A Christmas tale: a story featuring Alaska fishermen and women, and the creatures of the sea.

• Author: Cutler, Debbie
• Position: The Bight ... Before Christmas - Will Swagel - Editorial

It's not unusual for a writer at Alaska Business Monthly to publish a book. For example, Jody Ellis-Knapp, who has written many articles over the years, published "Ghosts of Alaska." And freelancer Susan Stark Christianson, a writer for ABM since before my time, wrote "Women's Voices: The Wisdom of the Grandmothers."

We are proud of all our freelancers turned book writers, just as we are of our latest success story: ABM writer Will Swagel of Sitka who is author of a children's book titled "The Bight ... Before Christmas."

"We actually sell more to adults for adults," laughs Swagel.

That's because this storybook, which is illustrated by Fairweather Prints art gallery owner and artist Colin Herforth, is all about fishing and Christmas, using nautical terms that provide joy for children and learning opportunities for all ages. It is especially well received by those in the commercial fishing industry.

It birthed out of a dream, where Santa visited a guy on a fishing vessel for Christmas. "Santa has to be there, too," said Swagel. "Santa goes everywhere."

Swagel found Herforth by running a classified ad asking for an illustrator who had a "wry" or "pumpernickel" sense of humor. The longtime acquaintance quickly answered. "I didn't expect someone of his caliber," said Swagel.

Herforth is a talented artist who worked on the project for a year and came up with the 18 original water color paintings used in the book. Fairweather Prints is named after the Fairweather fishing grounds in Southeast and a lot of Herforth's art is of the fishing fleet and fishermen. In fact, Herforth was a former deckhand.

FISH TO RICHES

Swagel's story is a different one than other ABM writer/authors. He didn't set out to write a book. He started as the columnist of "Our Town:' which comes out in the Sitka Soup every other week (www.sitkasoup.com). Each Christmas for the five years or so before the book came out, Swagel published his Christmas story, a take-off of The Night Before Christmas, in word form.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It went viral--at least in Sitka. People were sending copies to friends and family, they were doing plays based on Swagel's fishy Christmas words, promoting it at fundraisers, reading it to students in classrooms, talking about it.

"There was a great outpouring of...