And So It Begins

On this first day of March Monday Mania, I'm thrilled to have Julie Flanders as my guest. Julie's been a blog friend for a long time, and I'm excited for her to share her new book, POLAR NIGHT, here at the Tiki Hut.

Not only is Julie sharing information about POLAR NIGHT, she's also sharing an ebook version with one lucky commenter. To be eligible, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post between now and 9 p.m. Central Standard Time on Thursday, March 7.

The winner will be posted on the Top Ten on Friday, March 8.

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Thank you so much for having me here at the Tiki Hut today, Carol!

I always love to come to the Tiki Hut to soak up some sun and enjoy the ocean breeze. But today I want to write about a setting that is about as far removed from Carol's internet home as you can get. I'm writing about Fairbanks, Alaska, which is the primary setting of my debut novel, Polar Night. More specifically, I'm writing about winter in Fairbanks.

My novel takes place during December and the winter solstice plays a large role in the story. Each year on the solstice, Fairbanks only experiences about 3 hours and 40 minutes of sunlight. The sun rises at around 11:00 in the morning and disappears again before 3:00 in the afternoon. The month of December is depressingly dark in Fairbanks, as the longest day of the month is not even 5 hours long.

In addition to the dark skies, Fairbanks sees frigid temperatures in the winter months. The average winter temperatures range from -15 to -25 degrees Fahrenheit, but extremes of -50 and even -60 degrees are not unheard of. The lowest recorded temperature in Fairbanks history was -62 degrees.

Fairbanks usually sees its first snowfall in September and the ground generally remains covered with snow from October through May. The average snowfall for December is 12 inches, and residents of Fairbanks can expect an average of 59.5 inches of snow each year.

One of the most interesting things I learned about winter in Fairbanks is the presence of ice fog. Ice fog occurs when the air is simply too cold (usually -40 degrees or colder) to absorb the moisture that comes from things such as car exhausts or even human breath. Instead of dissipating into the atmosphere the moisture turns into fine ice crystals that are suspended in the air. Apparently the early settlers in Alaska called the fog “white death” because they believed the crystals could get into their lungs and kill them. I thought it was such a creepy phenomenon that I simply had to include it in my novel.

I can't really say what drew me to Fairbanks and Alaska for my book, as I hate winter weather and am glad that I live in a city (Cincinnati, Ohio) that doesn't usually get much snow. But the snowy landscape and frigid temperatures of the Alaskan winter lit a fire in my imagination and brought the world of Polar Night to life.

Still, after thinking about snow and darkness and ice fog, I'm now ready to get back to the beach here at the Tiki Hut! Someone please help me find my beach chair and my sunscreen, I need to sit in the sun and warm up.

Do you love snow and winter weather or are you all about the summer and the sun? Do you like reading or writing about exotic or extreme locations that are wildly different than your home turf? 

Thanks again Carol for having me as your guest!

When Detective Danny Fitzpatrick leaves his hometown of Chicago and moves to Fairbanks, Alaska he wants nothing more than to escape the violence and heartbreak that left his life in pieces. Numbed by alcohol and the frozen temperatures of an Alaskan winter, Danny is content with a dead-end job investigating Fairbanks' cold cases. That all changes when a pretty blond woman goes missing on the winter solstice, and Danny stumbles upon some surprising connections between her disappearance and that of another Fairbanks woman three years earlier. Forced out of his lethargy, Danny sets out to both find the missing woman and solve his own cold case.

The investigation points Danny towards Aleksei Nechayev, the handsome and charming proprietor of an old asylum turned haunted tourist attraction in the Arctic town of Coldfoot. As he tries to find a link between Nechayev and his case, Danny's instinct tells him that Nechayev is much more than what he seems.

Danny has no idea that Nechayev is hiding a secret that is much more horrifying than anything he could ever have imagined. As his obsession with finding the missing women grows, Danny finds his own life in danger. And when the truth is finally revealed, the world as he knows it will never be the same.

Julie Flanders is a librarian and a freelance writer who has written for both online and print publications. She is an avid animal lover and shares her home in Cincinnati, Ohio with her dog and cat. Her debut novel Polar Night, a suspense thriller with a supernatural twist, is now available from Ink Smith Publishing at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. 

Find Julie online at her blog, and on Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook. 

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BUT WAIT ... THERE'S A DOUBLE GIVEAWAY!

Today and tomorrow I'm visiting with Patricia Stoltey and giving away one copy of IN NAME ONLY. I hope you'll stop by and say hi!

Good Luck to All

on Both Giveaways!