, so I decided to publish it under the Aunt Phil umbrella (the work is in the public domain). I also researched a bit and found about a dozen short stories that London wrote at the beginning of his career that appeared in The Overland Monthly magazine in 1899-1900. I included these stories, also set in the Klondike gold rush era, in the new book, as well. And I wrote a short biography about the prolific fiction writer at the end of the book.
Anyone who enjoys Jack London stories, dogs and the Klondike gold rush era will love this new book titled The Call of the Wild and Other Northland Stories. It’s now available at my Website for $19.95 plus shipping. To order your autographed book, Click Here
As I let you know a month or so ago, I’ve also been working on curriculum for the Aunt Phil’s Trunk Alaska history series. All student workbooks and teacher guides for Volumes One through Four are finished. Volume Five workbooks are about 60 percent complete as of today.
Frontier Charter Schools here in Anchorage really liked the prototype we showed them. In fact, the response was “we will enthusiastically promote Aunt Phil’s Trunk for Alaska studies.” I’ll let you know when they are printed and available for home school and charter school use.
More good news on the home front – upon my return to Anchorage, the local CBS affiliate KTVA Channel 11 Daybreak show has added “Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil” back into their weekly lineup. The first 2017 episode, featuring the Aleutian Campaign to retake Attu and Kiska from the Japanese in May 1943, aired last Friday. To watch that segment, Click Here
That’s all the news for now. I will try to be better about blogging regularly now that we are back in Alaska and not so worried about the health of a little boy. Thank you for being fans of Alaska’s history, and I hope you have an incredible June.
Laurel
The post Just released – Call of the Wild! appeared first on Aunt Phil's Trunk.
Just released – Call of the Wild!
Hello Alaska history fans!
It’s been a busy few months for us, which is why my blog posts have been sporadic. As many of you know, our 4-year-old grandson, Toben, was diagnosed with leukemia in August 2016. He began aggressive treatments in September – they finished the end of April with the cancer in remission. He will be on chemo treatments at home with occasional clinic visits for the next two to three years, but the prognosis is good that he will fully recover and be cancer free. He will be starting kindergarten this fall just like a normal little boy.
While in California helping Toben and his family this winter, I read The Call of the Wild by Jack London for the first time. It’s the story of a big dog named Buck who is dognapped from his comfortable home in California and sent north to be a work/sled dog during the Klondike gold rush.
What a great story! I just knew that Alaska history fans would love it, too, so I decided to publish it under the Aunt Phil umbrella (the work is in the public domain). I also researched a bit and found about a dozen short stories that London wrote at the beginning of his career that appeared in The Overland Monthly magazine in 1899-1900. I included these stories, also set in the Klondike gold rush era, in the new book, as well. And I wrote a short biography about the prolific fiction writer at the end of the book.
Anyone who enjoys Jack London stories, dogs and the Klondike gold rush era will love this new book titled The Call of the Wild and Other Northland Stories. It’s now available at my Website for $19.95 plus shipping. To order your autographed book, Click Here
As I let you know a month or so ago, I’ve also been working on curriculum for the Aunt Phil’s Trunk Alaska history series. All student workbooks and teacher guides for Volumes One through Four are finished. Volume Five workbooks are about 60 percent complete as of today.
Frontier Charter Schools here in Anchorage really liked the prototype we showed them. In fact, the response was “we will enthusiastically promote Aunt Phil’s Trunk for Alaska studies.” I’ll let you know when they are printed and available for home school and charter school use.
More good news on the home front – upon my return to Anchorage, the local CBS affiliate KTVA Channel 11 Daybreak show has added “Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil” back into their weekly lineup. The first 2017 episode, featuring the Aleutian Campaign to retake Attu and Kiska from the Japanese in May 1943, aired last Friday. To watch that segment, Click Here
That’s all the news for now. I will try to be better about blogging regularly now that we are back in Alaska and not so worried about the health of a little boy. Thank you for being fans of Alaska’s history, and I hope you have an incredible June.
Laurel
The post Just released – Call of the Wild! appeared first on Aunt Phil's Trunk.
March 30, 2017
Alaska history curriculum coming soon!
Alaska history curriculum coming soon for Aunt Phil’s Trunk!
Just a quick note to catch you all up on what’s been happening in Aunt Phil’s world.
I’ve been in Sacramento since January hugging on grandsons Toben (4), Connor and Zach (2) and Aiden (3). Toben is now in his last month of chemo to eradicate leukemia from his little body. Thank God all the treatments seem to be working and soon he will go on a maintenance program for about three years. So hard to watch a child go through this, but it does look like all our prayers are being answered!
When not surrounded by little guys, I’ve been working hard to develop a curriculum for my Aunt Phil’s Trunk five-book Alaska history series. Volumes One and Two are complete, with both workbooks and teacher guides, and I anticipate the entire five-book curriculum to be finished and available by August 2017 – just in time for the new school year.
This curriculum includes quizzes, discussion ideas, links to more about topics and word puzzles using information from the chapters in the books. It is geared for fourth through twelfth grades.
