Talented Author, Mark Hunter, Shares His Indiana

There I was, a sulky, introverted teenager, nursing my frostbite injuries, stuck without enough books as the Blizzard of ’78 raged outside. I nursed my dreams of literary stardom and swore that as soon as I turned eighteen, I’d move somewhere, far, far south. Preferably a place that could be described with words such as “island”, and “Caribbean”.

Fast forward forty years.

Here in Indiana, every time winter gets to be too much, something miraculous happens. You’d call it Spring. I call it wonderful. So here I’ve been ever since, hating winter, but loving every single other part of living in Indiana.

As for literary stardom, I’m fairly sure the Hoosier State has nothing to do with that.

Although unplanned, most of my eleven published books are love letters to Indiana. Storm Chaser didn’t exactly make our weather look good, but it was set partially at Chain O’ Lakes State Park, which was voted into the top ten of the many state parks in the Hoosier State. (I’ve been to all but two of the top ten—time to plan a new camping trip!)

Its sequels, Storm Chaser Shorts and The Notorious Ian Grant, were naturally also set in northeast Indiana. Although some characters from those books appeared in my young adult novel, The No-Campfire Girls, I mixed it up a little and set that story in southern Indiana. That was after my wife and I got a chance to travel down there, and discovered that just as northern Indiana is full of lakes, the southern part of the state is loaded with thick forests and rugged areas the flyover people would never suspect.

The middle of the state, of course, is loaded with Indianapolis. (Well, not all of it! If you want really rugged, try Turkey Run State Park.) We toured the big city too, while we were writing a humor book about Indiana history and trivia titled Hoosier Hysterical. While I’m not a big city kind of guy, the monuments, parks, museums, and historical sites can be awe inspiring.

My wife and I worked on two more local books: a history of the Albion Fire Department, where I volunteer, and a photo history of my home county of Noble, part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series. That made my next novel, Radio Red, an odd man out—it’s set in Michigan. But I came right back with my latest romantic comedy, Coming Attractions, which revolves around a battle to preserve an Indiana drive-in movie theater.

What did I miss? Oh, yeah: I’ve come out with my second collection of humor pieces, More Slightly Off the Mark: Why I Hate Cats, and Other lies. It’s a sequel to, well, Slightly Off the Mark. And how are they Indiana related? They’re based on humor columns I wrote over a twenty-five-year period for three weekly newspapers … Indiana newspapers, of course.

It’s the fact that most of those books involved humor in some way that made me realize Indiana isn’t just a home; it’s a place I love, good and bad, even if I complain during winter. I mean, surely you complain about things you love, right? Especially if you’re parents.

Let me know what you think! A random commenter will get a free copy of one of our two newest books, since they’re very different from each other: The romantic comedy Coming Attractions, or the humor collection More Slightly Off the Mark: Why I Hate Cats, and Other lies.

Mark R. Hunter and his wife Emily live in northeast Indiana with their dog, Beowulf, and a cowardly ball python named Lucius. There he works as a 911 dispatcher and volunteer firefighter, serves on various town boards, and puzzles over the concept of free time.
All of their books, and a link to Mark’s blog, can be found on his website at www.markrhunter.com, and he has an Amazon Author Page at www.amazon.com/Mark-R-Hunter/e/B0058CL6OO.

Mark can also be found on social media, including: Blogger: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

Don't forget to leave a comment to be eligible for Mark Hunter's great prize!  Leave a form of contact, or click on the Contact Tab at the top of the blog and drop me an email with your contact info so I can find you if you're the lucky winner!  Also, all people who comment are eligible for the End-of-the-Month Grand Prize! 

(ALL INFO PROVIDED AND RELEASED BY AUTHOR)

Author-Mark Hunter Shares His Indiana

An Indiana author writing about Indiana? What are the odds? And yet, defying those odds (1 in 5,423—I looked it up), my first eight published books were all about, or set in, or somehow involved, Indiana.

But my ninth book was set in Michigan, and I just finished a manuscript set in Kentucky … I’m so ashamed. At least I stuck to Border States. I always come back home, and can’t imagine being anywhere else for longer than a few months—those months being December through February.

(Indiana’s beautiful in winter … I just don’t like winter.)

