Bradford D. Smith Author Guest Post, Why I Wrote the Alaskan Williwaw Novels

MURPHY AND THE MYSTERY OF THE OUTLAW GOLD MINE

by Bradford D. Smith

September 21 – October 30, 2026 Virtual Book Tour

Bradford D. Smith recently released the second book in his Alaska Williwaw series. You can learn all about Murphy and the Mystery of the Outlaw Gold Mine in the previous post. I love this new middle grade adventure series. In this author guest post, Bradford Smith discusses why he became a writer and his reasons for writing this fun adventure series. After his guest post, you can learn more about the series and the author. To celebrate the new novel, there is tour wide giveaway for an Amazon gift card. So make sure you scroll to the end of the post to enter.

Bradford D. Smith, Author Guest Post

Why I Wrote the Alaskan Williwaw Novels

by Bradford D. Smith

 I was born in Juneau Alaska but when I was two, my parents decided to move our family to a tiny isolated gold rush town in northern British Columbia, Canada. Growing up without television or even radio, reading was an important part of my life. Both parents were voracious readers and my mother became an accomplished author of books and newspaper articles.

The written offerings for pre and young teens was limited to The Hardy Boy’s, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators and the Nancy Drew series. Quickly exhausting everything in our tiny town library and even smaller school library, we dug into Uncle Leo’s stack of westerns or our dad’s beloved collection of science fiction. It was my mom’s vast selection of books about the North and those stories about the explorers, trappers, miners and the people who had always been there, that excited my imagination.

My mother was an artist, historian and author and I grew up watching her write books, newspaper articles and letters so many letters.  The sound track of my childhood was set to the rhythm of my mother’s typewriter. She passed away years ago but left an indelible impression on her town and its residents.  I’ve endeavored to honor her accomplishments and the idea to write a memoir about my time in the town she loved seemed like a great place to start and I began.

At that time my experience was limited to a failed dabble in poetry and I wrote a number of short film scripts of which one was made and got into the Anchorage International Film Festival. Murphy the character only existed in a short, unfinished story and was something I occasionally tweaked and added to, treating it more as practice rather than a serious project.

I did write a memoir of my childhood and after many edits and rewrites it was published by Fathom publishing. Around that time, I showed Fathom what I had on the first Murphy mystery and they encouraged me to make a full-length novel. I came to the startling realization that I was basically writing a Hardy Boys novel. Although I’ve been told many times to write what you know, I was worried. I decided I better find out what was available for MG and YA readers so I took a trip to the big book store. Two things stood out: I couldn’t find anything similar to what I was writing and a vast majority of what was offered was fantasy.

I’m continually grateful to the many amazing writers of all genres and especially for those that created a sensational resurgence in youth reading with their amazing stories and characters. What I found missing from those shelves was the realistic adventures, the problem solving, the real settings and the real tension that comes from knowing a chant or a magic elixir won’t save you.

I wondered if there was room on those shelves for what I’d liked growing up and more importantly was that style or genre even relevant in this day of wizards and secret worlds. I could not readily answer either question so I decided to continue writing what I liked and see what happened.

I picked Juneau as the location for the mysteries. It is where I met the boy who inspired the character. I lived in Juneau as an adult for eight years so I am very familiar with the area and the history. Understanding and preserving history accurately is important to me so I wanted to add historic overtones wherever I could in the stories and to make history important to the characters as well. Juneau’s exciting and diversified past gives a multitude of fascinating facts, larger than life characters and historic locations to work with. Its wild topography, its unpredictable weather and its proximity to the wilderness also provides fertile ammo for a writer.

I truly enjoy the freedom of my main characters as they are children with no real worries, they just get to be kids. It’s fun to write characters like that. I use real locations where I can in my stories and many of the supporting cast are loosely inspired by real people, adding a fun element for me as the writer. I try to keep the dialog as antagonistic as it is with kids that age but without hurt or meanness. I lean heavy on humor especially with Murphy, whenever he gets too full of himself, I ground him at his own expense and usually a laugh from Katrina.

I believe I always write up to my audience. I use my own everyday vocabulary and if some of the words are unfamiliar to the reader and they don’t find it in the glossary provided then it’s a lot easier to look up something today than it was when I was a kid. I believe it important to challenge a reader without boring them and that may be why adults have related well to the first book. That and possibly a little nostalgia.

About the Alaska Willowaw Mystery Series
by Brandon D. Smith

Book Details:

The multi-book Williwaw Series chronicles the adventures of Murphy Delgado, his dog Hogan and his sarcastic and mysterious cousin Katrina as they solve mysteries and chase villains in Juneau, Alaska.

Storybook Lady
Series Review

Wonderful Alaskan Williwaw Adventures

Bradford D. Smith has written a fantastic middle grade adventure series. Set in Juneau, Alaska, Murphy and his friend Katrina are in a town where kids are care-free which gives them lots of opportunity for adventure. Smith captures the beauty of the surrounding territory and weaves nuggets of Alaskan history throughout the story. The dialogue between the kids capture the natural good natured teasing and snark that one hears between siblings or close friends. The author states that he was aiming for an old fashioned adventure similar to the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew stories that were popular when he was young. He has done exactly that. When I read these stories, they reminded me of the mysteries that I read as a child sixty years ago. Kids will love the fast paced adventures and adults will enjoy the nostalgia that reminds them of why they fell in love with mystery books when they were young.

Read my review of the newest book, Murphy and the Mystery of the Outlaw Gold Mine.

Author Bio:

Bradford D. Smith grew up as an only child amongst a household of Huskies and Malamutes. At times, he thought they were his siblings. From the age of two, he lived in Atlin, British Columbia, a historic gold mining town nestled deep in the wilderness just south of the Yukon Border and connected to Alaska by the Juneau ice field. Brad grew up without radio or television in a time before video machines and home computers were common. Books and reading were important entertainment and in the dark, subzero winter months, they became paramount to the sound mental survival of many. Brad’s mom read to him before he was born and throughout his childhood. This instilled an intense curiosity deep within him and an insatiable appetite to satisfy it. Brad read everything he could find and at a young age, he was reading books his mother enjoyed about arctic explorers, prospectors, trappers and first nations people. His latest book, a young adult mystery, Murphy and the Mystery of the Black Skull, was shaped by his own fascination with the mystery genre as a young adult. Updated to fit today’s times, he leans heavily on the style of writing he himself enjoyed as a young teen. This book is sprinkled with real world places and the author’s love of history is quickly exposed in this fast-paced adventure. Brad has lived and worked in many places across Alaska over the years including Juneau. He still works in Arctic Alaska seasonally and lives with his wife in central BC, Canada with their pack of dogs.

Catch Up With Bradford D. Smith:

Website: BradfordSmithAuthor.com
Retail Links: Amazon Author Profile | BookBub |

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Interested in my reviews? I also have a Goodreads shelf dedicated to Children’s Mystery Books and another for Middle Grade reads. Want to read my reviews for books in other genres? I’ve got you covered. There are almost two thousand reviews on Goodreads. Just check out Julie Ditton on Goodreads.

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Giveaway

Celebrate the Release & You Could Snag a Gift Card

This giveaway is hosted by Partners in Crime Tours for Murphy and the Mystery of the Outlaw Gold Mine. See the widget for entry terms and conditions. Void where prohibited.

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