Fun Facts About “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughters”

In my previous post, I announced that my story “The Light House Keeper’s Daughters” was published in the latest issue of Black Cat Weekly. If you’re interested in buying a copy of the magazine for your eReader, you can do so here.

Whenever I publish a story, I try to do a Fun Facts post about the story, to share what inspired it and what I learned in my research along the way.

Here are two sisters from the 1910s…I could see Minnie and Brenna taking a photo like this.

Let’s begin with the two main characters – Minnie and Brenna Smith. Many, many years ago when I was a teenager, I wrote about a character named Minnie Smith. She had a younger sister named Brenna and she was an aspiring writer. I had planned to do a whole coming of age series on her. Though the stories were based in the early 20^th century, Minnie Smith was supposed to be based on yours truly and Brenna was supposed to be based on my sister. A couple of years ago, I revived the characters Minnie and Brenna, only this time it was for a short mystery story that has yet to be published. And I have continued writing about them. So, after like twenty-five years of living in my imagination, Minnie and Brenna have finally appeared in print.

“The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughters” is the start of a new series. I’m not great at titles, but for now I’ve been calling the it “The Sleuthing Smith Sisters Series.” I’m open to suggestions, if anyone can think of anything better.

The second story in the series, “A Slice of Life,” has just been accepted for publication.

I’ve been picturing Sophie Nelisse as Minnie Smith. Unfortunately, I don’t know who I exactly picture Brenna as. Though Minnie is my literary counterpart, I didn’t look at all like Sophie Nelisse when I was in my teens. My hair was often a greasy mess, I had bad acne, and I had glasses. But hey, this is fiction, right?

The photo that inspired this story.

This story is based in January 1918, in Michigan City, Indiana. It was partly inspired by this photo of a mother and two daughters near the Michigan Lighthouse, after a blizzard hit. The father, who I assume took the photo, was the true historical lighthouse keeper of Michigan City. But for the sake of this story, it is Mr. Smith. I also researched lighthouses, and in the end, I had to create my own version of the Michigan City Lighthouse to fit my story. The Michigan City Lighthouse still stands today and it is a tourist site.  

The real Michigan City Lighthouse

“The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughters” is set against the backdrop of the January 1918 Blizzard. The winter storm paralyzed the Midwest and it was considered the Blizzard of the Century until the Blizzard of 1978 hit. I did copious amounts of research about the blizzard, how long it lasted, the descriptions were based on photographs and commentary of those who witnessed it.

If you were alive in Indiana in 1978, you have a Blizzard of 78 story. To this day, no storm compares to it. I grew up hearing my parents, grandmother, and friends talk about it. Whenever we have a winter storm now, the Blizzard of 78 is referenced. When the blizzard hit, my dad lived in Michigan City, so some of the descriptions of the area and what he experienced found its way into this story.

I can’t get over this cover that was created for my story. If you interested in only purchasing this story, you can do so by clicking here. I’ll also get royalties for it.

Until next time!