Looking back, my books tend to be about humor, firefighting, history, or the weather. My love of history resulted in Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All. That was fun to research, as it took my wife and me all over. After all, this is the state where the legislature tried to set a new legal value for pi, until a Purdue professor explained math doesn’t work that way. So they compromised by giving Indiana its own pie, sugar cream, which needs math only while measuring ingredients.

And the weather? Well, it wasn’t intended to be a theme. My first novel, Storm Chaser, was about a—wait for it—storm chaser. It led to the Storm Chaser series: two romantic comedies, a short story collection, and a young adult novel. All set during summer in Indiana.

Since I was a kid, Indiana summers have been magic. From Memorial Day to Labor Day we roamed the countryside, and there was plenty of countryside to roam. In northern Indiana a short drive—often a bike ride or walk—will take you to one of our hundreds of lakes. An 1874 book lists 150 lakes just in Noble County, but we’ve drained some swamps of our own since then. Then there’s Lake Michigan, of course.

So on hot days you’ve got swimming, boating, diving, fishing, water skiing, and just sitting along the shore. You’ve got some of that in winter, too, for people who aren’t me.

Then we have our state parks, over two dozen of them—not to mention memorials, forests, and private entertainment like Indiana Beach (yeah, lake) or the fabled Santa Claus, Indiana. If you’re the more indoorsy type (What’s wrong with you? I mean, when it’s warm out.), there are numerous museums, historical sites, festivals, and other entertainment.

If it’s too flat for you, go to the caves and cliffs of southern Indiana; if it’s too rugged, head to the fields and cities of central Indiana. If you’re into horseback riding, there are horses thick as … well, horses. My wife would know—she works at the Pokagon State Park saddle barn. And of course, there are all those glacier-caused lakes and ponds of northern Indiana. There’s something for everyone.

Even if you like winter.

I hope you come to visit one day! But meanwhile, one random commenter gets a copy of my newest book, Radio Red. Which, yes, I realize is not set in Indiana, but it’s only a five hour drive:

Kirsten Veiss is setting a record for bad days: She’s broke, lost in rural Michigan, sunburned, and without transportation after her van hits a deer. When she hears a nearby radio personality making fun of the classical music she loves, it’s the last straw. Aaron Debolt just wants to bring classical to a wider audience, and he thinks a shock jock approach might do it. But he’s shocked himself when a sunburned, wild-eyed redhead bursts into the radio station late at night, brandishing—a tailpipe. Soon Aaron has his hands full in more ways than one, and Kirsten has a temporary on-air job under the name Radio Red. Now all they have to do is prove she’s not the one sabotaging the station’s operation.

Mark lives in small town Indiana with his wife, Emily, their dog, Beowulf, and their cowardly python, Lucius. His night job is as a 911 dispatcher, and he’s also a volunteer firefighter and photography. In his non-existent free time, he writes fiction, nonfiction, and fan fiction. He’s also known for really bad puns.

Connect to Mark and all his work, including purchase information, on his website:  www.markhunter.com

He’s also blogging at: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

Facebooking at: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter/

And Amazoning at: https://www.amazon.com/Mark-R-Hunter/e/B0058CL6OO
(Info Author Provided)

Molly Daniels Says, “Happy 'Bison-Tennial’ Indiana!”

This was an exciting year for my home state; we turned 200 on Dec 11, 2016:)  To celebrate, many events were planned, such as a Bicentennial Bazaar in Indianapolis, various festivals across the state, special exhibits at different museums, and a book showcasing Knox and Daviess County authors released last November.  

Meet “Knox” and note the watermelons:  Knox County is the place for melons of all kinds.

I grew up in Tippecanoe County, where I survived the Blizzard of ‘78;  traveled to the Indiana Dunes once; and spent many happy hours canoeing down Sugar Creek, then exploring Turkey Run and The Shades State Parks.  I also enjoyed going to the Feast of the Hunter’s Moon each year and enjoying buffalo burgers. 

My grandfather handled the ticket sales for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and this year, at the 101st running of the Indy 500, we will sit in the seats we’ve held for fifty-three years.  The price of a ticket in the paddocks in 1963?  

$15.  It’s considerable higher now.

College-wise, I’m from a mixed family.  My father graduated from Purdue, while my mother received her RN from the IU School of Nursing.  She did, however, receive her Masters in Health Education at Purdue.  I, however, chose to attend Vincennes University and Ball State.

