The Ten-Year Anniversary Edition Back in Boston, the thought of settling in a new land had seemed a romantic adventure to share with her new husband. Now, despite the lush green trees, and the sandy golden beaches, she began to fear what wild animals or unfriendly Indians might lurk in those woods, and she sensed the loneliness to come of being so far from her family. When iron ore is discovered in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the 1840s, newlyweds Gerald Henning and his beautiful socialite wife, Clara, travel from Boston to the little village of Marquette, on the shores of Lake Superior. The Hennings and their companions—Irish and German immigrants, French Canadians, and fellow New Englanders—dream of a great metropolis at the center of the iron ore industry. Despite blizzards, near starvation, devastating fires, and financial hardships, these iron pioneers persevere. In time, their wilderness village becomes integral to the Union cause in the Civil War and, then, a prosperous modern city. Meticulously researched, warmly written, and spanning half a century, Iron Pioneers is a testament to the spirit that forged America. This ten-year anniversary edition includes a new preface by the author.

Iron Pioneers: The Marquette Trilogy: Book One

Literature & Fiction

Tichelaar, Tyler R.

Genre Fiction

Tyler R. Tichelaar

In small towns, people depend on each other. In Upper Michigan, through long, harsh winters and economic woes, people form bonds even without blood ties. On this day of civic pride, an entire city became one family, a city filled with people descended from a handful of brave pioneers who came to Iron Bay a century before to build a community which still prospered. As Marquette’s pioneers pass away, new generations forge ahead to make Marquette the Queen City of the North. Here is the tale of a small town undergoing change from horses, kerosene, and telegraphs to automobiles, electricity, and radio. Here is the American Dream played out in the lives of people who overcome the Great Depression and two world wars to celebrate their city’s centennial. Old friends from Iron Pioneers return along with a multitude of fascinating new characters. Margaret Dalrymple finds her Scottish prince, though he is neither Scottish nor a prince. Molly Bergmann inspires her grandchildren. Jacob Whitman’s children engage in a family feud. The Queen City’s residents marry, divorce, have children, die, break their hearts, go to war, gossip, blackmail, raise families, leave and return to Marquette. And always, always they are in love with the haunting land that is their home.

The Queen City: The Marquette Trilogy: Book Two

The Marquette Trilogy comes to a satisfying conclusion by bringing together characters and plots from the earlier novels and culminating with Marquette’s 1999 sesquicentennial celebration. Madeleine Henning’s story is finally revealed as secrets from the past shed light upon the present. The novel’s main character, John Vandelaare, is descended from all the early Marquette families in Iron Pioneers and The Queen City. While he cherishes his family’s past, he questions whether he should remain in his hometown. Then an unexpected event changes his life forever.

Superior Heritage: The Marquette Trilogy: Book Three

Literary

Narrow Lives is the story of those whose lives were affected by Lysander Blackmore, the sinister banker first introduced to readers in The Queen City. It is a novel that stands alone, yet readers of The Marquette Trilogy will be reacquainted with several familiar characters. Written as a collection of connected short stories, each told in first person by a different character, Narrow Lives depicts the influence one person has, even in death, upon others, and it explores the prisons of grief, loneliness, and fear self-created when people doubt their own worthiness.

Narrow Lives: a novel

The Only Thing That Lasts is written as the autobiography of Robert O'Neill, the famous novelist first introduced in The Marquette Trilogy. As a young boy during World War I, Robert is forced to leave his South Carolina home to live in Marquette with his grandmother and aunt. He finds there a cold climate, but many warmhearted friends as he matures into adulthood and becomes a famous writer. The Only Thing That Lasts is a joyful, lighthearted, yet meaningful story of home and hearth. Mr. Tichelaar says of this work, "The Only Thing That Lasts is the first novel I ever wrote. I wanted to write an old-fashioned novel in the style of Louisa May Alcott or L. Frank Baum's Aunt Jane's Nieces, or even Marquette's own Carroll Watson Rankin, whose Dandelion Cottage first made Marquette the setting for a novel."

