My next Sitka book just came out. Boxes were waiting for me on my front porch when I got home the other day, and boy was I excited. Ladies from my church have been calling to ask when this book would be available, so I was mighty glad to be able to tell them – NOW!!

Morning’s Refrain is book 2 in the Song of Alaska series set in beautiful Sitka, Alaska. While in Sitka researching, I met some really great folks and enjoyed the history of the area so much. For so many years, traveling to research stories has been one of the definite perks to my business. Years ago when my youngest was just a little boy, we would take him with us on research trips. He learned so much long the way. In fact, the other day after seeing a movie that was supposedly set in Nome, Alaska he commented on the fact that they had forests of trees in the movie. “There weren’t any trees in Nome,” he declared. And he was right. The folks in Nome have Christmas trees shipped in for the holidays and then afterward, take them to a particular field and prop them up for the fun of it and pretend they have a temporary forest. Erik remembered that little fact as well.

Here’s the treeless Nome area.

The weather in Alaska is also another thing to be experience in person. My trips there have provided such great research material for simple thing like weather, landscape, vegetation and animals, plus the people. Like Robin, I enjoy making up towns on occasion, but when I utilize a real community I definitely want it as accurate as possible.

All of this came rushing to mind as I held my copy of Morning’s Refrain. This was a fun series to research and some of the issues that I touch on in the stories were very much problems that I felt God wanted me to share. We should always learn from the past, especially where mistakes were made or successes enjoyed, even while we press on toward the goal God has for us.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy Alaska one day for yourself. My daughter Jen once commented upon viewing some of Alaska’s grandeur, “This is incredible, and just think, Mom; this is a fallen world. Just imagine what God has for us in the future.” For me – that pretty much summed it all up.
Tracie