As a lover of history, I was thrilled to learn the county I now live in shares a common history with the one in which I was born.  I know we studied State History in the 4th grade, but honestly, the only thing I remember is gazing at Plymouth Rock, falling asleep on the bus while touring downtown Indianapolis, and being awed by a house which was a stop on the Underground Railroad.  My children and I now take frequent trips to the George Rogers Clark Memorial each summer, and last year, my 5th grader, after reading about the Northwest Territory, exclaimed,”So that’s why we have that huge building over by the river!”

Umm, yes, that would be the battlefield, when the British surrendered Fort Sackville.

It’s also the reason we go to the annual Rendezvous Festival in May!  Yes, more buffalo burgers for me,

turkey legs for the kids!  But I digress….

I’m proud of my home state, even though we can’t agree on what time it is, and our weather is bi-polar, but that just seems to make everything more interesting! For instance, this winter we only received a dusting of snow, and as I write this, it is 60 degrees in February.  However, it’s pretty much a given that it will snow during March Madness.

“When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash

Then I long for my Indiana home.”

-Back Home Again In Indiana, Eddy Arnold

Want to win a pdf copy of Forbidden Love?  All you have to do is leave a comment and I’ll choose one at random. Make sure to leave a way for contact.

Meet Keri Patterson, a sophomore at Arbor University, pursuing an Auto Technology career in the middle 1980s. The college is located in the fictional town of Arbordale, Indiana, and Keri’s dream is to one day be a part of an Indy car racing team. Along the way, she meets and falls for an older man, Kyle Sampson, who happens to be going through a divorce. With the innocence of her first love, Keri tries to balance her ambition to be the first female member of a racing pit crew and her awakening femininity. Will Keri and Kyle’s romance survive the hairpin twists and turns, or is disaster looming?

Kyle is not without problems of his own. He wasn’t expecting to meet the girl of his dreams so quickly, before the ink is even dry on the divorce petition. Trying to keep the two facets of his life separate, he discovers there is a fine line between love and hate, as well as deception and protection. But life doesn’t always get wrapped up in neat packages. Sometimes it blows up in your face.

http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Love-Arbor-University-Tales-ebook/dp/B0160AL7QO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457923653&sr=8-1&keywords=forbidden+love+molly+daniels

Molly Daniels resides in the Midwest with her husband, three children, and various household pets. Her Arbor University series follows the lives of several college coeds, proving that even good kids can still make bad choices! The trick, however, is will they learn from those choices and go on to lead successful lives?

Find me here:

Website:  www.mollydaniels.wordpress.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/mollyjdaniels

Blog:  www.mjdaniels.blogspot.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Molly-Daniels/e/B003CMEYTQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_7?qid=1458006360&sr=8-7

(All Info Author Provided)

Mark Hunter Shares a Summer of Indiana

Last summer my wife and I began planning a humor book, Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All. Indiana’s 2016 bicentennial, after all, doesn’t come along every century.

While researching the book we visited a lot of fun places, but our favorites were monuments and natural areas. An example is the main square of Indianapolis, which was laid out so the governor’s mansion would be right in the center of a grand city.

No governor ever lived there. It was just too busy. Eventually the mansion was torn down and replaced by Monument Circle. There you’ll find, among other statues, the Indiana State Soldiers and Sailors Monument—the first in the nation dedicated to the “common” soldier and sailor.

You can’t toss a chunk of Indiana limestone without hitting a monument, which is usually made of Indiana limestone. We’re a place of historically historic places, such as the original State Capitol, Corydon. In addition to the Old Capitol Building, there stands the preserved trunk of an old elm tree. It turns out the air conditioning didn’t work well in 1816, so state delegates headed outside to write the Indiana Constitution under something that only then became known as the Constitutional Elm.

Among my other favorite memorials is one honoring George Rogers Clark, whose military exploits secured the Northwest Territory for the new United States. Further south, near the Ohio River (and the Christmas-themed town of Santa Claus), is the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. There Abe lived—in his boyhood, obviously—the same year Indiana became a state. There his mother died of milk sickness, while little Abe was kicked in the head by a horse and for a time thought dead, and became so upset after shooting a wild turkey that he never hunted again. Not on the same day. Still, it’s no wonder he moved on to Illinois.

