Celebrating the Settings in TOTEM

Image Credit: Alina Matveycheva on Pexels.com

One of my favorite thing about writing and reading is going to places I've never been. TOTEM takes place all across Alaska. It's a gigantic state and most of it is wilderness. It has the highest number of missing persons, but most aren't investigated due to the extreme environment and lack of resources. (California has the highest number of open missing persons cases.) There's a lot of mystery about the US's last wild frontier.

Anchorage, Alaska from Bigstock.com

I did a lot of research for the series. I've lived in cold environments, by the mountains, and in big cities, but never that cold or that wild. I read tourism info, state facts, and lots of personal blogs. There's nothing like getting a feel for a place you've never been than by reading about the normal everyday lives of people who live there.

I tried to keep to real places, even if I had to add in some fictional buildings like the abandoned cannery in Deep Current (TOTEM 6) and Lucky's historic house on Kodiak Island. The little towns like Newhalen and landmarks like Iliamna Lake are actual places, and there are many legends about the monster in the lake.

Images from Bigstock.com

The series stretched from the end of summer to mid-winter. I enjoy writing tales in the winter because I don't see many urban fantasies set in cold and snowy environments. It's not sexy to have the heroes wearing a dozen layers just to keep warm! The cold and snow also present different sorts of challenges than a story in warmer climates. The environment of Alaska is unforgiving on many levels, and I hoped that added to the tension of TOTEM.

I did my best to be respectful of the indigenous people of Alaska. I showed deep bonds of family and community in the small villages and the folks my protagonists interacted with, especially in Cloak of Snow (TOTEM 3). The Inuit myths which inspired me to write this series still enthrall me. They reflect the harsh and yet gorgeous environment of the land.

One day I hope to be lucky enough to travel to Alaska, and if I'm really lucky, I might get to see the lake monster or Bigfoot or one of its many mysteries too.