Anchorage Frontier Charter Schools, which has seen proofs of the first set of curriculum books, says it will enthusiastically recommend Aunt Phil’s Trunk and its curriculum for its students’ Alaska history studies. Exciting times!
Summer will be upon us soon, so if you are in Anchorage be sure to visit me at the downtown market at 3rd and F streets on the weekends. Aunt Phil will be there from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays from May 27 to August 20.
Laurel
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February 9, 2017
Get your FREE copy of Aunt Phil’s Trunk now!
If you know anyone who wants to know a little bit about the Klondike Gold Rush era, early Alaska Native life and other tantalizing tidbits about Alaska’s past, I have some great news. Aunt Phil’s Trunk Volume One eBook is FREE for a limited time from Story Cartel:
Story Cartel – Click Here (Only available for the next two days)
Happy February!
Laurel
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January 26, 2017
Alaska legislators traveled trails by dog teams in 1913
It took some Alaska legislators weeks to travel to Valdez, seen here, to board ships bound for Juneau in 1913.
With the transfer of power happening in Washington, D.C. last week, it seems fitting that we spotlight the history of Alaska’s political landscape back in the day. Turns out that this week, in 1959, Alaska’s first State Legislature convened at Juneau – but our very first elected legislature met in 1913 after Alaska became a territory.
And while many modern-day legislators complain about the difficulty in reaching the unique state capital, which is accessible only by air and sea, they have nothing on those trying to reach that first meeting of the territorial legislature in March 1913.
There was grumbling, then as now, about the difficulties of getting to Juneau. Although those grumblers complained of late-winter trips by dog team to an ice-free seaport to catch a ship south instead of via airplanes through inclement weather.
A few of them went above and beyond to make sure they were in attendance at that historic gathering. In fact, four successful candidates from Nome – Conrad Freeding, Frank Aldrich, J.C. Kennedy and Tom Gaffney – packed supplies in sleds, hitched up their dog teams and left Nome on January 7. They mushed about 300 miles, and then stopped for a rest at Ruby, where Ruby’s new legislator, Dan Sutherland, joined them.
The five men mushed on to Fairbanks, approximately 230 miles, where they again rested before pushing on to Valdez, more than 360 miles away. The last musher pulled into Valdez on February 13. The men then boarded the steamship Northwestern and traveled south to Juneau.
Two other men on that first ballot in November 1912, also from Nome, were so confident they would win that they headed south before the election was held! Charles D. Jones and Elwood Bruner left Nome for Juneau on the last southbound steamship of the season at the end of October. And they were right – they both won their bids to serve.
Eight senators and 15 of the 16 elected representatives from Nome, Ruby, Fairbanks, Seward, Valdez, Skagway, Douglas, Juneau, Sitka, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Fox, Knik, Iditarod, Candle and Katella made it to the newly proclaimed Alaska capital in time for the opening session. The missing sixteenth was a Fairbanks man, J.J. Mullaly, who had left Alaska before the November election returns were in; he failed to return to the territory to claim his seat.
The first law that our first legislators passed? A bill that enfranchised women. It took another six years before the nation adopted women’s right to vote.
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January 12, 2017
New Robert Service eBook debuts!
In honor of poet Robert W. Service’s birthday this month, I am offering Aunt Phil’s Trunk Proudly Presents The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses as an eBook for the very first time – and it’s only $1.99!
I’m also starting a new Facebook group titled This Week in Alaska History. Every week I will post about something that happened during Alaska’s past that week, and we can have spirited conversations and debates. I’m so excited about this new group and hope you will join in the fun! Next week’s topic with be Robert Service and his poetry.
Click Here to join Aunt Phil and This Week in Alaska History
The famous Bard of the Yukon entered the world on Jan. 16, 1874, in Preston, England. In the first decade of the 20th century he lived in Dawson, Yukon Territory, and inked many popular poems telling of the wonder, beauty, and harshness of the Far North. He is pictured here at his cabin during the early 1900s.
The man who eventually penned classics like “The Spell of the Yukon,” “The Cremation of Sam McGee” and “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” arrived in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1895. Nine years later, at 30, he made his way to Whitehorse and Dawson.
Although his life in the New World was spent mostly in Canada, Alaskans adopted the poet of the Yukon, too. For surely no one before or since has better interpreted the vastness, power, beauty and cruelty of the North and the character of those rugged individuals who lived during the Klondike Gold Rush era.
“There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,
A race that can’t stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will. …”
These first lines of his poem “The Men That Don’t Fit In” sum up part of what he learned of those who came north.
To learn more about Robert Service, and read Aunt Phil’s reproduction of his first book of poetry, order your copy of Aunt Phil’s Trunk Proudly Presents The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses now!
Click here for eBook ($1.99)
Click here for print ($14.99 plus shipping)
Happy birthday to Robert W. Service!
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December 27, 2016
Happy New Year Alaska history style!
Aunt Phil’s Trunk wishes all Alaska history fans the best New Year 2017!
