Welcome to Issue 85 of the SUPERIOR BOOK PRODUCTIONS newsletter!
Happy Holidays, Everyone!
And Happy Native American Heritage Month. To celebrate, I’m happy to announce that my new book, Kawbawgam: The Chief, The Legend, The Man, a biography of Ojibwa Chief Charles Kawbawgam, will be released on November 18.
Here’s a little bit about the book taken from the back cover:
Today, Charles Kawbawgam, “The Last Chief of the Chippewa,” is a legend in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for allegedly living to age 103 (1799-1902). But few know anything else about him beyond his being buried in Marquette’s beautiful Presque Isle Park.
Kawbawgam witnessed a period of intense industrial growth and unheralded change for Native Americans. Growing up at Sault Sainte Marie when the area was still claimed by Great Britain, his first memory was of armed Americans coercing his people into ceding their lands to the United States Government. As the son, nephew, stepson, and later son-in-law of Ojibwa chiefs, and in time a chief in his own right, Kawbawgam learned early that he would have to walk a fine line to keep the peace. After temporarily migrating to Canada with other Ojibwa in disagreement with the American government, he returned to the Sault where he was recruited to help found the town of Marquette.
Kawbawgam would preside over an Ojibwa and métis community that helped ensure the white settlers’ survival during Marquette’s early years, only to be pushed to the city’s margins as Marquette grew and prospered. Yet the admiration and affection Kawbawgam won from whites as well as the Ojibwa maintained peace and created a legacy that lives on today. Kawbawgam is a story of cross-cultural friendships, survival amid upheaval, and the importance of community and heritage.
My initial planned in-person book release party, due to COVID-19, has now become two events:
- I will be giving a presentation on Wednesday, November 18 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom through the Marquette Regional History Center. If you wish to attend, you need to register for the event and there is a $5 donation required to the History Center. You can register for the Zoom event here.
- I will also be doing a socially distanced book signing at the Marquette Regional History Center on Saturday, November 21 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Free admission.)
If you cannot attend the book signing and still want a copy, you can get Kawbawgam locally in Marquette at the Marquette Regional History Center’s gift shop, Snowbound Books, Michigan Fair, and Touch of Finland. You can also order the book directly from my website www.MarquetteFiction.com or at Amazon, where I will have both paper and ebook versions available beginning November 18.
Thank you, as always, for your support, as I continue to live my dream as an author and editor. This is book twenty-one! I never would have imagined I’d write that many books.
Below are some other great books to read, including another Native American book. All of them would make great holiday gifts!
Best wishes. Stay safe, and let’s all hope that 2021 will be a better year for everyone!
This Month’s Great Book Quote:
“I tell people I have insomnia, but really I have a good book and an inadequate respect for tomorrow.”
— Snowbound Books T-Shirt, Marquette, MI—my favorite independent bookstore
(You can buy a T-Shirt with this saying on it at Snowbound’s website)
Just outside the town of Manistique, in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula, is Kitch-iti-kipi, Michigan’s largest freshwater spring. In the Ojibwe language, kitch-iti-kipi means “Big Spring,” and it is not only a natural wonder but a tourist attraction.
While Kitch-iti-kipi was long known by the Ojibwe, because it is hidden deep in the woods near Indian Lake, twelve miles outside of Manistique, it did not become popular among white locals and visitors until the 1920s when John I. Bellair, owner of a dime store in Manistique, began to popularize it. Bellair promoted several different legends about Kitch-iti-kipi to get people to visit the area. However, as he admitted later in life, he created many of those legends himself.
However, U.P. author Carole Lynn Hare knows the true legend of Kitch-iti-kipi. In her new book, The Legend of Kitch-iti-kipi, she shares an authentic Ojibwe story that has been passed down in her Ojibwe family from her great-great-great-grandmother, who repeated the tale as she first heard it from an old Ojibwe woman.
To read more, visit The Legend of Kitch-iti-kipi.
Vasudha Sharma’s new book Why She Must Lead: Bridging the Gap Between Opportunities and Women of Color is a manifesto about the situation of women, especially women of color, but embraces all women, including minority and transgender women, in the United States. Vasudha is herself an immigrant to the United States. Originally from New Delhi, India, today she resides in the Seattle suburbs, where she is a wife, mother of two boys, and doctor of physical therapy.
Vasudha’s educated voice of advocacy is what this country needs as America’s racial landscape changes. As Vasudha states in the book, drawing upon a study by the US census, by the year 2045, people of color will be the majority in the United States, and by 2060, women of color will represent the majority of women. That reflects the world our children and grandchildren will inherit, and they do not deserve to experience the same sexist and racial issues we currently face. As a result, it is time women’s voices are heard.
Making use of painstaking research, Why She Must Lead explores the situation of women of color today, primarily in the workplace, and then discusses ways to improve this situation.
To read more, visit Why She Must Lead.
Ryan M. Oliver’s debut fantasy novel Soldiers of Fire is the first in a proposed five-volume series titled Beasts of Men and Gods. Lovers of J. R. R. Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, and other classic fantasy authors will love the world-building, adventure, and humor reflected in every page of this incredible epic.
The story opens when an elderly man named Nestor has a terrible dream of war coming to Ruxar, a continent made up of five kingdoms which have lived in peace for as long as anyone can remember. Nestor soon meets the warrior, Aedan, whom he foresaw in his dream, and manages to convince him that war is coming to the town of Brédon where they are both strangers. Sure enough, the neighboring kingdom of Hydraria attacks the town, to everyone’s astonishment. In creating a resistance, Nestor and Aedan soon establish themselves as leaders in fighting the enemy, and along with another warrior, Aloysius, they become known as the “Soldiers of Fire.”
From there, Oliver goes on to tell an enthralling story of secrets and revelations.
To read more, visit Soldiers of Fire.
It’s December 1997, and reluctant war hero, Inspector “Kaj” Kajiwara, is asked to solve the murder of Hawaii State University Professor Harrison Whitworth, Hawaii’s first Nobel Prize winner, shot through the heart by an arrow on his Manoa driveway. Kaj and his team soon face an assortment of investors, faculty, administrators, and political leaders, all with possible motive for harming Whitworth. Then, to make matters worse, a member of the Consulate of Kuthan is detained at the crime scene. The Kuthani belief in soul connection demands that Kaj find a way to bridge communication between East and West at the same time that he delves deeply both into his own past and also into the history of the complicated, brilliant victim.
The Midas Death is not only a ripping good mystery story, but award-winning author Diana M. DeLuca also thoroughly captures the world of Hawaii in her descriptions and knowledge of the locals. In addition, she has fun revealing a side of academia many may not realize exists, along with all the jealousies and politics involved in it. The result is a tour-de-force realistic picture of a situation that will leave mystery readers baffled but enthralled until the last page.
To read more, visit The Midas Death.
