Big brothers have a responsibility to ruin things, but boy, oh boy, did I ever ruin my sister Michelle’s birthday party back in 1980. It was an epic destruction on an unimaginable scale that came in the heat of the moment, and even though I bear guilt at the audacity of the moment, I also have a strange sense of pride. Like Aragorn at Helm’s Deep, I stood against a horde of enemies to defend something sacred: my tree house. A year or two before Michelle’s birthday party, my

John Wells, organizer of QuadCon, can always be spotted in his unique outfits. Every circus needs a ringmaster, and for QuadCon Toy and Comic shows, that ringmaster is John Wells. As a child of the 70s and 80s, Wells immersed himself in the music, toys, and entertainment of the day, and now, decades later, he’s turned that passion into a thriving business that travels the midwest, bringing other vendors and creators with him. On any given weekend, a QuadCon Toy and Comic show

Get to know the fantasy author from Superior, Wisconsin.

Creating this novel was a collaborative effort that spanned generations. I dedicated this book to THREE classes at Maple River High School that had an impact on the story. As I rolled up my sleeves to knead old ideas into a new series, I was filled with fond memories of all three classes that gave pieces of themselves to what became Hiawatha County. We registered the final script. My Creative Writing Class of 2000 Back in the day where you could just spontaneously design your

Once, there was this boy who Got into an accident and couldn’t work at Dominos. But when he finally came back A deer crept out of the black into the bright lights The dent was quite obvious He said it was from when The deer hit his door so hard. Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Oh, deer! So in the winter of 1993, I earned the nickname “Crash Test Dummy” after one bizarre week working as a delivery driver at Dominos. For those of you born after 1993, the Crash Test Dummies was

TALES OF AN OXYMORON--EPISODE 2 We’d gathered around Ashley’s kitchen table, Bibles open and pens ready. Keith, Danica, Alex, the Shoemaker girl (Lydia?), and perhaps a younger sibling or two joined me for a study on Job. Little did we know at that moment, but God had a dramatic sense of irony and timing. If I were to guess, I’d put this story around 2002 or 2003, which means I’d been doing youth small group study at Hosanna Lutheran Church for several years already. During t

They might not admit it, but a large portion of the students graduating this spring don’t have a clue what they really want to do with their lives. Sure, they’re excited about closing the chapter on high school, but the next step into adulthood can be a bit uncertain. Twelve years ago, Brooke (Oachs) Rios certainly fit into that category. The 2014 Maple River graduate is now a recruiter for the United States Navy Reserve and helps young adults discover who they are and what

“How do we kill her?” The entire classroom fell silent as they pondered the dark deed, and then suddenly, each creative writing student began to offer ideas. From grisly to ridiculous, theories were batted around the room. We’d grown close after only a few weeks, and each member offered pieces of themselves to the creation of the screenplay. Even though it was over a quarter-century ago, I can still remember many of those faces. After all, in studying characterization, each s

After years of trial and error, I’ve adopted a pretty structured routine in creating a book. No AI here! I’m old school. As Master Jedi Paul once said on the road not taken to Damascus, “AI is the path to the dark side. You must hate what you write. Hate leads to suffering. Suffering leads to endurance, and endurance creates good characters, and good characters—that has made all the difference.” So yes, I’m in favor of a bit of suffering in the writing process. Early in my ca

"The reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated" As a proud member of the Gen-X generation, malls hold a special place in my heart. During the 1970s, the "mall" business model exploded and these monstrous collections of stores transitioned shopping from downtowns to wide open spaces. Want that new Van Halen album? A Hawaian shirt and white blazer like Miami VIce? Turqouise Converse? The malls had it all, including a dating buffet of fellow teens from other schools. By the

It’s a parental expectation that when a child shows interest in something, they should indulge that topic for the child’s development. Only a fraction of kids who choose a sport end up doing it professionally, a box of legos does not create an engineer, and it’s a safe bet that buying a goldfish at the pet store will not result in a career in marine biology. For parents Ernie and Sharlie Hansen, indulging their daughter Lexi’s interest in horses went from a charming (and exp

MOSLOSKI FIXES CARS BY DAY, CRASHES THEM ON WEEKEND Given Mapleton’s status as a bedroom community for so many folks that travel back and forth to Mankato, the need for a quality auto mechanic is vital in this day and age. While the corporate business model is to make most cities clones of each other with franchises, in Mapleton, local garages are still chugging along. One of these locally owned small businesses is Moz’s Midtown Auto. As the name suggests, the garage is locat

I love learning. Running out of grant money in college ended five of my favorite years on this planet. After all, my habit would be to sign up for an overload, drop a couple at the deadline, but still sit in if they were interesting (just no homework). Consequently, because of the Army/government grants, I went WAY over the number of college credits needed for graduation. So as an author, I still have the same passion for learning. Picking a new genre is not good for my brand

Appelhof Shares Her Weight Loss Journey With Millions Year after year, one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions is related to health, whether exercising, dropping weight, eating healthier, or even personal growth. For social media influencer Ashley Appelhof, her own resolutions have captured thousands of followers. When Appelhof graduated in 2014 from Maple River, her immediate plans centered on attending college and getting a degree in social work. Today, she is helpin

Larry Barott was recently awarded USA Curling’s 2025 Volunteer of the Year Award Winner, and while he quietly goes about his business with little fanfare, this award showcases all the little things it takes to keep a tradition such as curling alive in a community. Mapleton historian (and curler) Tim Solie has seen the impact made by Barott first hand. “If there's anybody cynical to believe that a person can't make a difference, I hope they look at Larry Barott because the di

Sales are a fragile thing. In hindsight, my 2025 book tour was my most successful year to date (yay!), but it felt anything but successful at times. It was a grind. The most emotionally taxing part of it was the unpredictability. With almost 50 events in 2025, I needed for each of them to “hit” financially in order to justify taking my hobby to a profession, so there was plenty of self-imposed pressure for them to be successful. Since getting “serious” in 2021, I’ve kept reco

Since the days of telling ghost stories around the camp fire, storytellers have reveled in producing goosebumps, and 2005 Maple River graduate Amanda (Schubbe) Ruzsa has turned that love of being frightened into a diverse career in the horror genre. After being a life-long fan of horror stories, Ruzsa had jumped feet-first into being a horror author with 19 titles that range from poetry and anthologies to short stories and novels. Why horror? Ruzsa explains her love of the ge

The concept of “love” has many definitions in life, but in the game of tennis, the word “love” has a very specific meaning: nothing, nada, zilch, zero. Leading 40-love is so much better than trailing love-thirty, but whether winning or losing, love is often present. For Maple River senior Claire Langworthy, an integral part of one of the area’s top tennis programs, the ebbs and flows of a tennis match has become symbolic for a life that has also seen plenty of triumphs and he