Michipicoten Island

by on February 13, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Michipicoten Island is the third largest island in Lake Superior, inhabiting its eastern reaches. It is largely uninhabited during winter due to the extreme cold and isolation, but it is a favored destination of vacationers and travelers in the other seasons. The island’s core is made of ancient lava bedrock, it is heavily forested, and has over 20 lakes of its own scattered across the island. Yes. There are over 20 lakes on an island in the middle of the Great Lake Superior. It’s approximately 17 miles long and 6 miles wide, larger than most cities in America. And in many Indian traditions, it is the home of Mishipeshu, a great feline spirit that guards all of Lake Superior from those who would ravage or disrespect it. It is an interesting island, and while I do not intend to write a story on it at this time, it does shape a story I write now.

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Lake Superior

by on February 12, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world, reaching all the way down below sea level. It is the highest of the Great Lakes in North America, and the water flows down from it through the other Great Lakes on its long way to the Atlantic Ocean. The Ojibwe Indians called it gichi-gami, the great sea, and they believed that the various copper deposits in the lake belonged to a spirit that inhabited the lake, a great lynx, an underwater panther, or various other names and descriptions. Many Indian tribes of the general area held similar beliefs of powerful monsters or spirits living in Lake Superior, and believed the storms that often wracked it and destroyed boats atop it were caused by these spirits. Interestingly, the lake is cold enough that bacteria does not grow on dead bodies like it does in warmer lakes, and so the bodies go all the way to the bottom of the lake and stay there. Hence the saying that Lake Superior never gives up her dead. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a song by Gordon Lightfoot that made the shipwreck of the namesake ship famous all over the world. Ice actually closes the lake to shipping in the depths of winter, and you simply must look at pictures of the Duluth Harbor lighthouse in winter, when the wind is blowing freezing water through the air to solidify around the building. It is a truly amazing sight if you’ve never seen it before. And if you have.

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Independence

by on February 11, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Independence was a steamboat that sailed the Great Lake Superior back in the 1840s. She was built to sail the lake, rolled up into the lake, and spent most of her like supporting the various mining operations around Lake Superior. She sank in 1853, after her boiler exploded a mere mile or two from the rapids leading out of Lake Superior. Many brave men went out to rescue as many passengers and crew as they could before the rapids claimed her and dragged her down. It was a tragedy. But what if it was something more?

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Mishipeshu

by on February 10, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I’ve found a new fantastic creature to write a story about. Mishipeshu of the Ojibwe traditions, is an Underwater Panther or Great Lynx that inhabits the Great Lake of Superior in the middle of North America. A protector if happy. A threat if angry. Lake Superior is its domain, and beware all who do not respect it. For it will bring great waves and whirlpools and destroy the ships that do not respect its home. Now to write the story…

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The Day the Sky Fell submitted

by on February 9, 2026 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I have just submitted my latest story, The Day the Sky Fell.

It tell the story of a girl fighting to survive the fall of Yosemite Station on New Japan. Los Angeles. It was the Shang opening strike against America and the Western Alliance, and the first action of The War. They brought Yosemite Station down over half the United States. They generated a direct hit on Los Angeles, a city that had spent generations looking up in the sky to see it hovering above them. It WAS their sky. Now it is fallen, a scared girl seeks to survive being buried alive…

It is my great hope that it will be chosen for the anthology, but one never knows about such things. I greatly enjoyed writing it though.

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