Eve Wallinga
**NEWS RELEASE**
GUIDEBOOK: WATERFALLS OF MN's NORTH SHORE and MORE
INCLUDES 150+ WATERFALLS, RATINGS, DESCRIPTIONS, MAPS
Waterfalls of Minnesota's North Shore and More: A Guide for Sightseers, Hikers, and Romantics (North Shore Press, 2015) features more than 150 waterfalls—120-plus falls on the North Shore and more than 25 falls a short drive away in northern Wisconsin and southern Ontario. This guidebook would make a great holiday gift.
Waterfalls of Minnesota’s North Shore and More is a new expanded, updated edition of the 2006 best-selling Lake Superior classic Waterfalls of Minnesota’s North Shore, which was the first-ever guidebook of the area’s waterfalls. The guidebook contains ratings of waterfalls, user-friendly ratings of hike difficulty and trail quality, detailed maps and directions, and color photographs. Highlighted paragraphs describe flora, special features or history.
The guidebook contains many waterfalls not found in any other book. Many featured waterfalls are located in city, state and provincial parks or along the famous Superior Hiking Trail; all are on public land.
Both the original and updated guidebooks were written by a St. Cloud, Minn., couple, Eve and Gary Wallinga, who spent years hiking creeks and rivers, photographing waterfalls, taking meticulous trail notes and interviewing locals to find little-known waterfalls.
From the St. Louis River in Jay Cooke State Park to the Pigeon River, and now across the the Canadian and Wisconsin borders and along the Wisconsin shore, the Wallingas offer waterfall experiences ranging from highway waysides to invigorating day-hikes.
““Many readers of the first edition told us our waterfalls hikes were the highlight of their trip to the Shore,” Eve Wallinga said. “We loved exploring Minnesota’s North Shore waterfalls, so we decided to check out falls within a day-trip distance of the North Shore for the second edition. We were amazed!” Those falls include Kakabeka Falls,“The Niagara of the North” in Ontario, less than two hours from Grand Portage, and Big Manitou Falls, the highest waterfall in Wisconsin, a half hour from Duluth.
The Wallingas’ prose descriptions of their own hikes are poetic and personal, verbally painting pictures of what they call the "waterfall experience" of each location and warning hikers of difficult areas.
Waterfalls of Minnesota's North Shore and More is recommended for sightseers, campers, hikers, nature lovers, scout and nature group leaders, and armchair explorers. The 226-page paperback guide ($19.95) is available from bookstores or the publisher at northernwilds.com
Eve Wallinga, a writer, and Gary Wallinga, a psychologist at the St Cloud Hospital, began visiting waterfalls and first dreamed of writing a guidebook 30 years ago when their older child was a baby. As they approached an “empty nest,” they worked on their first guidebook together (she as writer, he as photographer and mapmaker). “We wanted to encourage families and individuals to enjoy and protect our wild places,” Eve Wallinga said. The Wallingas were co-founders of Central Minnesota's Sierra Club group and have been leaders in preserving natural habitat and natural parks in Central Minnesota.
The book also contains lists of the Wallingas’ 10 favorite North Shore falls, the best secret waterfalls and wheelchair accessible falls.
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Julie M. Evans
Writer, Editor, Communications Consultant
11201 Washburn Ave. S.
Bloomington, MN 55431
Phone: 952-888-7699
Email: JulieEditor@gmail.com
Contact: Eve Wallinga
Prairie House Press
3123 Alder Lane
St. Cloud, MN. 56301
(320) 253-3619
www.evewallinga.com
evewallinga@gmail.com
MINN. AUTHOR AND BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR WINS KIRKUS AWARD FOR NOVEL ABOUT MINN. COUPLE'S POST BREAST CANCER JOURNEY IN MYSTICAL NEW ORLEANS
December, 2014--ST. CLOUD, MINN.--Prairie House Press announces that The Voodoo Breast: A Novel of Healing has been named a Best Book of 2014 by Kirkus Reviews, one of the literary world's most respected book reviewers. This debut novel by Eve Wallinga, a St. Cloud, Minn., author and breast cancer survivor features a Minnesota woman who travels to New Orleans for restorative breast surgery.
"The Big Easy stars in this affecting novel about a couple's unusual route to redemption," Kirkus Reviews said. The Voodoo Breast: A Novel of Healing was also one of five debut novels showcased in the Summer 2014 issue of Foreward Reviews.
The post-cancer journey of the novel's main character, Allie, reveals unforeseen trials in her marriage and forces her to re-evaluate the future she had envisioned. She finds solace and salvation while exploring the mystical city.
Ghostly jazz music, disembodied whistling, and a realistic dream of another realm fuel Allie's fascination with a host of unusual events and curious coincidences, which causes Kevin, her husband and travel companion, to question her grip on reality. The novel includes lyrical descriptions of the French Quarter's streetscapes, music, food, people, shops, traditional events, and voodoo ceremonies.
Allie feels a kinship with the healing, post-Katrina city and to New Orleans voodoo and privately names her own reconstructed breast "the Voodoo breast." While the couple visits New Orleans sites and ceremonies, Kevin begins questioning his own skepticism and must decide whether to become more open to all of life's experiences. The couple analyzes their relationship, which has become strained by time, illness, and their diverging views of reality.
Wallinga was inspired to write the novel after traveling with her husband to post-Katrina New Orleans, where she had breast reconstruction surgeries. "A health crisis affects both the patient and the partner. Each deals with the losses and gains in their own way, at their own speed," Wallinga said. "In the novel, I wanted to explore the tension that occurs when they are at different places in the healing process. Some parts of the novel are based on my own and my husband's experiences and some are pure fiction. The reader would be surprised which are which."
The Voodoo Breast is intended for a general audience, though women with a breast cancer history will be particularly drawn to this book. It is available as a digital or print edition via Wallinga's website www.evewallinga.com, Books Revisited in St. Cloud, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Brodart Books.
Wallinga, an advocate for breast cancer survivors, is a co-founder of the Cancer Association of Greater New Orleans' Breastoration Foundation, which provides education about breast reconstruction options and financial assistance for qualifying women's reconstruction surgery. She was the recipient of St. Cloud Hospital/CentraCare Health Foundation's 2014 "Spirit of Women" Community Hero Award. Wallinga helps coordinate the annual central Minnesota observance of Breast Reconstruction Awareness (B.R.A.) Day, which includes colorful "bra art" exhibits in the St. Cloud area. One exhibit is currently on display at Rivers Edge Convention Center.
Wallinga is also an environmental activist with a special interest in preservation of natural areas. She and her husband, Gary Wallinga, wrote the regional best-seller, Waterfalls of Minnesota's North Shore: A Guide for Sightseers, Hikers and Romantics, which was published by North Shore Press in 2006 and revised in 2014. They are also collaborative visual artists.
For a bio, author photo, book cover, book excerpt, and book orders, visit www.evewallinga.com
The Voodoo Breast: A Novel of Healing
Eve Wallinga, Prairie House Press, ISBN 978-0-9911153-0-3, softcover, $14.95, 257 pages