Melinda Moustakis was born in Alaska and raised in Bakersfield, CA. She is the author of Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories. Northerner.
 

"Ma is the one who made Mutts hire Spook. Captain mutts, that's my dad, who I call Mutts and Ma calls Captain Mutts, though she's the one who drives our boat, the Halibut Hellion, and she's the one with the fish sense, and she's the one that keeps everyone from killing each other. This woman showed up at the Seward dock with her homemade knives and waited for a cleaning station and none of the bibs would let her in. I told her she could have my space when I was done, but Ma came to the dock. The bibs were all talking about the woman, said she was so ugly she'd make a boat spook, jump water and travel by land, which is how she got the name Spook, and it stuck and Spook didn't seem to mind."

– Melinda Moustakis, Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories