Come to the Book Signing at Martha Merrell’s this October. Alice and her sister Sue will be signing copies of Shadow the Sandhill Crane at Martha Merrell’s bookstore in downtown Waukesha at the 103^rd Art Crawl the evening of October 6^th. The book is also available online.

In 2011, after her mother had passed away, Alice Lundstrom was going through family genealogy materials in her attic when she discovered a manuscript she recognized: a hand-typed, bound, and illustrated story by her mom, Hazel Keays Northey, about a neighbouring family who took in a rescued Sandhill Crane on their farm for the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo (Alice also found a newspaper article with pictures of the family and the crane).

Hazel had always enjoyed writing—and animals—and her imagination was charged by the true story. She wrote Shadow the Sandhill Crane and put together copies for Alice’s sons in 1981. “At the time,” Alice recalls, “she’d said ‘we should get this published’ but it just sat there. And self-publishing wasn’t really done then, but she made her own book for the family.”

Remembering her mother’s dream, Alice went to a friend, Therese Arkenberg, a writer and editor who helped them prepare the manuscript and submit it to small presses. Market research revealed that there weren’t many true stories about Sandhill Cranes in the Midwest published for children. It was quickly picked up by one of the first publishers they contacted, Bedazzled Ink, an independent publisher specializing in women authors.  “It could sit in a box and never be seen,” Alice reflects, “so it’s amazing that Bedazzled picked it up.” Bedazzled says, “We love the cause of saving other species and their habitat and that this is a true story. We also liked that the author’s daughters wanted her story published and that proceeds will go to the International Crane Foundation.”

Hazel’s typewriter sat on the kitchen table, which she used as a desk, and constantly rattled with letters to the editor, stories, and more. She’d once put together a history of the Methodist Church and an anniversary cookbook. “She was an excellent typist—it’s what happens when you want to be a journalist,” says Alice. Hazel had instead become a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse and the wife of a dairy farmer, nurturing all kinds of animals and her growing family, as well as continuing to write. Among the genealogy papers were other family stories, some of potentially historic interest. “Maybe something I’ll pursue after this one,” Alice says.

Royalties from the book will go to the International Crane Foundation, which from its nearly 300-acre headquarters in Baraboo works in over 50 countries on five continents to protect all 15 species of cranes and the watersheds and flyways that form their habitats.