The Reader's Loft

Patricia Skalka

Friday, August 8, 6:30 pm at The Reader's Loft. An Evening with Patricia Skilka. Death Stalks Door County pits a troubled former Chicago cop against a clever killer in a smart, hard-edge detective story of greed, revenge and lost love. Six deaths mar the holiday mood as summer vacationers enjoy Wisconsin's beautiful Door County peninsula. Murders, or bizarre accidents? Newly hired park ranger Dave Cubiak, a former Chicago homicide detective, assumes the worst but refuses to get involved. Grief-stricken and guilt-ridden over the loss of his wife and daughter, he's had enough of death. Forced to confront the past, the morose Cubiak moves beyond his own heartache and starts investigating, even as a popular festival draws more people into possible danger. In a desperate search for clues, Cubiak uncovers a tangled web of greed, betrayal, bitter rivalries, and lost love beneath the peninsula's travel-brochure veneer. Befriended by several locals but unsure whom to trust or to suspect of murder, the one-time cop tracks a clever killer. Set against a backdrop of stunning natural beauty, Death Stalks Door County introduces a new crime series, "The Dave Cubiak Door County Mysteries." Death Stalks Door County marks the fiction debut of award-winning, Chicago writer Patricia Skalka. A lifelong reader and writer, she turned to fiction following a successful career in nonfiction. Her many credits include: Staff Writer for Reader's Digest, magazine editor, freelancer, ghost writer, writing instructor and book reviewer. Patricia has outlined four more books for her crime series, The Dave Cubiak Door County Mysteries. "Who would have guessed that so many dark secrets and sinister deeds lurk beneath the surface of Door County's idyllic communities? A very satisfying read, and the arrival of a fresh, talented voice." - Patrick Somerville, author of This Bright River.

Julie Buckles was born in the driftless region of Wisconsin to a dairy farmer and a nurse.

She studied history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. Buckles has worked as a reporter and freelance writer and teaches journalism as an adjunct professor at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. She is a regular contributor to Lake Superior Magazine and WPR's Wisconsin Life.

June Melbey shares My Family and Other Hazards: A Memoir

Tuesday, August 12, 6pm at The Reader's Loft. June Melby will join "A Reader's Loft Book Club" circle for this discussion. You are always welcome to attend any and all Reader's Loft Book Club gatherings, whether or not the chosen book has been read by you! A funny, heartwarming memoir about saying goodbye to your childhood home, in this case a quirky, one-of-a-kind, family-run miniature golf course in the woods of Wisconsin. When June Melby was ten years old, her parents decided on a whim to buy the miniature golf course in the small Wisconsin town where they vacationed every summer. Without any business experience or outside employees, the family sets out to open Tom Thumb Miniature Golf to the public. Naturally, there are bumps along the way. In "My Family and Other Hazards," Melby recreates all the squabbling, confusion, and ultimately triumph, of one family's quest to build something together, and brings to life the joys of one of America's favorite pastimes. In sharp, funny prose, we get the hazards that taunted players at each hole, and the dedication and hard work that went into each one's creation. All the familiar delights of summer are here--snowcones and popcorn and long days spent with people you love. Melby's relationship with the course is love-hate from the beginning, given the summer's freedom it robs her of, but when her parents decide to sell the course years later, her panicked reaction surprises even her. Now an adult living in Hollywood, having flown the Midwest long ago, she flies back to the course to help run it before the sale goes through, wondering if she should try to stop it. As the clock ticks, she reflects on what the course meant to her both as a child and an adult, the simpler era that it represents, and the particular pains of losing your childhood home, even years after you've left it.

Paddling to Winter: A Couple's Wilderness Journey from Lake Superior to Northern Canada is a memoir that tells the story of how Julie and her husband

Charly Ray built a wood and canvas canoe, exchanged marriage vows, and paddled away from their front yard, planning to travel 2,700 miles to the Arctic Ocean and winter over in a tiny cabin. Told in Julie's page-turning style, their story is full of humor and humility, rapids and relationships, love and life. It's an adventure about a couple's wilderness journey from Lake Superior to the Canadian north.