Creating a Local Historical Book by Tyler R. Tichelaar

Author:Tyler R. Tichelaar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Loving Healing Press Inc.

I had searched for books telling about the beauty of the country I loved; its romance, and heroism, and strength of courage of its people that had been plowed into the very furrows of its soil, and I did not find them. And so I wrote O Pioneers!

Finding a Readership for Regional Fiction

Willa Cather’s great insight was that if she wanted to read books about the region she lived in, others would as well. Regional writers have a great advantage because their audience is right in their own backyard. And believe me, people want to read about where they live.

I always felt Upper Michigan was someplace special, but I did not realize how special until I moved away. Then I began to miss the long winters, the blankets of snow, the stunning beauty of Lake Superior, the incredible autumn colors—so many priceless aspects of the area. Living away from Upper Michigan for six years allowed me to distance myself from it, to see it afresh and come to appreciate it in new and greater ways; that appreciation helped me to depict Upper Michigan in a manner attractive not only to local readers but also to those not familiar with the area. I felt Upper Michigan, its history and its environmental influence on people, was a significant part of the American story that must be told, just as Cather wanted to record as valuable the life of Nebraska’s pioneers. My readers have told me again and again I was right, that they enjoy reading about the place they know and love.

A comment I frequently receive from readers is that now they pay attention to the buildings in Marquette as they drive around the city—they try to pick out the sandstone structures built in the 1800s, and they try to imagine what the city looked like back then. My fiction helps them see the region in a new way, teaching them about the area, and encouraging them to find out more about their own family connections to the place.

I have been especially struck by local people’s responses to the cover of my book The Queen City. The cover photograph depicts the 1949 Marquette Centennial Parade. It never fails at my book signings that someone will say to me, “That’s my grandpa there in the crowd” or “My grandmother was on that float.” Senior citizens buy the book because sixty years ago, they stood that day watching the parade on the corner of Washington and Front Streets when they were young and all of life was before them. They are proud they were part of that significant moment in Marquette’s history. Their grandchildren buy the book because Grandma is in the photograph, and so they too feel connected to that place and moment in time. Upper Michigan has shaped who they are, and to discover books written about it, written about people like themselves and their forebears, makes them feel their lives are important. These local readers are my core audience, the people who love and revere Upper Michigan as I do.

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