A Labor of Love

When you get a chance, take a look at a documentary that Jason Swanson and I just produced. It's aired on TV6 and Fox UP and it's now posted on the web. You can link to it here Spirit of Hiawatha

It's called "The Spirit of Hiawatha" chronicling the last Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival in July. I first went to Hiawatha 6 years ago when I was considering coming to Marquette, and the festival convinced me this was a place I could live in and like.

Ever since, I've wanted to do a documentary on it because it's so rich with video and sound.

Now we've finally done it, and I'm happy to say it met my expectations, thanks in huge part to Jason Swanson, the young videographer and editor who worked his butt off shooting everything he could at the festival, and then worked his magic in the editing booth.

I think the program does, in fact, capture the spirit of Hiawatha, and does justice to the skills of the musicians, as well.

I hadn't done anything like this since I left Miami two decades ago, and it's good to get back into it. The dream for any TV journalist is to do long-form pieces.

In the meantime, Money in the Ground continues to sell. It's now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble's website, as well as as stores throughout the UP, and of course right here on this website.

And in recent weeks, I've been consumed with a project I'm collaborating on with the painter, Paul Grant. We're putting together a coffee-table style book on his art as it reflects the UP, the culture, and the residents here. Very rewarding. We expect to have it out at the beginning of December.

A second novel on Yoopers is also underway.

Keeping busy and trying to keep cool during a warm and humid UP summer

Book Signing on Saturday, March 6

We'll have a book-signing at Snowbound Books this Saturday from 2-4 pm. Come one, come all. I'd love to meet you and talk about the book or anything else on your mind.

It's interesting, I haven't read "Money in the Ground since I finished the last draft about four months ago, so I'm kind of curious to see how I react to it the next time I do read it all the way through.

It's good to get perspective. After laboring over something for a year, you get tired of it.

The novel got a mostly positive review from The Daily News in Iron Mountain on February 25th. The negatives dealt with my supposed arrogance and condescension, and my failure to accurately portray the Yooper dialect. I plead guilty on only the last charge. I'm still learning.

The book, by the way, is being offered on Amazon, as well as here on this website, and at bookstores throughout the U.P.