In Alaska’s stunning but brutal interior, where white and native cultures clash, Kale Weaver struggles to survive a devastating tragedy that becomes the genesis for allegiance to wolves and the circumstances making her target of a primitive superstition. Aided by her best friend, a worn-out helicopter pilot, and the bond shared by a wolf shaman, she then struggles against what follows: the bigotry and rejection imposed on her and her half-breed son, until she is challenged by the ultimate ordeal. Whatever the risks, she must fulfill a wish for her young son that she had never imagined for him. But above all, Kale’s page-turning journey shows that love can triumph over life’s most dire challenges and painful losses.
Set in remote Alaska, Kale LeLand leads a rather basic life: job, boyfriend, good friends. Her present and future is both joyfully and devastatingly changed when she meets Elliot Weaver, a local Ennuit, during a night out at the neighborhood tavern. The connection is strong between them and they are ultimately married. What follows is a story of their struggle to be live in both the native and non-native cultures of the area, a tragedy that imparts a strong bond between Kale and the wolf population, the determination of Kale to understand the native’s anciet rituals and legends and ultimately Kale’s will to grant a wish when obstacles are constantly set in front her.
I am glad I took some time before reviewing this Frozen Tears
Rating:
Book information:
ISBN: 1-4392-1819-8
361 pages
no illustrations
The auther, Mary Ann MacAfee, was gracious enough to take some time to answer some questions concerning the book. Please enjoy! **Spoiler Alert**
1. With a background as a CPA and running/selling your own business, have you always had the writing bug?
Yes. I wanted to be a writer but my parents said they didn’t make any money. I think they were afraid they’d have to support me forever! My parents pushed me into studying business in the university so that I would be imminently employable. I was no sooner out of college working as a financial analyst when I had a CPM computer set up in the closet as my makeshift office and wrote stories . . . lots of them. My profession, albeit successful, was a means to an end.
2. You give very detailed descriptions of Alaska, especially the Ennuit village (especially how isolated and impovershed the residents were). How much research was involved in preparing to write this book? Have you ever visited Alaska?
The book evolved from years of reading what interested me: avalanches, rescues, and the uncertain diagnosis of what constitutes brain death, native myths and superstitions, and my deep love for wolves. I even took a 4-day avalanche survival course to increase my understanding of survival and rescues. I feel a bit like a charlatan in that I have never visited Alaska . . . yet. I’m waiting two more years for my son to enter college before my husband and I can spend an unspecified amount of time there. I lived in rural Woodinville at the foothills of the Cascades east of Seattle for ten years. The ethos (and terrain) was similar to southern Alaska in many ways. For several years, I jogged in a watershed preserve, home to bears, cougars, deer, beavers, and more. I carried pepper spray and a cell phone and was up close and personal to many of the animals indigenous to this area except for the shy bears. The closest encounter was watching the fat end of one disappear into the foliage! For the most part, I rely on reading for much of my impressions of the Alaskan landscape and the villages.
3. Ennuit beliefs and traditions are a major element of the story. Again, what was the research process?
Ennuit is a fictional name because I took much liberty in characterizing the race that was a conglomeration of Alaskan Native culture and American Indian. The similarity was the importance of animals to their cultures.
4. What was your overall inspiration for the story?
Not long after relocating to the Pacific Northwest, in the span of two years, I had toxic shock when my son was born. Both of us whisked away and separated; me to ICU and him to neo-natal ICU. A week later, we were reunited with miraculously little collateral damage. A little more than a year later, I was hospitalized in isolation with viral meningitis then only months thereafter, lost my baby girl during labor when the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. She had beautiful black hair and amazing ballerina legs. Holding her in my arms, I got the message loud and clear: joy and sorrow are partners, dealt with in the same blow. Death is inherent in life. Although my grief was just as real as it would be of a parent who’d lost an older child (I’d still projected my hopes and dreams onto that being) I had a deepened sensitivity for parents that suffer losing a child after raising them for several years as though a promise of a full life had made to them. It’s been my greatest fear in raising my son. I hope to have communicated my tribute to motherhood.
5. What was the most enjoyable experience while writing this book?
All the other books I read during my research, how much I learned.
6. Are you working on anything new at the moment? If so, can you give a hint?
I am working on another story, not a sequel, but with some of the surviving characters. On her deathbed, Sarah, the old Ennuit woman at the village, has asked Kale to become Innicot’s (the feral child) caregiver. Kale has only recently lost her own son. There is a twist that I can’t give away!
And a some non-book questions:
What are the three things you must have when leaving the house?
Cell phone, keys, and sunglasses. I am a very practical person.
What is on your bookshelf?
Before I donated most of my books now that I’m an avid Kindle user (though still limited selection of books) I had an eclectic collection of Stephen King, Alice Hoffman, Alice Sebold, Stephen Hawking, John Krakauer, Alan Lightman, Jeffery Archer, Michael Crichton . . . now on Kindle I have Charles Martin and John Hart, for starters.
I have include something Ms. MacAfee said in one of our email exchanges concerning her avalanche survival course. I think it would work in deflecting her feeling of being a charlatan. I wouldn’t be able to do it!
In my avalanche survival training course, our final act was to get buried in Blewitt Pass in the cascades with a beacon so we could be rescued. When the instructor said I’d write a better account of an avalanche if I participated with the mostly men volunteers, I said I didn’t need to commit murder to write about one! Guess that applies to using Alaska as my story’s setting.
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It always surprises me how a little time away from the book can change my impression of it. Sometimes it really grows on you!
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Please enter me. I’m also a CPA with the writing bug, so I would love to read this.
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The first line of your review enticed me to read on, because I lived in Alaska for 9 years. As a reporter, I spent much of my time traveling around that astonishing state. The story sounds compelling, and I was excited to read an interview with the author. She sounds like an amazing person, and I sense that her personal struggles with life and loss as a mother have added texture to the story. I was disappointed to learn that she never went to Alaska to do any of her research, but I might still give it a chance. I know traveling where your imagination takes you isn’t always easy.
BTW – Please consider putting a spoiler alert up when the author starts talking about something like which characters survive. Luckily, I saw that coming before I read too far. No worries… I really like this blog, and find myself attracted to many of your book choices.
please enter me in the book giveaway .
I also noticed the spoiler, but if the author is prepared to take such a risk with her characters, I would love to read this even if I had an idea of what’s coming. Please enter me into the giveaway.
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Her book sounds like a good read.
Thanks for the review too.
Please enter me as well. I blogged about it at http://linktoink.blogspot.com/2009/08/monday-movies-of-origins-and-ghosts.html
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This sounds like a wonderful book.Stop in and visit me at http://dixie-afewofmyfavoritethings.blogspot.com/
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This book sounds amazing, please count me in
for this giveaway. The book cover is just awesome.
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i also clicked to help the animals
I would love to win a copy of Frozen Tears
Thanks so much for the giveaway.
I’m an email subscriber – thank you.
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You are so right about the spoiler alert. I will definitely keep a look out in the future. I was a little surprised when I found the author had never been to Alaska but it did not take away from my enjoyment of the story. Thanks for the kind words!