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In The Man with the Burning Head, Matthew Barnett’s father, Ben Barnett, flies his helicopter to aid Barnett and Penny in their ongoing murder investigation on Isle Royale. In the story, Ben joined the Army in the 80s, having seen combat in several theatres, but primarily the middle east. Much of the inspiration for Ben’s character came from stories told by Sgt. Major John McPhee in various interviews. Sgt. Major McPhee famously became known as ‘The Sheriff of Baghdad’, or SHREK, for his exploits in finding and eliminating key actors within Saddam’s regime.

While Ben’s backstory derives inspiration from several other sources (which will be featured in future segments of History Bytes), his confrontation at the police station in Helmand Province was inspired directly from one of Sgt. Major McPhee’s more harrowing stories. Sgt. Major McPhee recalled his internal moral struggle between completing his assigned mission, and some of the more haunting evils he witnessed along the way.

Watch a clip of his story here.

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Written in 1855, ‘The Song of Hiawatha’ was a long-form poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He tells a tale of an Ojibwa man named Hiawatha and his paramour Minnehaha. Their tale is formed from a collage of Ojibwa/Chippewa tales and legends, combined with Longfellow’s own experiences and relationships among the Chippewa. The poem represents Longfellow’s ‘love letter’ to the Lake Superior shorelines of Michigan and Minnesota, and to the fading Ojibwa influence in the region. Longfellow was deeply impacted by his love for Ojibwa culture and heritage, and he correlated much of their spiritual practices with his own Christian beliefs.

In The Bright Eyed Sisters, Penny and Barnett meet May and Eugene, who are both practitioners of the old Ojibwa traditions. Penny and Barnett’s interactions with the couple grant them valuable insight into the nature of their supernatural existence. For the purposes of the story, this grounds the more fantastical elements of the ‘siren’ into real life Ojibwa lore. And, while The Bright Eyed Sisters explores a fictional universe, the story consistently points to the far deeper themes found in ‘Hiawatha’.

Thus said Hiawatha, walking
In the solitary forest,
Pondering, musing in the forest,
On the welfare of his people.
From his pouch he took his colors,
Took his paints of different colors,
On the smooth bark of a birch-tree
Painted many shapes and figures,
Wonderful and mystic figures,
And each figure had a meaning,
Each some word or thought suggested.
Gitche Manito the Mighty,
He, the Master of Life, was painted
As an egg, with points projecting
To the four winds of the heavens.
Everywhere is the Great Spirit,
Was the meaning of this symbol.

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The Witch of Rhinemark and the Cursed Cup.

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In ‘The Man with the Burning Head’, Barnett and Penny travel to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. At some point during their stay, they are forced to flee to a lighthouse off the shore of the island. It’s at this lighthouse that they make their final stand against the darkness.

Constructed in 1908, Rock of Ages Lighthouse was built onto a shallow reef along the easternmost shore of the island. Shallow reefs surround Isle Royale on nearly all sides, and the island is home to nearly thirty wreckages of ships, spanning the past few centuries.

Prior to construction, the waters along the island were extremely dangerous, with concealed shoals, reefs and tricky currents that posed hazards to lakeborne vessels. In a matter of three years, both the Chisholm and Cumberland ran around near the place that would eventually become site to Rock of Ages Lighthouse. Fifteen years following construction, the Cox also ran aground, tragically in nearly the same spot as the Chisholm and Cumberland. And the wreckages of all three ships now lie beneath the waters atop the reef surrounding the lighthouse.

Today, the lighthouse is operated automatically, and has no need for full-time staff. The tower itself remains a pivotal navigation aid for lakeborne vessels, and it also holds important communications equipment that bring cell service and radio to Isle Royale. While closed to the public, the lighthouse is clearly visible by ferry, as well as boat. And portions of the three shipwrecks are visible from the surface.

