Alaskan Hideaway , the third book in the Northern Lights series, had a working title of "Against the Grain" which refers to the hero's hobby of woodcarving. When I was writing the book, I did some research on carving and became fascinated with the faces carved into branches called wood spirits. You can find pictures of wood spirits in the Alaskan Hideaway Pinterest board. *** When Mac Macleod was ten, his grandfather gave him a pocket knife and taught him to whittle. Mac was a writer by profession, but whenever he needed to work through something, like figuring out how to fix a plot hole or make a difficult parenting decision, he would pull out his grandpa's knife and whittle. He always considered his carving the woodworking version of doodling, but Ursula (our heroine) believes the wood spirits he carves are art. Now Mac is grieving his daughter's death, and he finds the wood spirits he carves are a way of working through his emotions. Often, the pa