Welcome to WinterCabin

Alaska's flag, designed by Alaskan native Benny Benson.

Welcome to Alaska, the Tent In Tok, and WinterCabin. Whether you're an artist, writer, photographer, musician, actor, producer, tourist, armchair traveler, all of the above or none of the above, I hope you'll find enjoyment while visiting these pages.

Tok poet laureate Donna Blasor-Bernhardt with her Alaskan history book, Tok the Real Story — Donna with her book *Tok, the Real Story*.

Just a bit of introduction--I'm a lifelong Alaskan and very much in love with this magnificent country. I write for a living, and enjoy music, painting and photography. I've written several screenplays, a couple of full-length, non-fiction books, a children's book, two recipe books, a half-dozen books of poetry and a couple of short non-fiction books. Like most writers, I always have something in the works. Usually there's more than one "something" I'm working on at any given moment. Right now I'm putting together a TV pilot, writing a screenplay, doing research for yet another screenplay, and there's always a children's story in the making.

I write regularly for the local paper (the Mukluk News), am a field editor for Birds and Blooms magazine in Wisconsin, and Alaskan correspondent for Guide To The Goldfields in Dawson City, Yukon. In my spare time, I like to take my camera and head down the road for any photographic opportunity which may present itself...a moose feeding in a pond, a beautiful sunset...whatever strikes me at the moment. Or I may sit down and compose a song. One song I wrote can be heard on the "Lady Alaska" page. In the winter, I may strap on my old white skis--Air Force-discards--and go for a short cross-country ski adventure, when I'm not writing, photographing the northern lights at 50 below zero, leading a Frozen Ink meeting (a writer's group I founded), or splitting up firewood.

Writers, artists, photographers, actors and musicians stayed at this Alaskan bed and breakfast — The WinterCabin yard.

Within these pages you will find my own history/bio, what the Tent In Tok is (I actually lived in a big MASH-type tent here in Tok in 70 below zero temperatures), excerpts from my books, tapes and poetry, Alaska photo notecards, Alaskan photos, facts and information. You will also learn why I call my place "WinterCabin" even though I live here year-round, and about my three B & B cabins. Tourists enjoy the "real Alaska" here. Artistic people stay in my log cabins for longer periods enjoying the peace and quiet, wooded surroundings and wildlife, while renewing their soul and creative energy. Fancy? Nope. Comfortable? Yep! Clean? You bet! Will you ever want to leave? Probably not!!!

Northern lights above the spruce: where the stars sleep beneath the northern lights

The "Lady Alaska" page is my tribute to Alaska. I hope while viewing it you can experience the great awe I have for this country, its spell-binding northern lights, breathless sunsets and profound beauty. Alaska will hold your heart hostage and steal your soul. She is a metaphysical enigma, a mystagogue of enchantment. You either love her or hate her. Nothing inbetween is possible. And I love her.

A page of "cool links" may be useful to you, which includes URL's for writing, music, photography, art, strange and wonderful things, genealogy, Alaskan information and my family and friends.

If you are a writer and want a little peace and quiet to rest, relax, write or gain inspiration, come stay in a cabin. Also check out the writers page of other writers' websites.

"She's the consummate Alaskan..."
Paul Ryan, PBS-TV "Experience America"

Map of Alaska showing Tok on the Alaska Highway, between Fairbanks and the Yukon border — Tok sits on the Alaska Highway, 90 miles west of the Yukon border.

Go to the "Tok" page and learn a little bit about this small community I (and about 1300 other residents) call home. Tok, by the way, is pronounced with a long "o." It rhymes with "coke."

So....you're invited to share in my love affair with Alaska through these pages. Enjoy...and please come back. Alaska, virtually or in real life, is an experience that should be touched, tasted and savored...and can never be forgotten!

Donna Blasor-Bernhardt
(Screenwriter, author, ALASKAN!!! sometime artist and musician, hopeless romantic, poet laureate of Tok and the Alaska Highway)

Donna was featured in PBS's "Experience America"; her article on funroads.com is preserved at the Internet Archive.

Her books

Cover of Waltz With Me, Alaska by Donna Blasor-Bernhardt

Waltz With Me, Alaska is the true story of "life in the tent": the thirteen months Donna, Dick and the kids spent in an army tent at 70 below while they built their cabin. Read the short version on the Tent page, and see all of her books and tapes.

Pioneer Road tells the story of the Alaska Highway and the men who built it in 1942, from Donna's interviews with more than 200 of them.

Peter Jenkins' book Looking for Alaska, which includes a chapter about Donna, her life and the bed and breakfast — Author Peter Jenkins ("A Walk Across America") stayed at WinterCabin and wrote about Donna in *Looking for Alaska*.

Frozen Ink Writers Group: books, stories, poetry and more — Frozen Ink, the Tok writers' group Donna founded in 1996.