The characters in Harold Thorpe’s novels and children’s stories are deeply inspired by real-life people, including his grandchildren, his Iowa County, Wisconsin ancestors and historical Wisconsin figures. In his Real-life characters blog, Harold shares who these people are — or were — and tells how their actual experiences became the basis for his fiction writing.
In the O’Shaughnessy Chronicles novels, Ruby is the dominant spitfire, Catherine the pensive follower. Sharon, the eldest of the three sisters, is the nurturing mother hen. My Aunt Anne, and her gentle, motherly countenance was the inspiration for Sharon.
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The Greek Revival-style Grignon Hotel, which still stands on Main Street in Butte des Morts, has at various times been operated not just a hotel, but also as a fur trading post, general store, post office, tavern, and antique store. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
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Wyatt’s Woods is a middle grade chapter book set in Door County, Wisconsin. What does Harold’s ten-year-old grandson, Wyatt, think about being the subject of a book? We asked him that, and some other fun questions.
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Wealthy, intrepid, and rebelliously pushing the bounds of acceptable decorum. That’s Bittersweet Harvest’s Augusta Stephens, the wild Texas cousin whose mother sends her to live for a year with the O’Shaughnessy family in Iowa County, Wisconsin.
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Many of the characters in the O’Shaughnessy Chronicles are closely based on my own family members. In the novels my mother, Laura Fitzsimons, and her sister, Alice, are respectively Catherine and Ruby O’Shaughnessy.
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Harold William Thorpe's award-winning books are available through Amazon, publisher Little Creek Press, and many local bookstores.
Harold William Thorpe novels are now included on Goodreads!