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WORLAND – Melissa Cook, author of "The Call of the Last Frontier: The True Story of a Woman's 20 year

Alaska Adventure" will be coming to the Washakie County Library at 6 p.m. April 4 to discuss her book and adventure during National Library Week. The audience can expect to learn about living in bush Alaska, travel around the state, weather conditions, Cook's story and more.

Cook lived in Burlington from 1986 to 1995, and moved back to Burlington in 2016.

"The Call of the Last Frontier" tells the story of the 20 years that Cook spent living in Alaska with her family. According to Cook, they spent two years living in Nelson Lagoon, then 18 years on Prince of Wales Island.

According to Cook, Nelson Lagoon "is a tiny Aleut village of 30 residents in winter."

Cook stated that the village is at the end of a 7-mile-long and 100- yard wide spit on the edge of the Bering Sea. She said the area experiences hurricane strength wind regularly.

"The nearest tree is about 160 miles away, and 10-foot Alaska brown bears roam the coastline. The only access to the village is by bush plane and water though nobody ever arrives by boat."

As for Prince of Wales Island, it is in the Tongass National Forest, a temperate rain forest. Cook said, "Evergreen trees blanket the mountains that rise out of the Pacific ocean on the Inside Passage. The island is a 100 miles long and 50 miles wide."

Four thousand to five thousand residents live in small fishing and logging communities and float houses in bays. The black bear population amounts to one every square mile on the island, according to Cook.

"In Alaska, [the state] had a 20-year teaching retirement," Cook explained. "So if you spent 20 years teaching you could get a paycheck in retirement starting right then, so we stayed the 20 years – it was always the goal that [my family and I] would stay there the 20 years. We sent our kids to college in Powell, to the community college, there, because we knew we were coming back and we wanted them to make their adult connections here in Wyoming so they would be here in Wyoming when we got back."

Cook said, "I began taking notes for the book when we lived in Nelson Lagoon. I recognized the extraordinary life and documented it in newsletters and emails home. I also saved about a thousand sticky notes of details I didn't want to forget. The Alaska TV shows like 'The Alaska Bush People' became motivators to write an accurate and representative story of living in remote Alaska."

Cook and her husband Elgin have three sons - Sutton, Everett and Ethan.

In addition to her book, Cook also has two blogs. The first one, MSSymptoms.me, is a blog about multiple sclerosis (MS).

Cook explained that the first year she moved to Alaska she was diagnosed with MS and in 2011, she went on disability from it.

"It felt weird getting a paycheck for not doing anything and I wanted to give back, so I started researching and putting research out there on MS. I put out information on my story to help others."

The second blog is a Facebook group called Alaska Bush Life. According to Cook, the posts consist of her taking a picture from Alaska, and her posting that picture with a story. For those who have read the book, Cook explains that the blog has been a way to keep the story going.

Another way that Cook has kept the story going is their Wyoming Jeepers channel.

"The speaker at the job fair told adventurers to 'go home.' They were looking for teachers, not adventure seekers," Cook said. "I was a teacher looking for a job, but adventure arrived on my doorstep every day for two decades. We returned home in 2016, transformed into the very adventure seekers the administrator at the job fair sent home 27 years ago. Now we find adventure jeeping and filming 30 minute episodes of the gorgeous scenery on the backroads of northwestern Wyoming for our YouTube channel, Wyoming Jeepers."

According to Melissa, she and Elgin post about once a month. The channel features mostly scenery of northwestern Wyoming, as well as some history and some humor.

"Some people felt like they lost a friend when they finished the book. Some people started reading slower, or reading the chapters over because they didn't want the book to end. This is the way to keep giving them some Alaska after the book is done."

For aspiring writers, Cook advises that they know their audience.

"[Knowing your audience] is probably one of the hardest things you're going to have to figure out. And you might think you know your audience, but then you may put your book out there and find your that your audience may be a little different than what you thought," Cook said. "When you write a book, even if it's your memoir, it's not about you. It's about the reader who's about to buy the memoir and experience the story with you. So you have to think about them. And that will make you think about what stories you want to put in your memoir."

Cook added, "When you write a book, you have to love that book. Because you're going to talk about that book a lot.

"But I love my book about Alaska. I was listening to a person talk about the same topic and he said if you laugh after the hundredth time at the funny parts. And you still choke up at the sad parts, so will your readers. I'm currently recording my audio book, and when I get to the funny parts, I have to read through them a few times to get through it without laughing. When I get to the sad parts, I have to read through them a couple of times without getting choked up. And that's how you know you wrote it well."

Cook will be presenting her book at the library on April 4 at 6 p.m. during National Library Week. Mary Fichtner, author of the Rusty Remuda's children's book series, will also be presenting during National Library Week.