I’m  looking forward to talking about Elsie’s Story with Rex Owens on his show, “My World and Welcome to It,” on Sun Prairie Community Radio 103.5 FM The Sun at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 31. The date marks the 58th anniversary of my Aunt Elsie’s mysterious death in a northern Wisconsin tavern–the event that inspired a decades-long quest for answers. Was her death suicide? Accident? Murder?

The quest involved the tools of journalism and genealogy, along with hypnosis and other alternative means. It led to secrets, surprises, and, finally, a solution, as told in Elsie’s Story: Chasing a Family Mystery.

The show will be live-streamed and available online.

Years ago I would have thought “the Iron Range” referred to a wood-burning cookstove. This weekend, I begin in-person research for a second edition of my book, Minnesota Underground: A Guide to Caves, Mines, and Tunnels, originally published by Trails Books way back in 2003. (While I did visit a manmade cave in a Red Wing bluff with geologist Greg Brick over Memorial Day weekend, that excursion was more of an add-on than a focused research trip.)

On this trip, I’ll update descriptions of the sites described in the first edition and check out a few new sites as well. One myth about writing is that it’s all about writing: sometimes it’s about reading, phoning, and walking around the edge of a mile-wide pit mine.

On Saturday, June 2, I had the privilege of joining other regional authors at Common Ground Cafe in Middleton. Besides meeting authors, the event featured workshops on creativity, writing, and publishing. Visit the Fans of Spindler Writing Facebook page to see photos. Hope this becomes an annual event!

Last night, lying in bed with the windows open, I heard an animal shuffling in the dead leaves—probably the woodchuck that’s lately been hanging around the lower deck. Then  a deer snorted loudly nearby, followed by coyote howls echoing along the river. This morning as I stood looking through the window above the kitchen sink,  a deer stood silent, ears pricked, in the bare woods behind the house. Spring came late this year, so the brambles are just beginning to leaf out and the may apples  to pop up along with a few fern heads. In a few weeks I’ll be walking there, waist-deep in ferns, searching for flowers and fawns.

Meeting and reconnecting with writer colleagues April 13 and 14 in Madison was an energizing experience! Kudos to all who are working on innovative book projects! Here I am at a book-signing  with Christy Wopat, author of Almost a Mother. Besides signing copies of Elsie’s Story: Chasing a Family Mystery, I received help from attendees who voted on two possible cover designs for my next book — the second edition of Wisconsin Underground: A Guide to Caves, Mines, and Tunnels In and Around the Badger State.

On Thursday, April 5, Doris Green will present “Murder, Suicide, or Accident?” to the Evansville Grove Society. She will tell the story of her decades-long quest to learn the cause of her favorite aunt’s death, which led to her book Elsie’s Story: Chasing a Family Mystery. Green will share the traditional genealogy and investigative journalism strategies she used to answer the question, “Murder, suicide, or accident?” as well as a few unconventional approaches. The presentation is set for 6 p.m., at Creekside Place, 102 Maple St., Evansville, Wisconsin.

On Friday, April 13, from 5:20 to 5:45 p.m., Doris Green will be on the Success Panel of authors who have published this year, as part of the 29th annual UW-Madison Writers’ Institute; see: https://uwwritersinstitute.wisc.edu/sessions/success-panel/. Also as part of the Writers’ Institute, she will sign copies of Elsie’s Story: Chasing a Family Mystery on Saturday, April 14 from 12:25 to 2 p.m.; see: https://uwwritersinstitute.wisc.edu/sessions/book-day-exhibitsbook-signing-selling-event/. The Writers’ Institute will be held downtown at the Madison Concourse Hotel.

On Monday, March 19, from 8 to 10 a.m., I’ll be giving an Author Talk to the Genealogy Group at the Dodgeville Public Library, 139 S. Iowa St., Dodgeville. Come to hear about the evolution of Elsie’s Story: Chasing a Family Mystery and news of another upcoming book. Hint: https://www.facebook.com/events/421862834917233/

Every month, the free regional newsletter, Voice of the River Valley, publishes my column, “Tracking Your Past.” The current column discusses what author Joan Bennett learned about her own family history while researching her book, The Mills of Iowa County.  The February column begins:

Side road distractions can sometimes lead to unexpected gems. When author Joan Bennett began her research for The Mills of Iowa County, she set aside work on her own family history—as she had done for her previous book, Where Have All the Cheese Factories Gone?, published in 2009 by the Iowa County Historical Society. Yet research on nineteenth-century flour, grist, feed and other mills didn’t take her completely away from her own family history; unexpectedly, Bennett’s research led to vignettes about her ancestors she might have otherwise missed.

From court records she found in the Southwest Room at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Bennett learned her great-grandfather Henry Cassidy was involved in a murder case and that her great-great-grandfather Peter Reckenthaler once sued an Iowa County mill following a horse-drawn wagon accident on its tailrace bridge.

Read more on page 11 in the current issue at http://voiceoftherivervalley.com.

Do you know about Wisconsin Book Fairies? Part of a global movement, these fairies leave books for people to find … wherever. For instance, here’s a post from their Facebook page. And there’s a website: https://ibelieveinbookfairies.com/.

• Saturday, Jan. 6, I’ll share background on Elsie’s story with a workshop/discussion on “Sharing Family History” at the Spring Green Community Library.
• Tuesday, Jan. 16, all are welcome to a presentation, “Family Mysteries with Local Authors,” from 6:30 to 8 p.m.at Ruth Culver Community Library in Prairie du Sac — with Rose Bingham, Wisconsin Dells, who has written a memoir, Buy the Little Ones a Dolly, about the disappearance of her mother when Bingham was 15, and her efforts to keep her six younger siblings all connected.