It’s Indiana’s state parks that are closest to my heart. There’s something about being outdoors that’s so … outdoorsy. There are many recreational areas, with the goal of having at least one park within an hour’s drive of any Hoosier—at least, any Hoosier who happens to be in Indiana.

The first was McCormick’s Creek State Park, dedicated July 4, 1916, as part of Indiana’s centennial celebration. It was named after John Wesley McCormick, whose son settled in the middle of White River State Park (it wasn’t a park then), becoming the first resident of what would someday be Indianapolis. The first naturalist program in the entire country began at McCormick Creek, in 1927. 

Our parks show off natural environments, like the cliffs and falls of Clifty Falls (I see what they did, there), and the kettle lakes of my favorite, Chain O’ Lakes State Park. But later they expanded to take in historical locations like Mounds State Park, which no, isn’t related to the candy bar (unless that’s where the Native Americans dumped their wrappers?) One of the signs of civilization is when people don’t have to live in tents and cook over fires, but do it voluntarily.

If you plan to recreate in Indiana—and who doesn’t?—there’s lots of other stuff to do. We have fairs and festivals all over, from spring through autumn. There’s cross country skiing in winter, which goes to show Hoosiers try to give crazy people something to do. Big cities to small towns, zoos, water parks, wineries, and you can’t swing an historical artifact without hitting a museum in Indiana, although they frown on swinging the artifacts, so don’t.

All four of my published fiction works are set in Indiana: Storm Chaser, its sequel The Notorious Ian Grant, and a related story collection Storm Chaser Shorts all in northeastern Indiana, while The No-Campfire Girls is set at a southern Indiana summer camp. In addition to Hoosier Hysteria, our other two non-fiction books are about local history: Images of America: Albion and Noble County and Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With the Albion Fire Department. Only my humor collection, Slightly Off the Mark, isn’t set here—although Indiana often gets a mention.

One random commenter will get a copy of our new book, Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving At All, when it’s released in May.

Mark lives in small town Indiana with his wife, Emily, their dog, Baewulf, and their cowardly python, Lucius. His night job is as a 911 dispatcher, and he’s also a volunteer firefighter and photography. In his non-existent free time, he writes fiction, nonfiction, and fan fiction. He’s also known for really bad puns.

Connect to Mark and all his work, including purchase information, here:  www.markhunter.com

(Info provided by author) 

TAKE SPECIAL NOTICE OF THE SIDEBAR TODAY!  AUTHOR MOLLY DANIELS WAS THE SCHEDULED POST BUT TURNED HER INFO IN LATE.  TAKE A MOMENT TO CHECK OUT HER INDIANA VIEW AS WELL! THANKS MOLLY! 

The Varied Landscape of Indiana with Sheila Webster Boneham

Setting is an essential part of many works of fiction. Some settings are important enough to be regarded as "characters" of a sort – Tony Hillerman’s Four Corners area, John Connolly’s Maine, J.A. Jance’s Arizona and Seattle, Carl Hiassen’s Florida, and of course the many books featured on this blog.

In my own Animals in Focus mystery series, animal photographer Janet MacPhail, her Australian Shepherd Jay, and her orange tabby Leo, spend their time in and around Fort Wayne and other parts of northern and central Indiana. I chose the area partly because I grew up there and know it well, and partly because it is a beautiful part of the country that often gets short shrift from outsiders who think all of Indiana is flat farmland merging into the industrial landscape just east of Chicago. Indiana does have its share of corn, beans, and steel mills, but the state is also rich in lakes, rivers, forests, and ravines as well as the vibrant cities, small towns, and occasional quirky attractions. I can’t do it all justice here, but maybe I can pique your interest enough to consider exploring the Hoosier State in more depth.

We’ll begin our ramble in the north, where the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore stretches for fifteen miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan where, in addition to the beach, the national lakeshore's 15,000 acres offer forty-five miles of trails through dunes, wetlands, prairies, and forests. If that’s not enough, nearby Indiana Dunes State Park offers more opportunities to enjoy the wildlife and natural landscape of this beautiful area. In fact, the northern and northeastern parts of Indiana are known for inviting lakes, some small and quiet, others big enough for speedboats. A bit south of Lake Michigan we find Jasper-Pulaski State Park, where some ten thousand Sandhill cranes congregate in the fall—a spectacular sight and sound!

