Attorney Folta pens novel ‘Raven’

When Richard Folta returns to Haines in early March, he’ll have a book to promote.

Folta, a 75-year-old attorney and second-generation Alaskan, has self-published the novel “Raven Created the World,” his third book.

“It’s about a resurgence of a pre-Western, indigenous people who were devastated by disease and manmade and other kinds of disasters and, of course, the highlight is the issue on artifacts loss,” Folta said. “It’s just, pretty much, a day-to-day struggle to survive.”

Folta participated in a phone interview from Guam, where he is visiting family.

“When I come back, I’m going to have, probably, 100 copies (of “Raven Created the World”) and I’ll be visiting bookstores, but it’s online now,” Folta said.

His 155-page novel is available in hardcover, paperback and electronically at http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore.

“The manuscript was initially started in the early 1980s, and I thought it was about time to revise and finish it, since people I talked to were interested in the subject matter,” Folta said. “I thought there were a lot of artifact issues floating around – artifacts being sold improperly, like in Egypt, artifacts being taken and a Utah case where a number of artifacts were stolen and resold – so I thought it might be an interesting novel.”

He lives in Haines with his wife, Julianne.

“We’ve adopted a couple multicultural children and raised them, and I was adopted into the Tlingit Chilkoot Sockeye Raven clan,” he said.

Folta turned to self-publisher FriesenPress of Canada for “Raven Created the World.”

“Trying to find a traditional publisher is pretty hard these days, unless you’re a John Grisham,” he said, referring to the thriller author and fellow attorney.

The fictional story is based in Southeast Alaska and centers on the mythical Kaheen tribe and its leader, Kowak.

According to Folta’s website at rfolta.blogspot.com, Kowak “has found his cultural balance, however his nephew has rejected and lost respect for the traditional ways.”

Folta previously wrote “Of Bench and Bears: Alaska’s Bear Hunting Judge,” about his father, federal judge George Folta. An Anchorage publisher with a focus on hunting picked up that book in the 1980s.

That same decade, Folta finished “Rush of Eagle Wings,” which hit a dead end.

“It was being published by a firm back in New York that merged with a big, mega book publishing firm, and that was the last I heard of it,” he said.

Folta is writing a fourth book, “For Our Grandchildren,” a biography of influential Chilkoot leader Austin Hammond, also called Chief Daanawaak.