Author Gallery

Kristin Gilpatrick has had a passion for writing since she can remember, scribbling bits of poems and prose on notebooks and napkins since elementary school. With a strong interest in military history and heroes, she is the author of The Hero Next Door series, including The Hero Next Door, The Hero Next Door Returns and The Hero Next Door Korea (Fall 2003). She also is the author of Famous Wisconsin Film Stars, Footprints in Courage and Destined to Live. She lives in Monona, Wisconsin with her husband, Steve Halverson.

Hannah Heidi Levy, the author of Famous Wisconsin Mystics, is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She is a licensed clinical social worker and practices in the field of addictions in Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to this work, she worked as a clinical microbiologist for eighteen years and a blood bank supervisor for three years. She has published fiction and nonfiction for various publications, written a weekly newspaper column, and lectured on creative writing at area schools. Her other interests are art, anthropology, antiques, and Greek mythology. She has two sons and two cats, uses her intuition, and tries not to whine.

Called a “premiere ghost hunter” by Haunted Wisconsin author Michael Norman and designated the “folktale man” by Wisconsin Trails magazine, Dennis Boyer is the author of four books of ghost tales, including Gone Missing, Driftless Spirits, Giants in the Land and Northern Frights. He also is the author of Prairie Whistles, a collection of Midwest railroad lore, and a guidebook called Great Wisconsin Taverns.

Susan Masino is a veteran music journalist and author of the book Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy. She works as a disk jockey at Madison radio station WJJO. She is the author of Famous Wisconsin Musicians, the third book in the Famous Wisconsin Series, and Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy, a book about her experiences as a music journalist with the band AC-DC.

Betty Cowley is a retired teacher who began researching her book, Stalag Wisconsin: Inside WW II prisoner-of-war camps, after her students didn't believe that German prisoners were held in their hometown of Altoona, Wisconsin. When her book was released in early 2002, she was interviewed on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" and an announcement of the book's release appeared in USA Today.

Father Dale Grubba is a Roman Catholic priest based in Princeton, Wisconsin. His avid interest in auto racing led him to write several books on the subject including The Golden Age of Wisconsin Auto Racing. He also is the author of the fiction book Return of Elijah: A Wisconsin Dells Thriller!

James P. Roberts is an author and book publisher who specializes in science fiction and horror novels. He publishes books under the White Hawk Press imprint and also wrote Famous Wisconsin Authors, the first book in the Famous Wisconsin Series.

Gunnard Landers of Altoona is a nationally published author of a series of mystery novels with game wardens as protagonists. His non-fiction book, Pioneer Vigilante, dramatizes the life of John Dietz, a popular hero of the early 20th Century who stood up to the government and powerful logging companies in northern Wisconsin.

Steve Fortney of Stoughton is a retired school teacher, former seminarian and author of Heg: From Norwegian Immigrant to Civil War Hero, a fictional biography of Hans Christian Heg; The Thomas Jesus, a book based on the research of the Jesus Seminar; and The Gazebo, a novel about the struggle of progressives in a small Wisconsin town.

David Nyweide of Bloomington, Ill. was still in high school when his book "Plum Lake" was published. Now, he's a student at Northwestern University. His book is about hiking, canoeing and bicycling on family vacations in Wisconsin's Northwoods.

Jerry Buss of Madison grew up in Withee, Wisconsin and always wondered about the house with all the bullet holes where the Krueger brothers had their World War I standoff with federal agents. His book, "A War of Their Own," is about that case. Jerry is a model airplane enthusiastic who also enjoys hunting.

Paul Kending, author of "Rivers Must Run," was a professor for 28 years at the University of Wisconsin at Superior and is a former television weatherman. A world traveler who has spent time in Thailand and other Asian countries, Paul and his wife, Candy, now are avid RVers, spending summers in Wisconsin and winters in the Southwest.

Robert "Bullet" Peterson, author of Rites of Passage: Odyssey of a Grunt, got his nickname in high school due to his running ability. But he became a paraplegic after he was wounded in the Vietnam War. His 1994 death in the arms of his wife, Joni, culminated nearly a quarter century of remarkable successes and disheatening struggle as he tried to cope with the unshakable experiences of combat service in Vietnam.

After his death, Joni Peterson, a teacher, made it a personal goal to get Bullet's book about Vietnam into print. The book, first published in softcover and hardcover by Badger Books Inc. in 1996, was republished by Ballantine Books as a mass market paperback and audiotape in 2001.

J. Allen Kirsch is an instructor in Spanish literature at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Fluent in several languages, he also has lived in New Orleans in Tuscson. "God's Little Isthmus" is his second novel about political correctness on Madison's East Side. His critically acclaimed first novel, "Madlands," sold in general bookstores in the upper Midwest and in gay and lesbian bookstores nationwide.

Jean Clausen, author of "To Thank a River," writes a column titled "From the River Bank" for the Sauk-Prairie Star. Her book focuses on her experiences living along the Wisconsin River with her husband, Norm, who died several years ago. She takes us cross country skiing, canoeing and mostly birding. She has four grown children.

Ken Parejko grew up in a Polish-American farm family in central Wisconsin, where his novel, "Remember Me Dancing," is set. He teaches biology at the University of Wisconsin in Menomonie and "Remember Me Dancing," which draws liberally on his family history, is his first novel.

Larry W. Phillips lives in Monroe, Wis., where his family operates a furniture store. "Covering the Second Coming" is his second novel. His first novel, "Madison Retro," was published by Waubesa Press in 1994. Larry also edited two books for Charles Scribner's Sons, "Ernest Hemingway on Writing" and "F. Scott Fitzgerald on Writing." He and his wife, Pam, have one daughter. His true passion is poker.