Authors on location – Alaska with Eowyn Ivey

You know there are just some authors that you long to meet? They’ve created a world that has totally and utterly immersed you in to another world and written something that has resonated with you for one reason and another? Eowyn Ivey is one such author for me.

Travel literary style to Alaska: The Bright Edge of the World booktrail

Eowyn Ivey and the Forum Books Window (c) Forum Books

I remember vividly the day I read the Snow child. I wanted something magical and ‘faraway’ to read as someone I loved was in hospital and this was going to be a difficult week. I started the book on the way to the hospital and it was then it started to snow. And I mean really snow. We’ve never had snow like that before and not since so that week stands out for that reason too, but how spooky it should be that very week I was reading the Snow child? I even got stranded at the hospital and buses came to a halt so I had to trudge home in the snow – the outlines of the trees like the ones on the cover of the book. And to take my mind of things, I thought of the Snow Child and what she must be feeling, how lonely but free she was, and I felt comforted by her. So I made the book last all week – I wanted it to linger and it was the one book which I wanted to read. And I swear that by the end of that week, the snow had gone…

Travel literary style to the locations in The Snow Child

Now that is why I’ve wanted, no needed to meet Eowyn and to have her sign not only that book but her new ones Bright Edge of the World. I love Alaska and read many books set there but Eowyn is a stand out author for me as she paints a picture of the landscape with her words. Her husband works in the fishing industry there and she has Alaska in her blood. Why? Well….

Eowyn Ivey and Susan Booktrailer

Eowyn Ivey’s  Insight into Alaska

She hunts carabou and moose where she lives in Alaska

She went to school in Washington state and for once took a bowl of Sweet and Sour moose to a student gathering (they thought it was a bit weird and not American food but I tell you something I would have been there with my fork at the ready – it sounds lovely!)

She says people don’t sometimes realise how large Alaska is and how different it is to the rest of the USA

Corbridge reminded her and her husband a bit of Alaska minus the snow. It was the train journey into Corbridge she said  – the hills and the ravines down to the river which was very comforting to her.

She loves maps and was very keen to get a map into the inside cover of the book – a friend drew it to scale and used a raven compass as the guide…

Moose is a very versatile animal to eat and cook apparently..as is carabou. Carabou tastes like deer and Moose tastes a little more like beef…

She was very impressed with the Forum Books Window.. as was everyone else who came to the evening! (see first picture )

You have to read this book. It’s utterly fantastic and wonderfully evocative of Alaska. I realise I sound very very excited about this book but it really does come highly recommended from me as it reads like a song or a poem.

I was as lost in this book as I was in the Snow Child even though it wasn’t snowing this time 😉

On the booktrail you  can visit the locations, see the old and modern day maps and more

I went home very happy that night. Meeting a very special author with a very special signed copy of The Bright Edge of the World AND a lovely signed copy of that special Snow Child. Eowyn, it was a fantastic event and it was a real pleasure to meet you.

Susan Booktrailer