One month in Alaska and other adventures.

[briannamarie1month]

A quick message about messaging

Yesterday, an AT&T agent checked to see if any towers were down when I called about my cell phone not working and exclaimed "Wow.  You are way out there.  We don't have a tower anywhere near you."

Later that day I exchanged "photos out our window" with a friend in Spokane.

Guess which one I am.

It is fun to be out here.  But it is also getting cold.

[angelophile]

Katniss Everdeen photographed by starrfallphotography on Deviantart.

Cosplay by Aspen of White Rabbit Cosplay and Photography.

[supercilioushotairballoon]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[characterandwritinghelp]

SO HERE IS THE DEAL

Characterandwritinghelp recently crossed the 4000 follower benchmark! Because this is awesome, we thought we would do something awesome for all of you!

CHECK OUT THESE AWESOME PRIZES

4000 followers means 4 different prizes. Prizes will be assigned at random to winners, and winners can only win one prize.

Prize 1: The Writer’s Toolbox: Creative Games and Exercises for Exercising the “Write” Side of Your Brain booklet and box set, by Jamie Cat Callan

This box contains a booklet full of exercises to jumpstart your creativity, as well as a bunch of writing exercise prompts and creative boosters. Inside, you will find games, ideas, starters, and more to help you punch writer’s block right in its ugly face.

Prize 2: 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them by Ronald B. Tobias

This is the book that Headless keeps under his pillow keeps talking about. Master Plots breaks down 20 time-honored and well-established plot archetypes with examples from TV, film, theater, and more to give you a greater understanding of how they work, and how you can effectively use them in your own stories.

Prize 3: A Writer’s Guide to Characterization: Archetypes, Heroic Journeys, and Other Elements of Dynamic Character Development by Victoria Lynn Schmidt

This is an in-depth, comprehensive guide to well-worn character archetypes, and includes lessons and questionnaires to help you in your own work. The book draws examples from films and novels to help illustrate different aspects of characterization, and will give you all the help you’ll need to create dynamic character arcs.

Prize 4: 45 Master Characters: Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt

This book covers a variety of different character types, breaking each one into smaller bits of archetypes and character journeys to demonstrate how they work. Creating complex characters and the arcs that make them work will be a piece of cake from here on out.

All four winners will also receive a handwritten card of writer’s encouragement, along with a NaNoWriMo “I Novel” sticker.

SAVE THE DATE

The giveaway begins today, July 1st, and ends on July 7th. Four winners will be announced and contacted on July 8th, so keep your ask boxes open and an eye out for a congratulatory message from one of us.

ENOUGH OF THAT, I’M SURE YOU’RE WONDERING HOW TO WIN

Here’s the fine print:

You must be following our super-awesome blog, characterandwritinghelp. If you are seeing this post, odds are you already do. If not—we are pretty cool people and you should check us out.

Like and reblog this post! Both likes and reblogs count as entries. There is no limit to how many times you can enter, but be kind to your followers.

Anyone in the world can enter! We will cover the shipping.

We will be using a random selector to pick the winner, and winners must be willing to provide us with their address. If we announce and contact a winner and receive no response after 48 hours, we will choose another winner.

Sound good? Get sharing! We love you!

[supercilioushotairballoon]

Sorry about a contest reblog but there are some really great craft books on this list!

[briannamarie1month]

i’m going back ~ish.

Shishmaref.  The town is similar in size to Noorvik, a bit below rather than above the Arctic Circle, and known for craftsmanship and artistry. 

 I’ll get to teach middle school English/literacy and social studies.  Time to get studying for that Praxis.

[briannamarie1month]

Clouds all the way from Portland home.

[briannamarie1month]

modern and abstract art.

I found this in the Portland airport.

Every time I fly I find myself more drawn to art that is abstract or surreal.

[briannamarie1month]

We chased the sunset from Kotzebue to Nome.

[briannamarie1month]

Impossible to get lost in the Kotzebue airport.  There are three airlines with one terminal and one gate each.

[briannamarie1month]

Fault lines at sea.

[briannamarie1month]

walking on the Ocean

This may have been the best thing ever.  The ocean usually freezes pretty smoothly here, but with the warm winter it had a few breakups that caused these huge ice plate to push up out of the water and then refreeze.

So of course I wand down the path onto the ice.

The town of Kotzebue is on the edge of a bay.  You can see the mountains reaching around and across from it.

and then trailing off intot he ocean.

This plane is headed down toward the airport (off screen to the left).  The runway is just above the edge of the ocean so planes hovering above the water can touch down immediately as the cross from over-water to over-land.

Ice and snow on the edge of the ocean.

Dog team out on the ice.

[briannamarie1month]

Flight to Kotzebue.

[briannamarie1month]

Flight to Kotzebue.

[briannamarie1month]

We are heading out from the Noorvik airport.

[briannamarie1month]

Up on the bluff north of Noorvik.

[briannamarie1month]

The dog up top is Mocha, a village dog adopted by one of the teachers.  Below is a sled team by the river.  At the bottom you can kind of see the sled team owned by a Kotzebue man who won the Iditarod a few years back.

[briannamarie1month]

We made it down to the river after school on a very warm day and caught the sunset.

[briannamarie1month]

Sunrise and sunset from the Noorvik School.  That last is through a classroom window because my students were so excited to have the sun rising as early as second period.