Handy Wisconsin Answer Book Signing at the Thirsty Bookworm Tomorrow
Friday, July 12th, 2019 -- 12:48 PM
-This Saturday, as a part of Neillsville Heritage Days, the author of the Wisconsin Answer Book will be doing a book signing in the City of Neillsville.Terri Schlichenmeyer, a former Granton resident, will be in town signing copies of her book at the Thirsty Bookworm. I spoke with Terri and she talked about why she decided to write the book.
"I had known the publisher of this series for years and years and years. Probably 15 years or more. And a few years ago he said to me, 'I want you to do the Handy Wisconsin Answer Book.' And I said, 'okay fine.' And he said, 'no, I really want you to do this!' And I said, 'okay, fine. When you're ready, just let me know.' And he was ready! And he sent me a contract and, at the time, we were building a new house and packing up and getting ready to move. And I looked at the contract and the timeline and I knew I couldn't do it myself. So, I contacted a friend of mine and he said he'd love to do it with me and here we are."
She also talked about how she started finding all the interesting facts for the book.
"We had a certain loose bunch of categories that we had to fill. My co-author, Mark and I, split the topics, basically. We came up with eight topics, which became a whole lot more than eight. And we split them up. Mine was history and his was sports and so on. So we split them up and how I wrote my parts was I looked at the category, for instance, the very first chapter is 'in the beginning.' So, it starts with Wisconsin history from the geological standpoint millions of years ago. So, I started with that and I kinda worked my way into a funnel in a way. I started with the basics and, once I got done with the basics, which were pretty simple with things like the state bird, the state song and things like that."
"Once I got through the basics and I got to history and started unlocking things, I wrote what I needed to write and then I went back and asked the questions because this is in a question and answer format. So, then I went back and asked the questions. The thing with writing a book like this is like going into an old Victorian mansion where you open a door that leads you into a room with five more doors and you open another and it leads you to a room with ten more doors. You just keep unlocking more and more and more and it leads you down a rabbit whole of information that you can find."
Terri provided some examples of the interesting facts she learned while putting the book together.
"A lot of people don't know about the mail jumpers in Lake Geneva. What happens is the people that live around Lake Geneva, right on the lake, get their mail during the summer in a very unique way. The mail boat comes through. What the mail boat does is they hire teenagers to jump off the front of the boat, run up, deliver the mail, run back and jump on the back of the boat. And this is how the mail is delivered to the people who live on Lake Geneva. They get their mail by teenagers who jump off a boat, race to the house, drop of the mail and then race back and jump on the back of the boat. Which, of course, sometimes people fall in the water. And I found that very interesting is the mail jumpers."
"You'd be very surprised at the number of famous people that either grew up in Wisconsin or were born here and moved elsewhere at some point in their life. The woman who played Samantha's mother in Bewitched was actually a teacher in the southern corner of Wisconsin in the early part of her life."
"The first kindergarten was in Wisconsin. And, this fascinated me, Wisconsin was very important on the underground railroad. So, there are a lot of little things in this you book that you might not know about."
Terri reminded people where and when they can find her during Neillsville's Heritage Days.
"I'm going to be there from 11am-1pm signing books. If you already have yours, yay, bring it on down and I'll sign it and I'll talk to you and say hello. Come on down and take a look at the book. Page through it. And I think you'll like. It's great for kids and adults. It's not just a kids book. It's not just an adults book. It's really for readers ages 10 and up. And there's all kinds of things to find in here that are fun to know and it's a fun book."
She also explained where you can get a copy of the book for this Saturday.
"The Thirsty Bookworm will have some. You can also get them online and you should be able to order it from any bookstore. But, you should be able to get one on Saturday."
Once again, Terri will be at the Thirsty Bookworm this Saturday from 11am-1pm.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.