Firm in the belief that story telling is the best way to share my life’s truths, once retired, I returned to writing short stories, poems and my debut novel Bear Woman Rising, which had steeped in my imagination since I first set foot in the Arctic. My memories of living and working in a remote research camp near the Eskimo village of Barrow are as alive as when I snowmobiled to spring whaling camp on the shore fast ice and climbed onto a walrus hide for a blanket toss. I only did that once.