PW talks with Jill Fredston

PW: Between working as an avalanche researcher and rescue trainer and rowing the Arctic three months of the year, when did you find the time to write Rowing to Latitude (p. 80)?

JF: I'd get up at three in the morning and work until eight, and then I'd switch jobs. I think if I ever write another book, I'd really like it to be my only job, because after a while I began to write 12 and 14 hours a day. But when I was really into the book, I'd just wake up with sentences in my head.

PW: The book is as much about your marriage to fellow avalanche specialist Doug Fesler as your travels. Was it difficult writing about personal topics?

JF: It was. I originally didn't want to write a book about us, I really just wanted to write about what we'd seen along the way. But my editor, Becky Saletan, insisted. It makes sense, really, as you're seeing everything from our point of view. But it wasn't always comfortable.

PW: Was there any part of your experience that was particularly hard to put into words?

JF: The chapter that took the longest to put into place was "Tufluk Kabloona" because originally I wrote so much about Doug but conveniently left myself out. Becky made me write more about me; otherwise, she said, I had to cut the material about Doug. It's easier to get naked about somebody else than yourself.

PW: When did you decide that you wanted to be published?

JF: The catalyst was really my mother's getting sick—I wanted to get it done to show her, and I needed to do it quickly.

PW: How does the publishing process compare to rowing the Arctic?

JF: For me it was difficult because it was an unknown. I've been recognized as an avalanche specialist for a long time and I'm very confident in what I'm doing, but I didn't have that same confidence in writing—it's just so subjective. Rowing really helped me write because I'm comfortable with a stroke at a time—so I took the same approach: a page at a time, and sooner or later you have a book. It's also a kind of zen thing—writing and rewriting the same thing from different angles.

PW: How does Doug feel about being a "character" in your book?

JF: He actually hasn't read it for about a year and a half. I've left an awful lot out, but he promised he wouldn't say, "Well, what about the time we...." We're public figures in Alaska and well known for what we do already, so he's used to being recognized. I think he's just glad the book's done.