At the convention, Guthridge met George R. R. Martin, who persuaded him to give speculative fiction a second look, and to write in the field himself.
(Martin had been operating chess tournaments to supplement his writing income, but "wasn't making enough money to stay alive," says Guthridge.
From 1982, Guthridge coached school pupils in the Siberian Yupik Eskimo village of Gambell, Alaska, on the remote St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, to national championships in academics.
[citation needed] Novels Nonfiction Selected Short Fiction Guthridge also helped develop the Rural Alaska Honors Institute (RAHI).
Over 2000 of its graduates have gone on to college success, including at such institutions as Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, Notre Dame, Stanford, Berkeley, West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy.