Living in the Pacific Northwest (in Oregon) and traveling to national parks and wilderness areas around the country, glaciers have become one of my favorite features of the outdoors. I have hiked up to glaciers, hiked on glaciers, skied up and down glaciers, and even slid down glaciers on my bottom and belly (yes, like a penguin!) These huge masses of ice, which gleam white and glow blue, seem at first glance to be permanent features of the landscape. But every year, I can see glaciers on Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, Mount Rainier, and other mountains growing and retreating. The glaciers themselves change shape with soft cornflower snow piling on top and cold, hard ice melting at the bottom. Wildflower meadows and alpine lakes fed by glacier waters are the most beautiful in the world. So I love glaciers and I have marveled at them in wonder, but it wasn't until I took a trip with my 13-year-old daughter to Alaska that I began to understand them. We were in Alaska doing research for another book about the Northern Lights (also with WM).

The aurora is visible only at night so we explored Alaska - and especially glaciers -- during the day. The inspiration for the book came during a day-long glacier boat tour on the Prince William Sound. As we oogled at all the different kinds of glaciers, watched glaciers calve and learned about glacier processes from the park ranger on board, I started to hear a voice. It was the voice of a young glacier making funny comments about all the strange things that happen to her over time as she slowly moves and changes. I jotted lots of notes in a small notebook, which became the voice of the book. Flo was born!.