Laurel Downing Bill has written six books about Alaska's history. Her latest was published in April.
Laurel Downing Bill is early for a coffee date. She announces that she has already had two cups, even though it's only 9 o'clock. She takes a seat and waits for her less caffeinated companion.
But it's not coffee that keeps Bill cranking out books about Alaska history. She brims with her own stores of energy and innate curiosity.
Her secret? Listening to true crime shows while she writes. "I don't pay attention to it. But words come flowing out. Murder works."
Last spring, Bill published her sixth book of history. Unlike her first five books, which took a chronological approach to narrating Alaska's past, her latest book is a collection of profiles of Alaskans who made their mark on the state, even though their names may not be as familiar as Robert Service or Jack London.
"Aunt Phil's Trunk" Pioneers from Alaska's Past," features 12 chapters on women in Alaska's history and chapters on other characters who charted their own way in the Last Frontier.
"I threw in some others so I wouldn't be called a sexist," she said, a flash of irony in her blue eyes.
One chapter is the gripping story of Eli Smith, a mail carrier from Nome who ventured with his team of dogs from Alaska on a 15-month journey to Washington, D.C., arriving there in February 1907.
Another is about Emma Kelly, a Kansan who came north to cover the Klondike Gold Rush.
"She wrote about the spread of diseases like typhoid and scurvy, the ever-present danger of claim jumping, and the despair of those who had risked everything only to find the easy gold was already gone," Bill writes.
The tales are all straightforward prose, quick moving and adventurous, best read when you want something historical but not heavy. Bill is good with gritty detail and lively scene-setting.
One such chapter tells the tale of Erwin A. "Nimrod" Robertson, a Scottish jeweler who first ended up in Maine before heading West. He traveled up the Yukon River and settled in Eagle. On a hunting trip, he shot a bear. But because he had lost his teeth, he had no way to eat the bear. That's when he got the idea to use the bear's own teeth as a kind of dentures, and he was able to eat his prey after all.
Bill acknowledges her outgoing personality and fearlessness have helped make her books bestsellers. Early on, she realized she needed to engage with prospective readers-at the downtown Anchorage market, at book signing events, and the like. She had someone make her an 1890s dress and she acquired a floppy hat fashionable in the era. And off she went.
Bill says she likes all facets of Alaska history but is particularly captivated by the Klondike Gold Rush era. Her book includes four chapters on different Klondike-era reporters, several about conmen or spinners of elaborate, often invented stories, and other hearty characters from Alaska's past.
And there's no sign of slowing. She has a thriving business creating curriculum for Alaska schools, which require students to take state history. And she cranks out books that were once written by others but have been nearly lost to dusty bookshelves. One such book is the tale of Wolf, a real wolf who led the team on Eli Smith's transcontinental dog mushing voyage. The book was originally written by Frank Caldwell and published in 1910. But it has been reprinted with Bill's editing for modern readers.
Bill has a piece of advice for those who are on the verge of retiring or have just retired-after all, her writing career took off when she retired from a telecommunications job in King Salmon.
"Figure out the things that make you happy," she said. "You don't want to dawdle."
To buy Bill's newest book, "Aunt Phil's Trunk: Pioneers From Alaska's Past," visit her website.
