Fiddling With Fate

When I set book one of my Chloe Ellefson series at a living history museum where I’d once worked, an author-friend gave me this advice: Never write about real places.

- Kathleen Ernst

I understand why many novelists create their settings, or at least fictionalize and rename a familiar location. My plan, though, was to establish Chloe as a curator at Old World Wisconsin, where I once held that job. I couldn’t possibly create a fictional site to rival the richness of my memories. Besides, one of my goals for the series was to introduce readers to some of the Upper Midwest’s special historic sites and museums.

As the series progressed, Chloe’s work took her to an old lighthouse on an island in Lake Michigan and to all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites. I’ve written about Milwaukee’s Basilica of St. Josaphat and Minneapolis’ Mill City Museum. Research for the mysteries has included touring a hand-dug 1850s lead mine, stirring a huge vat of milk in a restored cheese factory, and studying Belgian lace behind the scenes at the Smithsonian Institution.