Mat-Su Valley author debuts 1st novel

PALMER - When a Palmer native and former Frontiersman reporter decided to weave an Alaska fantasy story, she didn't anticipate she would be the subject of her own.

After eight years working at Fireside Books in Palmer, Eowyn Ivey is accustomed to joining the revelry when a much-anticipated book hits the shelves. When JK Rowling's last two Harry Potter books were released, Ivey dressed up as a goblin, complete with "hideous ears and a big nose" and then as Professor Sprout.

On Feb. 1, the celebrated local author with an acclaimed new release, "The Snow Child," will be Ivey. Fireside Books in Palmer is hosting the book signing 4 to 8 p.m., Wednesday at the Colony Inn in Palmer.

Ivey's debut novel "The Snow Child" (Little, Brown and Co.) hit bookstores in the United States earlier this week, more than a week ahead of its scheduled arrival. On Monday, as booksellers arranged the work of literary fiction on their shelves, Ivey was at her home north of Sutton, surrounded by hills heaped with snow, trying to process the million-to-one, once-in-a-lifetime feeling of the avalanche of success that arrived with the release of her first novel.

"The Snow Child" has been out in other countries since fall - and taking them by storm. The book whipped up a furry of excitement for its release here.

One of the latest accolades for "The Snow Child" is Oprah Winfrey's O Magazine 10 Titles to Pick Up Now list in its February issue. In January it made "Waterstones 11," the UK bookstore chain's pick of debut novels that it believes are potential prize winners.

Earlier the book was selected by Barnes & Noble for its Spring 2012 Discover Great Writers list, and The Christian Science Monitor named it the No. 1 book to watch for in 2012. And that's just some of the hype surrounding Ivey's book.

The Palmer High grad (Class of 1991) calls it both "astounding and humbling."

For Ivey, the love of writing goes back, well, as far as she can remember. She headed to Western Washington University after graduating from Palmer, pursing a degree in English and creative writing, but she switched to journalism with a minor in creative writing.

"I realized I didn't want to teach," Ivey recalled. "I wanted to write."

The degree in journalism led her to the Frontiersman, first as an intern and then as a full-time reporter, and eventually as assistant editor and interim editor during her nine-year tenure there.

"There were things I really loved about being a reporter," Ivey said. "I always wanted to write fiction, but I wanted to be a responsible adult."

Back then, her husband, Sam, was working seasonally for the state in fisheries, guiding and bringing in other income where he could as he worked into a full-time position. He is the area management biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game in Palmer. The Iveys have two daughters, Grace, 12, and Aurora, 4.

Looking back, Ivey said journalism helped hone her skills.

"To write that amount of copy ... it helped me become a more competent writer and not be afraid of editing," Ivey recalled.

When Ivey left the Frontiersman and took a job at the bookstore, she did it to make time for writing. She had an hour or two each morning to devote to her first novel. And she did.

"I would have felt guilty not to use those hours, so right away I started writing," Ivey said.

She plugged away for five years on a novel, and realized it wasn't working.

It was different with "The Snow Child," which has its seed in a Russian folktale she came across while shelving books at Fireside.

Ivey said she got a tingly feeling writing "The Snow Child."

"It could have easily gone the other way," she said. "It could have been sitting under my bed like my other novel."

Her family, co-workers and the members of a reading group she helped start kept her writing when the going got tough. "The Snow Child" acknowledges "The Bettys," her reading group, saying the first six copies of the book go to them: Ivey's mom, Julie LeMay; Frontiersman alumni Tracy Wilson Kalytiak, Rindi White and Sue Mathis; attorney Rachel Gernat; and fisheries biologist Suzie Hayes. The seventh "Betty," former Frontiersman reporter and later public defender Laura Mitchell McDonald, who died in 2007, is also remembered.

Ivey can't pinpoint the cause of the meteoric rise of "The Snow Child." She knows it was a magical mixture of timing, luck, determination, hard work and the most important ingredient - good writing.

"I knew I had to write," she said. "I had to write a lot. I had to be good at it. I had to take risks."

Now that she has success, it still comes down to her own love of writing. She's working on a second novel, set a few decades earlier in the Interior of Alaska. That is, she is working on it when journalists from New Zeeland to Scotland aren't interviewing her or when she isn't traveling overseas or across the United States to promote "The Snow Child."

"It's gratifying to know people are enjoying it," she said. "For me, the pleasure was writing it."

To learn more about the book, visit eowynivey.com. You can also read an excerpt and another article on Ivey in the winter issue of Peak Magazine, available online at frontiersman.com under "special sections."