Mareth Griffith's Blog

A quick note here, as I just got back from attending the Nebulas in Pittsburgh. Put on by SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America), it’s a little like the Oscars for genre fiction. I had a marvelous time, and came home with far too many books.

The conference was a great time to network and meet other writers, as well as my first opportunity to meet the folks who work for my publisher (Colin, Jae and Kaelin of Parvus Press). I also met one of Parvus’ other authors (Rekka Jay, whose...

Rumor has it the first seasonal worker of the summer has been spotted on the streets of Seward - a sure sign that summer is approaching. In a few weeks, I'll be headed down to Seattle to join up with the crew of the Discoverer, for another season exploring the nooks and crannies of Southeast Alaska. This year will be my fourth with the vessel, and my eleventh summer in the state overall.

In honor of another season as a guide in one of the planet's most captivating and untrammeled wild corners,...

If I hadn’t ended up reading two fantastic ethnography books back-to-back,  Court of Twilight might never have been written in the first place.
Back in 2012, I was living in New Zealand, and working as a receptionist for a hostel in a remote part of the South Island. The closest bookstore was over an hour away on the other side of the Southern Alps, and the closest library wasn’t much better. However, there was a small lending shelf at the hostel, which became my primary source of readi...

So as we creep towards the end of 2017, I wanted to summarize a few of the things that happened this year. Which was a lot – partly because a lot of things came to fruition this year that had been in the works for a while.
So, in no particular order:
Court of Twilight was published this fall! This is definitely the final stretch of a years-long process in writing and editing it. The first draft was written in 2013, and the book came out almost exactly four years later. It’s felt very satisfyi...

I want to take some time to talk about a few of the sources that helped to shape my novel, Court of Twilight. One of these sources is a well-known cognitive psychology experiment mentioned by one of the characters. The experiement is also the titular illusion in the book The Invisible Gorilla, by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. Written by two cognitive psychologists, The Invisible Gorilla is an explanation of what the authors refer to as everyday illusions – erroneous assumptions abou...

So it has been a ridiculously long time since Ive added any content to my blog. I do have an excuse, of sorts - I wrote a novel, which has recently been published by a small SciFi/Fantasy publisher out of Washington, DC. Which means that for over a year now, getting that book edited and out the door has been the main focus for what writing time I have outside of guiding gigs. I am ridiculously happy with how the book turned out (I have a marvelous editor, and the folks at Parvus have been...

So it has been a ridiculously long time since I’ve added any content to my blog. I do have an excuse, of sorts - I wrote a novel, which has recently been published by a small SciFi/Fantasy publisher out of Washington, DC. Which means that for over a year now, getting that book edited and out the door has been the main focus for what writing time I have outside of guiding gigs. I am ridiculously happy with how the book turned out (I have a marvelous editor, and the folks at Parvus have been lo...

I’ve spent the last five months working as an expedition guide for a small-ship cruising company in Southeast Alaska.   Here are some tips I’m passing on to prospective passengers on expedition-style cruises.   These are NOT the big Holland America sorts of cruise ships.  

What is an Expedition Cruise?

Expedition cruising is less about port stops, and more about visiting places that aren’t listed in the travel guides.   Remote bays, tiny islands, and un-...

This fall I’ve found myself in the Midwest, taking a break from the cold of Alaska, working as a hospitality person for a place I’m going to refer to as Angevin Hunting Lodge.   I got here around the end of September, where the high temperatures were peaking in the 80s and 90s.   Most days it was even warm first thing in the morning, and it has rained exactly two days in the three weeks I’ve been here.   The climate has definitely been a welcome change from deali...

Last week I spent a few days in Anchorage - visiting my cousin and cheering her on during the Tour of Anchorage ski race, and volunteering for the Iditarod.   For those of you who did not grow up reading Gary Paulsen books, the Iditarod is a thousand-mile dog sled race stretching from Anchorage to Nome.  The route follows both traditional Native Alaskan trading routes, as well as dog-sled routes used to connect turn-of-the-century gold mining towns to the railway, sending out g...