Nita Nettleton

Raised by dogs on an Alaska homestead, author Nita Nettleton writes about the places and gritty characters she knows and loves, from Talkeetna to Skagway. Nita draws on her homesteader roots and an Alaska resume that reads like the Yellow Pages. "t's a tough place to get out of your head," she says. You really can't make up anything goofier, richer or more compelling than the real people and places in Alaska. She likes to say she spent her first fifty years in Alaska and is shopping for where to spend the rest of her life. Tough job.

But Skagway draws her back. "Of all the Alaskan towns I've lived in, Skagway is the one that is stuck in my teeth and stays with me wherever I go, she says." She met her husband in Talkeetna, but insists she did not buy him at the bachelor auction. She maintains that life is better with a dog around. Now enjoying life in Utah, Nita misses Alaska but stays in touch.