 

If you’re in the mood for something a more rugged, travel to Turkey Run and Shades state parks in the west-central part of Indiana. Ancient glaciers carved deep ravines into this landscape, which is filled with gorgeous rock formations and varied flora and fauna. Shades also protects one of the last remaining virgin hardwood forests in the region. If you hike these trails, be sure to wear your slip-proof shoes or boots, and be ready for a workout, and for some gorgeous scenery and wildlife sightings.

An hour or so east, we roll into Indianapolis, the “Crossroads of America” and home to the Indianapolis 500. Even if you’re not into race cars (I’m not), no encounter with Indy is complete without a visit to the Indianapolis 500 Museum, complete with a bus ride around the famous track. Try it – you might enjoy yourself. (I did!)

The southern part of the state is limestone country—in fact, stone from Bedford, Indiana, is regarded as the highest quality limestone in the United States, and many iconic American buildings are made out of Indiana limestone, including the Empire State Building, the Washington National Cathedral, the Pentagon, and more than half of the current state capitol buildings.

Southern Indiana is also famous for its hilly terrain, with rugged ravines and gorgeous hiking trails in many areas. The Hoosier National Forest, which is split into four separate areas, consists of some two-hundred thousand acres of mostly deciduous forest spread over a karst foundation underlain by many caves. The largest cities in southern Indiana are Bloomington, home of Indiana University, and Columbus, famous for its architecture. When I was a grad student at IU, I spent many happy hours hiking the hills and valleys of McCormick Creek and Brown County state parks, and beautiful Yellowwood Forest, one of my favorite places in the world. In autumn, tourists flock to Brown County and, farther south along the Ohio River, to the Madison area for the leaf display, but I have always loved spring in southern Indiana, when white dogwood and deep pink redbud blossoms dance at the edges of the forests. Maybe it’s time for a visit.

Catwalk (Midnight Ink, 2014), Animals in Focus Mystery #3:

Animal photographer Janet MacPhail is training for her cat Leo’s first feline agility trial when she gets a frantic call about a “cat-napping.” When Janet and her Australian Shepherd Jay set out to track down the missing kitty, they quickly find themselves drawn into the volatile politics of feral cat colonies, endangered wetlands, and a belligerent big-shot land developer. Janet is crazy busy trying to keep up with her mom’s nursing-home romance, her own relationship with Tom and his Labrador Retriever Drake, and upcoming agility trials with Jay and Leo. But when a body is discovered on the canine competition course, it stops the participants dead in their tracks—and sets Janet on the trail of a killer.

Visitors this week are eligible for a great prize!  Leave a comment with contact information to gain your chance at a copy of Catwalk in choice of paperback, Kindle, or Audible format.

Sheila Webster Boneham writes fiction and nonfiction, much of it focused on animals, nature, and travel. Drop Dead on Recall (Midnight Ink, 2012) won the 2013 Maxwell Award for Best Fiction Book from the Dog Writers Association of American and was named a Top Ten Dog Book of 2012 by NBC Petside. The sequel, The Money Bird (2013) was a Maxwell finalist in 2014. Shepherd’s Crook, the fourth Animals in Focus Mystery, will be out in fall 2015. Six of Sheila’s non-fiction books have been named best in their categories in the Dog Writers Association of America (DWAA) and the Cat Writers Association (CWA) annual competitions, and her book Rescue Matters! How to Find, Foster, and Rehome Companion Animals (Alpine, 2009) has been called a "must read" for anyone involved with animal rescue. Her work has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in literary nonfiction. Learn more at http://www.writersandotheranimals.com or http://www.sheilaboneham.com

Sheila’s books are available in paperback, ebook, Audible, and large print editions from all the usual sources. Personally autographed books are available from Pomegranate Books at http://www.sheilaboneham.blogspot.com/p/autographed-books.html 

Also contact Sheila Webster Boneham for more information on her work and Indiana life at these sites:

Web - www.sheilaboneham.com 

Facebook - www.facebook.com/sheilawrites

Blog -  www.writersandotheranimals.blogspot.com  

(All information provided by author)