Goodreads asked Kersti Niebruegge:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Kersti Niebruegge I grew up in Wisconsin and it was always exciting to find the handful of books, movies, and sitcoms that were set there. (I mean, it was pretty cool that the opening credits to That ‘70s Show ended with someone yelling, “I love Wisconsin!”) For my debut book, Mistake, Wisconsin, my goal was to create a fun, relatable satire that called out Wisconsin eccentricities in a loving way.

I didn’t have any specific characters or storylines in mind when I started, but I wanted a fictional setting in the Northwoods, an area known for fishing, hunting, lakes, Scandinavian heritage, and family vacations. Mistake needed to be located far away from any real city so that I could fill it with the kind of folklore and history that grows in the middle of nowhere.

I sat down and wrote a tourist brochure for the town that I was picturing. After I wrote the brochure, I asked myself, “Who lives in a place like this? Who passes through a place like this?” The characters and story then fell into place, and the tourist brochure became the first chapter of Mistake, Wisconsin.

flag