The Only Thing That Lasts: a novel

An irritating best friend gained during a childhood spent in a Catholic orphanage, a father who became a Communist and went to Russia in the 1930s, and 3:00 a.m. visits to The Pancake House. Such is the life of Lyla Hopewell. But in the summer of 2005, when her old boyfriend Bill has a heart attack, her best friend Bel really gets on her nerves, and Finn Fest comes to Marquette, things will change for Lyla. Joined by a cast of Marquette’s most eccentric and endearing characters—the foul-mouthed fourteen-year-old Josie; ninety-three-year-old Eleanor, still trying to fix her little brother’s love life; ex-boyfriend and blunt womanizer, Bill; blind Mary Mitchell and her ornery sister Florence; the sweet but romantically confused cabdriver Sybil; and many, many more—Lyla recounts her life-story as she comes to terms with her past. After years of feeling unloved, neglected, frustrated, and unfulfilled, can Lyla finally find her own best place?

The Best Place

Arthur's Legacy: The Children of Arthur, Book One

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Fantasy

Following his father’s death, Adam Delaney has acquired his father’s title as Earl of Delaney and married Anne, who has given birth to their twin sons, Lance and Tristan. Now Adam and Anne have taken a much-needed vacation in France, leaving their sons at Delaney Castle with Adam’s mother and grandmother and Anne’s father. But what begins as a pleasant and long overdue honeymoon soon becomes another strange mythical adventure when Anne reunites with her old friend, Morgan, while the couple is visiting Lusignan, home to the legendary fairy Melusine. Before Anne knows it, she finds herself listening to stories within stories about the fairy Melusine and the magical rings she left to her children, magical rings that are tied to Adam and Anne’s future in ways they can scarcely imagine. Melusine’s Gift is the second of five books in Tyler R. Tichelaar’s Children of Arthur series following Arthur’s Legacy.

Melusine's Gift: The Children of Arthur, Book Two

Some stories deserve to be told. "Willpower" is an original historical play based on the real life of Will Adams at the turn of the twentieth century.... As a young boy Will Adams’ soft tissues were becoming harder, turning him into a living statue. Others faced with such a dark future might have felt sorry for themselves, turning inward. But not Will. Determined to enjoy every moment, he embarked on an energetic life of creativity using his legs, arms, eyesight, and wit for as long as he could. While confined to a bed, he ran a newspaper, drew cartoons, and wrote an operetta with his best friend Norma Ross. "Willpower" first brought Will Adams’ story to the stage, and this publication presents the full script as it was first produced at Kaufman Auditorium in Marquette, Michigan, by the Marquette Regional History Center, in September 2014. It includes images from the production, insight from the director, historical commentary from the playwright, and the music used in the production.

Willpower: An Original Play about Marquette’s Ossified Man

Dramas & Plays

Eighteen years have passed since Adam and Anne Delaney’s twin sons were kidnapped, ostensibly by one who wished them well. Now, after a string of useless clues and years of doubting their own sanity, the couple arrive in Istanbul where they have been told they will find the answers they seek...and, hopefully, the infant boys who—if even alive—would now be grown men and strangers to them. Lilith’s Love, the fourth volume in Tyler R. Tichelaar’s revolutionary historical fantasy series The Children of Arthur, brings together diverse legends to create a new human history that both surprises and reveals how powerful the imagination can be. With an impressive cast of historical and legendary characters that includes Merlin, Emperor Constantine XI, the Wandering Jew, Dracula, and Lilith herself, this tale takes readers from the Fall of Constantinople to a New World Order in the twenty-first century, rewriting a past we thought we knew to create a future far more fabulous than we ever dreamed.

Lilith's Love: The Children of Arthur: Book Four

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Tyler R. Tichelaar publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Tyler R. Tichelaar