I Make Stuff Up for a Living

By Dan Walsh

I should start off my post today (in an effort at full disclosure) by saying my inspiration came from reading my friend Rachel Hauck’s Novel Rocket blog post a couple of weeks ago on April 19th, called, It All Boils down to This… I'm a Writer.

I've been writing novels full-time now since 2010, part-time 2 years before that. I'm just about to release Novel #18 on May 15th. I'm not sure, but I think Rachel's been writing quite a bit longer than me and has more novels published. Still, as I read her blog, I was nodding constantly in agreement.

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Let It Shine

by Cynthia Ruchti

Last fall, my husband and I spent three getaway days in Duluth, MN, and along Lake Superior's north shore. We visited Split Rock lighthouse, at one time the guardian for what was said to be the most dangerous stretch of water in the Great Lakes. No fewer than twenty-nine ships were battered during a single storm near that area in 1905, two of them foundering on the shore. Within five years, the Split Rock lighthouse had been built and began operation on a high, windy point, sending its beam as far as twenty-two miles and its siren blast--later a foghorn sound--for five.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the now decommissioned lighthouse each year. It's kept in pristine condition, restored to what it might have looked like in the 1920s, including the light keepers' houses.

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