Thanks for your great questions and comments!

Dear Students,

Thanks for all the great blog comments. Now, I will try to answer your questions.

Many asked about how I knew so much about lumbering and how did I come up with so many details? I generally spend 3-5 years of historical research learning about the subjects I am going to write about.

This also means, I did have the opportunity to do research in many historical lumbercamps in many states.

Also, the characters in the story are real people that once lived or are still living.
Gus and Al are actually brothers and their parents are Tom and Kristi Karis and they are teachers and friends of mine. Do those names sound familar?

I am a historian & author both! I love real history.

Do I have real lumberjacks in my family? Did you see the pictures of my family that I posted on your blog? Those are my great-great grandparents, Addie and Thomas McCarty and they met in a lumbercamp!!!

The writing time doesn't really take too long, just a couple of months, it is the research that takes many years.

When I was in 4th grade, I had Mrs. Phipps and I was in a 4/5 grade mix. Mrs. Phipps was very tough and she wore a hair net over her hair. She was very old fashion and, I think, very old. She didn't do a lot of fun things in her class, she mostly yelled at everyone.

When I had any free time, I always read. I love to read and have my own library with over 6,000 reference books about history. It is really cool!

I made this story a time travel book because I wanted to take all of you back in time with me. How many of you would like to time travel? I know I would have to come back home in the evening, so I could take a bath and brush my teeth.

I like the part of the book about Napolean. Napolean was a real bear that I used to know when I was about you age. A neighbor man had brought Napolean home from a lumbercamp that he had worked at. When Napolean got to be bigger, he gave him to a park near our house that had a zoo and I always went there to visit him. He was a very well-behaved bear!

Other books I have written:
Traders in Time, Journey Back
to Lumberjack Camp, Erie Trail
West, North to Iron Country, Train
to Midnight, Little Ship Under Full
Sail, Madame Cadillac's Ghost,
Runes of Isle Royal, Calling the Griffin,
A Place Called Home, Castle at the
Straits, Mark of the Bear Claw,
A Faraway Home: An Orphan Train
Story

And I just finished up a book about the country of Greece and am working on another Dream-Quest time travel book about the great Great Lakes explorer, Champlain.


Thanks for Blogging!


Readers make leaders!

Janie Lynn Panagopoulos