Marquette author Tyler Tichelaar has just published a new novel,
Spirit of the North. The book is a paranormal romance based in historical Marquette's--and that's a town with some good ghost stories.
The germ of the book is something Tichelaar has some history with himself.
"This story actually originated from a short story I wrote in middle school, the first U.P.-based story I ever wrote, titled "The Ghost of Stonegate Woods" about a ghost named Annabella Stonegate," he says. "It was made into a video on the Upper Michigan Today show back in 1986. Annabella always haunted me and I made reference to her in my novels Iron Pioneers and The Queen City. She’s a little girl who died in a snowstorm early in Marquette’s history and reputably became a ghost."
Spirit of the North tells Annabella's story within a larger story of two sisters who come to Marquette in 1873 to live with their uncle, but find him dead, and are stuck in the U.P. through a harsh winter.
Tichelaar says it's his first novel with a paranormal bent, but he's not done writing about Marquette and its history and characters just yet.
"I am currently working on a series of historical fantasy novels that will play upon more European legends like those of King Arthur and the fairy Melusine. That said, I have plenty more U.P. novels in me as well. It’s just a matter of finding the time to write them all," he says.
Spirit of the North is published through Tichelaar's own publishing company, Marquette Fiction. It's available through the publisher's
website, and in the U.P. at several local stores, as well as in e-book format at online bookstores.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Tyler Tichelaar, Marquette Fiction
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