I have written a three-book travel series exploring Michigan’s coastlines, entitled Exploring Michigan’s Sunrise Coasts, Exploring Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Coasts, and  Exploring Michigan’s Sunset Coasts.

Holland's Big Red photo courtesy Gary Martin Photography

The books are not your traditional travel books. The reader will find no information about motels, hotels, or restaurants, and very few tchotchke shops. I love traveling, and for every place I plan to travel, I like to find out a little about the area beforehand. It makes the visit more meaningful. 

I like the history, the weird or unusual things I discover about the destination, and learning what I should expect to see and do while I’m there. 

If a movie was filmed in a location I plan to visit, I like to watch it. If I’m going to Mackinac Island, I can’t resist watching Somewhere in Time—even for the third or fourth time. I can’t sit on the porch of the Grand Hotel without imagining Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour. 

And did you know that Elmore Leonard set The Big Bounce in Michigan’s Thumb? After reading his book, I decided that if I ever owned another cottage on the lakeshore, I’d make very sure it had excellent security.

Until I researched these books, I didn’t know that Michigan’s Great Lakes had their own notorious pirate. I certainly didn’t know that a Michigan governor unadopted the daughter he and his wife had adopted many years earlier, and then he married that prior daughter when he was 89?

I decided to compile a Traveler’s Companion to Michigan's Coasts with information that included lighthouses, ghost stories, weird stories I discovered, shipwrecks, museums, books, famous and infamous people from the area, and more. I talked to shop owners, went to libraries, and always asked, “Who and what do you believe is worth knowing...and who had connections to your city or village?”

St. Joseph lighthouse photo courtesy Gary Martin Photography

Please click through on each photo to read excerpts from these three books exploring Michigan's coasts.