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In The Call of Cthulhu, Francis Wayland Thurston investigates the meaning of a strange clay sculpture left behind by his father. As he continues to investigate the meaning of the sculpture, his mind slowly descends into madness, and his world increasingly borders on the paranormal. He encounters incredible horrors along his journey, and he witnesses the doomed beckoning of ‘The Old Ones’ first hand. While Thurston himself is eventually able to escape the monstrosities hidden beneath the swamps, his mind is permanently damaged by the experience, and he continues to suffer nightmares that slowly drive him insane.

When I first read The Call of Cthulhu, I was enamored by the mood and theme of the short story. Diving into the plethora of Lovecraftian fiction that came after, I find the world and depictions both striking and powerful. As I considered what to write for my first attempt at a fiction novel, my mind kept wandering back to a Lovecraftian inspired mystery.

In The Woman in the Sunken Mirror, Lt. Matthew Barnett steps into the role of our protagonist. He is a well-intentioned investigator, doomed to plunge into the darkest depths of depravity for a woman who will ultimately corrupt him and claim his soul.

The original inspiration for Barnett’s character came directly from Lovecraft’s Thurston. Several other characters in the Lakeborn series bear names from Lovecraft’s stories, such as Henry Wilcox, Francis Morgan, Obadiah Marsh, and Lavinia and Wilbur Wheatley. Many of these characters don’t appear until later in the series.

Some of the themes of The Call of Cthulhu are conveyed directly into The Woman in the Sunken Mirror. For example, Edmund Spencer’s discovery of the sunken chamber is directly inspired by the hidden temples in Cthulhu. Also, the dreams and depraved madness that seem to stem from the sunken chamber are also inspired from Cthulhu, as well as other items and locations central to the stories of other books in the Lakeborn series. Cthulhu is a story centered around madness and dreams, and every book in the Lakeborn Series attempts to maintain a similar emphasis on dreams and supernatural visitations as a silent nod to H. P. Lovecraft. After a certain point in the first book, Barnett’s story deviates considerably from that of Lovecraft’s Thurston. Nevertheless, Cthulhu, as well as the other of Lovecraft’s stories, will continue to provide strong inspiration throughout the series. But more on that soon.

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In 'The Bright Eyed Sisters', Obadiah Marsh and his two friends lose their way in the fog while fishing the waters of Lake Superior, and they capsize their little boat near a mysterious stony island off the shore of Grand Marais.

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Five Mile Rock not only exists today, but it is visible from the shore while driving north on Highway 61 out of Grand Marais. The island is only a few hundred yards in diameter, and it's nestled roughly five miles from shore. Hence the name. It's an odd sight. And, at first glance, it almost looks like a whale or capsized boat. There are numerous folk tales surrounding the island.

Some say that the rock was planted there by the US Coast Guard to test visibility in foggy conditions. Others say that the island was a sacred site to the nearby Chippewa tribe, containing an ancient spring that could heal, or curse. Others tell a tale of three future industrialists who became stranded on the island during a fishing trip. They would eventually be rescued. One would go on to start Harley Davidson, another to create Sears-Roebuck, and another to become the mayor of Chicago. One final theory says that the island is secretly the cap to an underwater cinder cone volcano, and that occasional earthquakes can be felt from shore.

All of the Great Lakes were formed when ancient glaciers carved out the landscape. Glaciers leave behind iconic topography. Kettle lakes, drumlins, eskers, and moraines pepper the Great Lakes region, as well as numerous glacial erratics. Never-ending wave action had diminished many of these features in the lakebed, but some of them still exist, most notably the numerous islands stretched along the northern shores of Lake Superior. Five Mile Rock is not the only odd-shaped island along the shore, and most of them appear to have been formed through the accumulation of glacial till and erratics (debris). In all likelihood, Five Mile Rock used to be much larger, but has slowly eroded over the centuries down to the windswept stone slab we see today.

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Read The Woman in the Sunken Mirror without having to worry about profanity, suggestive themes, graphic violence, or darker story elements.

Find it here.

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