Nobody but the Wind

Publisher Marketing: It's 1965. No cell phones. No computers. Eleven-year-old Ken Reede, uprooted from a big house in San Francisco, moves with his family into a cabin on the crest of the Central Sierra. Mountains seem to close in on him and say We're in charge now. Before the move, his father and older brother had often backpacked, while Ken had been more interested in playing baseball and listening to pop music. Facing a new kind of life, Ken is determined to adjust. He finds a hiking buddy, Greg, a loner in Ken's school, located at the foot of the eastern pass. He meets Carolyn, a girl who suffers from leukemia, and promises to bring wildflower specimens for her to press in a book. He learns about nature through other new friends: Joe, the Italian cook at the Lodge; Old Domino, owner of a string of pack-horses; and a Basque, who with his dog herds sheep through Summit Valley. After two years of of overnight campouts, Ken and Greg plan their first, big backpack trip to remote Warren Lake. What they discover there leads them later into a life-threatening situation in which they must depend upon each other to survive. This book is dedicated to Winther's youngest son, David, who died in 2003. He loved to hike on Sierra trails, lived for a while in a cabin in Soda Springs, on the crest of the mountains, and had backpacked to Warren Lake. His brother, Mikael, drew the illustrations. The resulting book is a labor of love. Barbara Winther writes novels, historical non-fiction, plays, musicals and articles on travel and Native American art. She wrote her most recent book, The Time of the Kachinas, for children and adults. It looks at a ceremonial Kachina year through the eyes of two Hopi children. See the following website for a list of her publications: www.barbarawinther.com. Contributor Bio:  Winther, Barbara Barbara Winther was born in Washington D. C. and lived her early childhood with her grandmother on an island in Maine. She graduated as an English Major from the University of California, Los Angeles (U. C. L. A) and did post graduate work at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where she received her teaching credential. For ten years she taught elementary school. With her husband, she owned and operated Old Bear Trading Company, dealing in Native American art, which led to six years of teaching seminars for the University of California. An avid world traveler, she has written 53 one-act plays based on folklore from a multitude of cultures. In 2002 she was elected to the prestigious Society of Woman Geographers. A teacher, historian, travel writer and Native American art consultant, she has had articles published in each of these fields. A recent book she co-authored, "Let It Go, Louie-Croatian Immigrants on Puget Sound" won the Washington Museum Association's 2010 Award of Publication Excellence. She also writes musicals for children which have been produced in California and Washington (see oldbearpublishingcompany.com). Her fiction book, "The Jaguar Dances," won a first place award from the Pacific Northwest Writers' Association in the category of International Suspense/Thrillers. Besides traveling and writing, she enjoys playing tennis and visiting with her son and daughter-in-law. She lives with her attorney husband on an island near Seattle.