Book Dedication: The Summerbird

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 curriculum, I modified my creative writing course to include a unit on screen plays. After all, a screenplay focuses on the art of SHOWING instead of telling, and limiting students to just the dialogue and action seemed like a good skill to develop. So instead of more journaling or another short story, we worked on screen play rules. The idea?

Well, each kid certainly could've done their own scene, but to help everybody feel like part of the team, I introduced movie screenplay structure and then...assigned scenes. It was fairly mathematical since a movie is typically 56 scenes long. Since I had around 20 students, each got 2-3 scenes.

We brainstormed for a few days, found the concept (a dead girl), and the plot points (new girl in town is haunted), and away we went. We actually brainstormed characters together as well, so I can remember many of the kids in that class from their characters:

Clay FitzSimmons= Rachel FitzSimmons

Becca Thompson= Sarah Thompson

Austin Hiller= (Okay, maybe not all)

Victor Berg= Monet Berg

Kathy Walker= Amanda Walker

Sommer Lentz= Stacy Lentz

Nate Obermeyer= Joe Obermeyer

Jimmy Nase= Jeremy Nase?

Those are some of the key characters that I still remember. Some didn't factor into the screenplay. Heather Marquardt, for example, was one of the more creative students in the class, and she helped several classmates fit their creation into the script.

About the time we were wrapping things up, I decided another lesson was due: writing query letters. Again, it's another style of writing. So we picked up a Writer's Market (it was before the internet. Kinda like a phone book of agents), and each kid sent out a real letter describing our story.

And somebody bit.

In order to continue, we had to list things with the Writer's Guild of America, and when summer came, we were still in correspondance with a west coast company that liked our script idea.

Cinema Productions 2002

A year later, the script was dropped due to legal concerns about so many cooks in the kitchen, but the bit of buzz continued when Jeremy Marquardt signed up for my Cinema Production class. It was a fairly new class, and after a snowstorm buried production in the first semester, the second semester created Poor Gordy, and then the following fall sememster, we created two complete movies (Here's to the Night really worked). So the pressure was on for the students in Spring Semester of 2002.

Jeremy proposed that we simply use his sister's script, make a few changes, and then we'd have more time for a production schedule. He was right. So Freak Bridge became Ghost Behind My Eyes (an Ozzy Osbourne song suggested by Tracy Jaeger). The talent ON the camera was just as strong as the talent BEHIND the camera. With a full classroom, I tried to find the right actors to play the right roles, and then, find the right production team to direct, film, and edit the story.

Two decades, later, I'm still SO IMPRESSED by the decication and talent of these students. They were maniacs. Megan Goodrich (and an assistant producer) had to find lcoations to film all of these scenes. It's no wonder she became a teacher. She was so organized. The filming team was Kyle Lindblom and Alica Barott, who would help each actor perform their lines while aslo finding some amazing angles to shoot. In the classroom, I worked with David, Matt, Jeremy, and others to bring the footage into the final timeline. We were six months from VHS camera, so our little 480 pixel camcorder hardly does the effort justice. Unlike a play production, our actors could be fed the lines on location, but the skill of improv really came through with so many moments.

I didn't want the semester to end.

Creative Writing 2009

The absolute professional recklessness of unleashing 20 seniors onto the world on a daily basis finally caught up to me by the 10th movie. By that time SouthWest State's College in the Classroom arrived and stole away all my "high fliers" that took the Cinema Production course as a master's level challenge in problem solving. It was HARD to bring a movie to life. So even though my students had dodged numerous harrowing situations that almost ended in tragedy and lawsuit, I counted my blessings and shelved the class in 2005.

By 2009, I really missed the collaborative energy of working on a project, and Creative Writing briefly fell into my lap again. Repeating the same idea (just without the filming), we built off the idea and created Ulysses' Bow, a tragedy in the same universe as Ghost Behind My Eyes. At about the same time, I converted Ghost Behind My Eyes into the novelization, Cassandra's Curse. Many of the students in the course helped me shape/reshape the written form of the story.

So that's how three different groups of students at Maple River helped create some fun stories. I forced a few more books into the series before I realized I didn't have a good plan, and since I'd published a very limited amount of books (mostly for students, friends, and family), I pulled the plug on the series in 2014.

After a few more years of brainstorming, the Dreamcatcher Chronicles became the reborn concept. While Firehandler ended up getting published 4 different ways from 2017 to 2022, the other books in the series began to fall in place as the story developed generationally. So after meeting Lily in 1898, Brian Forsberg in 1962, and Ansel and Lacy in 1986, THE SUMMERBIRD will return to the world of Freak Bridge/Cassandra's Curse with Clay, Sommer, and Cassie.

Did you ever have a dream so vivid you couldn't tell if it was real or not?

Well, for my characters, they dream the story of Freak Bridge/Cassandra's Curse, but their real world is just a bit skewed from this version. Like a prophecy, they can see what's coming, but like a Greek tragedy, does that knowledge prevent or promote it from coming true.

It was some fun nostalgia putting on some of these characters again and walking around in their shoes. The tale is quite different this time, but there are some moments that can't be avoided.

Take a trip down memory lane!

Here are some images from the movie:

Father/daughter issues? Stayed in the story!

New girl missing her former life? Kept in the story.

Mourning the loss of a parent? Kept in the story.

Haunted by the ghost of a dead girl? Kept it in the story.

An apprenticeship at a police station? Kept it in the story.

Going to Notre Dame? Kept it in the story.

A shady drug dealer? Kept it in the story.

Framing! For a first time directing team, Alicia and Kyle were quite creative.

Man, we filmed this movie everywhere and had TONS of extras, like my neighbor, Norm Preston.

Let's film this at a church!

The greenhouse and Clay remained to the newest 2026 version.

The names were changed, but JImmy and Nate still exist.

Miranda also made the 2026 version.

The birth of IM...a major plot point still.

The junkyard? She did like pancakes, but this fact messes with my dreamers more than it helps.

Hey, that's my bathrobe, my office, and MY LIZARD.

Filmed right after the AAA Banquet. Sean was ON POINT in this scene.

Scooby Doo sleuthing.

We had multiple law officers help out. Mad props to the students that pulled this off.

The bridge remains a central part of the 2026 story.

A killer emerging late in the plot? Kept it.

Granted, it's low rez, but great framing with this shot. Yes, there will be death and sadness in THE SUMMERBIRD.

Willis Writes

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