Bayfield County, Wisconsin author, James Brakken, began writing in college when "Muskie Madness," his story of a fishing trip with his father, appeared in Boy's Life Magazine in 1974. More articles followed in Sports Afield, Out-door Life, Field & Stream, School Arts, and other publications.His first novel, The Treasure of Namakagon (2012), features a boy in an 1883 northern Wisconsin lumber camp and Chief Namakagon's legendary lost silver mine. The suspicious 1886 death of Namakagon and the 1846 dis-appearance of a Sault Ste. Marie murder fugitive led to two more novels, Tor Loken & the Death of Chief Namakagon (2013) and The Secret Life of Chief Namakagon (2014), where Brakken solved a 168-year-old cold case when he proved Chief Namakagon was actually John Falcon Tanner, the adventurer who vanished in 1846. Brakken's Annotated Early Life Among the Indians (2016) documents of Chief Namakagon's silver mine and offers many great 1800s Lake Superior tales.Treasure won 2nd place out of 10,000 worldwide entries in the 2013 Am-azon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Brakken also received the 2013, 2014, and 2016 Lake Superior Writers Award and the coveted Wisconsin Writers Association Jade Ring for his collection, The Moose and Wilbur P. Dilby plus 36 Fairly True Tales from Up North (2015). Brakken's Billyboy, the Corner Bar Bear added another 37 "fairly" true tales to his list of published short stories.Brakken earned statewide recognition for conservation as reflected in his Saving Our Lakes & Streams: 101 Practical Things You Can Do Today (2016). Brakken offers discounts of this book to conservation clubs and lake associations. Alias Ray Olson (2017) is a true-crime thriller that exposes the truth behind the June 1939 homicides in Sawyer County and Wisconsin's largest-ever manhunt. It's a close look at the perceived guilt of a man con-victed in the press and hunted by hundreds. Brakken's INFAMOUS (2019) is another true-life, north woods crime novel from the 1930s. It chronicles John Henry Seadlund's rise to Public Enemy #1 in only 4 years. DARK: A Campfire Companion (2012) is an illustrated collection of 56 of the author's delightfully frightening short stories and poems. It's ideal for dark & stormy nights or for reading under the blankets by flashlight.45 Fairly True Tales from the Old Corner Bar offers hilarious tales of life way back when. It's a must-read for anyone who's ever been "up north."Brakken's most recent fact-based novel, Thornapple Girl,(2020) chroni-cles the life of Myra Dietz, a young woman caught up in her father's 1910 struggle against lumber barons who denied him of his earnings. It is accom-panied by the long overdue publishing of Myra's "lost" 1929 memoir, edited by Sybil Brakken.Of Brakken's writing, Publisher's Weekly Magazine and Amazon Books said, "Difficult to put down. ... A great read," and "the flow of words is like an old fashioned song." James Brakken illustrates all his stories. Intended for adults, all are great for young readers, too. Find them at BadgerValley.com, where shipping to USA and APO addresses is still free and state sales tax is paid by the publisher.