Civilizations around the world have been celebrating the start of each new year for millennia. Today, most celebrations begin on Dec. 31 and last well into the early hours of Jan. 1. Some people will be sharing midnight kisses, champagne toasts and watching fireworks. Others may be glued to their television sets waiting for the crystal ball to drop in Times Square at 8 p.m. Alaska time and calling it a night. But how did early Alaskans celebrate the beginning of the new year?
New traditions unfolded in the early 1900s. Grocers brought fresh fruit to Skagway so immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries could down a dozen grapes just before midnight to symbolized their hopes for the months ahead; southerners brought eating black-eyed peas to bring good luck and financial success in the coming year; and others cooked and ate pigs on that special day to bring prosperity and good fortune.
Throughout the gold-rush era of the late 1890s, New Year’s Eve often was celebrated with dances and parties. Those early Klondikers dressed to the nines to attend celebrations in local saloons, dance halls and community centers.
However New Year’s Eve 1917 looked pretty bleak for those who wanted to celebrate with alcoholic libations. A majority of Alaska voters had passed a new law that closed all saloons and liquor stores at midnight that December 31st. But people from Yakutat to Anchorage and beyond still managed to hold dances, masquerade balls and big bonfires to celebrate New Year’s Eve during the decades that followed. When prohibition ended in 1933, alcohol again became a legal way to ring in the new year.
I remember my mom and dad coming home from parties in Juneau during the 1950s and 1960s – they always had hats and noisemakers, which they placed on the dining room table for us kids to enjoy the next day. I’m sure they wished we wouldn’t get up quite so early in the morning to chase each other around making noise, though!
So there you have it – New Year’s celebrations come in many forms in Alaska. I’d like to wish all the Alaska history fans out there a very happy New Year – and please be safe no matter how you plan to enjoy the coming weekend.
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December 13, 2016
Sourdough Cookery makes great Christmas gift!
Aunt Phil’s Sourdough Cookery and its 120-year-old sourdough starter from Hope, Alaska, makes a great Christmas gift for that baker in your life!
Just wanted to remind everyone that there still is time to order autographed Alaska history books from Aunt Phil’s Trunk and have them in time for Christmas. If you order by Dec. 19, the books should be at your home by Friday, Dec. 23.
And don’t forget about Aunt Phil’s Trunk Sourdough Cookery cookbook. It includes a sourdough starter from my great-grandfather from the 1896 gold fields of Hope, Alaska, and makes a wonderful gift for anyone in your family who loves to bake.
Place your orders now!
Click Here for Sourdough Cookery w/free sourdough starter
Click here for Aunt Phil’s Trunk Alaska history two-book special for $35, free shipping
Click here for Aunt Phil’s Trunk Alaska history six-book special for $90, free shipping
Below are links to the last few episodes of Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil that aired on CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA Channel 11 Daybreak.
Click Here to watch “The fate of the Portland, aka The Gold Ship”
Click Here to watch “Miners’ code rules the north”
Click Here to watch “The Lost Alaskans”
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November 22, 2016
Aunt Phil wins 2 more awards!
Aunt Phil’s Trunk Volume Five wins two honors from 2016 book award contests.
Wow! I just learned that Volume Five in my Aunt Phil’s Trunk Alaska history series earned finalist status in the Best Books of 2016 contest and was a runner-up in the Shelf Unbound competition.
My self-published series is competing with books from giants like Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Wiley, McGraw Hill, Rowman and Littlefield, Forge Books, National Geographic, American Cancer Society and hundreds of independent houses. Pretty darned cool stuff – I think my Aunt Phyllis is probably doing cartwheels in heaven!
Here’s a link to the most recent Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil. The first is about creating one of the best state constitutions back in 1955-1956. Men and women from all parts of Alaska gathered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus to craft the document that they hoped would nudge Congress to approve statehood.
Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil, Alaska Constitution, Nov. 10
The other story is about a famous gold ship. When the steamer Portland arrived in Seattle on July 17, 1897, loaded with two tons of gold from the Klondike, people quit their jobs on the spot and tried to book passage north. My great-grandfather, John Couch Downing, captained the other ship, the Excellsior, which pulled into San Francisco.
Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil, The steamer Portland, Nov. 17
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving celebration and I wish you all a wonderful holiday season.
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November 8, 2016
Pre-holiday specials on Aunt Phil’s Website!
Even Santa is crazy for the award-winning stories in Aunt Phil’s Trunk!
Just in time for the holidays – Aunt Phil is offering early specials for the history buffs in your life.
1) Order full five-book series for $90 and receive FREE Alaska-theme word puzzle book and FREE shipping (Save about $30).
2) Order any two Aunt Phil books for $35 and receive FREE shipping (Save about $10).
If you’ve missed any segments from Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil, you can catch up on my Website … or click on the links below to watch the October episodes that aired on CBS KTVA Channel 11 Daybreak:
Daybreak – First elected state legislature, 1912, Oct.27
Daybreak – New Seward Highway opens 1951, Oct.20
Daybreak – How did Anchorage get its name? Oct. 13
Daybreak – Celebrating Alaska’s first governor, Oct.6
Wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Laurel
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