Nancy's Antarctic Journey

Through an unlikely series of events, I was invited to join two marine biology expeditions to Antarctica in return for writing one or more children's books about them. On May 26, 2008, I stepped out of the cozy room where I usually spin my tales, and headed south for the first of these expeditions, a month-long voyage aboard the National Science Foundation's icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer. Below you'll find links to the blogs I kept during that amazing experience.

You won't have to read far before realizing that things did not go quite as planned. An unrelenting case of seasickness caused me to rethink the wisdom of joining the second expedition, scheduled to leave a year later, in March 2009. Do I feel like a wimp? Yes. Do I still plan to write a book about the expedition? Yes. Do the blogs still make good reading? You bet!

Blog for teens and adults:
Rime of the Modern Mariner
Subtitled "A Horror Writer's Journey to Darkest Antarctica," this blog targets teens and adults in a traditional blog format, with each day's events and science activities mingled with my observations as an award-winning horror writer and amateur naturalist.

Blog for young readers:
Unarctica: Gib Finney's sequel to The Power of Un
For children ages 8-12 (middle graders), this blog tells the story of the expedition from the point of view of the three middle-school protagonists of my novel The Power of Un. The blog weaves each day's factual and scientific events into an adventure story designed to hold the attention of even the most reluctant readers.

Press Kit
Download a press release and a fact sheet in PDF or Word formats, and low or high resolution photos.

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