Donna Winters is our guest this week. She’s the author of quite a number of books that she’s repackaging right now. She’s chosen to share about one of her favorite books, Elizabeth of Saginaw Bay. Here’s a little peek into what the book is about:

The taste of wedding cake is still sweet in Elizabeth Morgan’s mouth when she sets out with her bridegroom, Jacob, from York State for the new State of Michigan. But she isn’t prepared for the untamed forest, crude lodgings, and dangerous diseases that await her there. Desperately, she seeks her way out of the forest that holds her captive, but God seems to have another plan for her future.

Read on to find out what inspired Donna to write the book. At the end of the post, you’ll be able to enter to win a copy of the book.

You write mostly about the state of Michigan. Why is that?

I lived in Michigan from the time I got married in late December 1971 until the first week of October 2015. My husband, a former history teacher who lived nearly his entire life in Michigan and loved its history, influenced my decision to write about his home state. More specifically, he encouraged me to write the first of my historical romances, Elizabeth of Saginaw Bay, about the Bay City area where his grandmother grew up. She was no pioneer as is the main character of my story, however. Her family was in the logging industry and she grew up in a lumber baron home on Center Street during the 1890’s. The mansion is still there on the corner of Lincoln Avenue, divided up into several apartments as is the carriage house at the rear.

What was Saginaw Bay like at the time Elizabeth of Saginaw Bay takes place?

In 1837, when the story opens, the Saginaw Bay region was primarily a forest with pine predominating. A few towns were in the early stages of settlement. Upper Saginaw, which later became Saginaw City, had a dozen log houses in 1836. Lower Saginaw, today known as Bay City, was founded in 1837, its first permanent resident arriving in 1834.

What kind of research did it take to write the book?

This book has gone through a couple of rewrites. Research for the original version involved a trip to the Bay County Museum where I purchased a copy of Bay County Past and Present Centennial Edition. I also photocopied pages from pioneer recollections and other books relevant to the setting. I rewrote the story in 1994 and added detailed backstory to strengthen conflict and pacing. That involved learning more about Governor Stevens T. Mason, the first governor of the state. He was elected in 1835 at the age of 23 and is the youngest governor in American History. I also added historic details about Detroit in 1837, and about the American Revolution and War of 1812 in which ancestors of the characters were involved.

What is so captivating about the Great Lakes?

The Great Lakes are North America’s vast inland waters with a total of 10,900 miles of coastline (American and Canadian). Michigan’s coastline is 3,288 miles long and includes four of the five Great Lakes. With so much exposure to water, weather conditions so changeable throughout the four seasons, and a variety of coastline topography from gentle shores to rocky cliffs over 200 feet high, there is much to see and do.

You wrote this back in the 1990s and are re-releasing it now. How has the industry changed since then?

Actually, the first version was written in 1984 and released in 1986 by Zondervan. The second version was released in 1994, and it was this version that I recently updated and re-released. Readers now expect only one point of view at a time, and they expect that point of view to take them inside the character’s head. What I changed for this newest release was to eliminate head-hopping, which was popular in earlier eras, and I updated the viewpoints to deep point of view as taught by Jill Elizabeth Nelson in her book, Rivet Your Readers With Deep Point of View.

Do you have plans for any new books in the series?

Very good question! I don’t have plans for anything specific right now. I am still working my way through the updates for earlier titles and have five more to go. When I’m done with those, I plan to write a historical romance set in New Mexico, my new home state as of October 2015. However, I would never rule out a new Great Lakes romance since I spent 65 years living in that region and have an extensive library of reference material on the Great Lakes states.

Donna adopted Michigan as her home state in 1971 when she moved from a small town outside of Rochester, New York. She began penning novels in 1982 while working full time for an electronics firm in Grand Rapids.

She resigned from her job in 1984 following a contract offer for her first book. Since then, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Zondervan Publishing House, Guideposts, and Bigwater Publishing have published her novels.

Her husband, Fred, a former American History teacher, shares her enthusiasm for history. Together, they visited historical sites, restored villages, museums, and lake ports purchasing books and reference materials for use in Donna’s research.

Donna lived the first 65 years of her life in states bordering on the Great Lakes. Her familiarity and fascination with these remarkable inland waters and her longtime residence in the heart of Great Lakes Country gave her the perfect background for writing Great Lakes Romances®.

You can connect with Donna on social media by visiting www.GreatLakesRomances.com and following the links at the bottom of the home page. You can purchase the book at Amazon.

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Thanks so much for stopping by, Donna! It was great to learn a little bit more about Michigan in its early days. And, readers, don’t forget to enter for a chance to win a copy of the book!