Author of "A 1000-Mile Walk on the Beach" to Lecture at Central Michigan University

Oct. 9, 2011 - PRLog -- When Loreen Niewenhuis turned 45-years-old, she felt compelled to break out of the day-to-day routine and to take on a big challenge. She decided to walk all the way around her favorite place:  Lake Michigan. Niewenhuis said: “My mid-life crisis evolved into a mid-life adventure!”

In March, Crickhollow Books of Milwaukee published the book about her 1000-mile hike around Lake Michigan, the fifth-largest lake in the world. The book, A 1000-MILE WALK ON THE BEACH, spent several weeks on the Heartland Indie Bestseller List this summer.

In October, Niewenhuis travels to Mt. Pleasant and Lansing on her book tour. In Mt. Pleasant, she will have a book signing on Wednesday, October 26 at The Book Shelf Bookstore from 4-5pm (1014 S Mission St). Following that appearance, she will give a lecture with photos at Central Michigan University's Park Library Auditorium (250 East Preston) at 6pm. https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=282921428393899

The following day, Thursday, October 27, Niewenhuis will travel to Lansing's Everybody Reads Bookstore (http://becauseeverybodyreads.com/) for an author event beginning at 7pm.

Niewenhuis accomplished her 1000-mile hike around Lake Michigan in 2009. It took 64 days of determined walking, and she averaged 16 miles a day. Niewenhuis said, “I encircled the lake with my footsteps, recorded it in my muscles and bones.”

Niewenhuis is an author of literary short stories (she was a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 2009), and a novella called ATLANTA. She has been constantly drawn to the shores of Lake Michigan and was the perfect person to undertake the adventure and to write about it with a clear voice, avoiding romanticizing the lake or her own undertaking.

Niewenhuis is also a scientist. She has worked as a medical researcher in the past.  She has a bachelors of science from Calvin College and a masters of science from Wayne State University. In her book, she offers witness to both the natural beauty of much of Lake Michigan's lakeshore and a concern for the lake’s health as she explored the long and troubling pattern of ecological abuses and environmental challenges.

Lake Michigan, like all great places, is not a uniform experience, but is different each day, every step to round the next bend, each beach or bluff. Niewenhuis's hike was a discovery of this incredible variety. In her book, she takes the reader along on the hike from the urban blight of South Chicago, to the popular state parks with grand dunes and sweeping vistas, to small towns and lakefront cottages, to the isolated wild stretches where few people go. And into the narrative of the hike, Niewenhuis folds in stories of the lake, facts about the ecosystem, geology, and history of the lake. She tells stories of the people she met along the way and of how this adventure transformed the way she looks at Lake Michigan.

She walked the lakeshore in rain and snow, in gale-force winds and calm sunny days. She had to navigate obstacles ranging from limestone cliffs to deep rivers to steel refineries, to nuclear and coal-fired power plants. The journey was filled with many challenges that she had to overcome.  

In her book, Niewenhuis explores how vital the Great Lakes water system is to the entire country as these five lakes contain 90% of the fresh surface water in the nation. Niewenhuis conveys a sense of the magnitude and diversity of the lake she loves, a place elemental to the four Midwestern states that form its shores. From a ground-level perspective, the book explores the natural and human history of Lake Michigan and raises important questions about preserving our wild places and protecting fragile ecosystems.

A 1000-MILE WALK ON THE BEACH will offer inspiration to anyone interested in Great Lakes environmental issues (from invasive species to water quality to tourism) and to anyone interested in what it means to take a really long walk and look closely at oneself and one’s place.  

Her complete book tour schedule and a link to her blog can be found on her website http://LakeTrek.com

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Loreen Niewenhuis is the author of A 1000-MILE WALK ON THE BEACH (the account of her hike around Lake Michigan), the novella ATLANTA, and many literary short stories. She gives lectures about the Great Lakes and readings from her work.