Behind the Scenes
The Tour shows you where the story happens. This page is about everything around it: the people who cheered it on, the places Kim and I keep going back to, and the odd little things I found on the trail that made it into the book.
Get the book1. The Pub (now closed)
When The Reflectory first came out, Alex and Kate had their Sunday lunch at The Pub, on the corner of Waterfront Drive and 1st Ave in Two Harbors. The owner, Matt Davitt, was one of the book's first champions. He put a photo of Kim and me up on his Wall of Fame, and they even sold signed copies of The Reflectory. Here I am dropping off the first 6. (He also left a comment on Facebook: "Good read so far Dan!" I'll take it.)
The Pub has since closed. I miss it. In the revised edition, Alex and Kate go to Castle Danger Brewery instead. It felt right to send them somewhere still pouring, and somewhere Kim and I already love.
2. Castle Danger, our regular stop
Kim and I stop at Castle Danger nearly every trip up north. It's become part of the drive: get to Two Harbors, stretch our legs by the lake, and settle in with a pint. There's no kitchen, which turns out to be part of the charm. We've had pizza delivered right to our table more than once, and there's something about a hot pizza, a cold beer and a gray Lake Superior afternoon that's hard to beat. So when it came time to revise the book, I knew where Alex and Kate were having lunch.
3. Signings and the people who carried the book
After the book came out, I had a big launch party, ten book signings, and an all-day signing at Split Rock Lighthouse on one of their busiest days of the year. I met with four book clubs. Bluefin Bay's gift shop carried it, and so did The Pub. Every one of those rooms taught me something about what readers want to know, which is mostly: where did all this come from?
4. How The Reflectory got written
In the fall of 1978, when I was 11, I sat on our front porch in South St. Paul and read The Hobbit. It had a map, and dwarves, and a real wizard, and then Gollum showed up and I wondered how a writer could put a creature in my head with nothing but words. Then came Stephen King and The Stand. In the fall of 1986 I spent six months living in Alnwick Castle in England, then backpacked across Europe and into Moscow. Later on, Jon Hassler and Tracy Chevalier showed me that the quiet things, voice and texture, could carry a story.
I'm really not that much of a word guy. Stories, to me, are more like movies. When I started The Reflectory, I knew it had to be set on the North Shore, near Split Rock Lighthouse, especially when the weather turns. With a setting, characters and an atmosphere in place, I let the story grow on its own. A cottage came into being, I picked up a plot trail through the woods, and I followed it to Gold Rock Point.
5. Found on the trail: inspiration
The Secret Paths of Erik Tudor ... Erik has a labyrinth of trails between Tudor House and Stonebrook Cottage. While treacherous to others, he knows every rock, root, and fallen tree and can run along his routes even in pitch darkness.
A cave. All I had to do was move it a bit, shrink the opening, and add a couple sentries.
As Paul does in the novel, the DNR places wire cages around white pines. Cool, huh?
A section of the old drive to Tudor House, now overgrown, becomes a familiar route to Alex and Kate.
Here's a bone. Okay, you're right, it has no connection to the story but, hey, I like it and it was right on my path!