On Being an Accomplished Writer
Accomplished is a smooth word that rolls easily around in my mouth and pops off the end of my tongue. It should be easy to define, but it’s not. When I think of what it means to be accomplished, I think of dog mushing, not writing. I've been working and living with sled dogs for 25 years. I have been writing for only 12. In those early years, I was writing exclusively about dogs and our adventures together, and so I think about what it means to be an accomplished and successful writer through the lens of dog mushing. In my early years with sled dogs, the dogs ran more on instinct than training. They wanted to run. Every trail held excitement, something to discover. Control was something I only dreamed of. They were not well trained and I struggled to hook even four dogs into a team before lines were chewed. Then when I opened the quick release, letting them bolt wildly down the trail, they had little focus. Everything was interesting to them; even the squ