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Michael Norman, a retired
University of Wisconsin River Falls (UWRF) professor, has completed writing his
eighth book for publication to be released in September.
Norman co-authored the series Haunted America with Beth Scott, as well
as co-authoring two grammar books and writing several plays.
Norman’s new book, The Nearly Departed, is a collection of
ghost stories from all over Minnesota.
Norman, originally from Illinois,
first came to River Falls in the mid 1960’s to attend UW-RF as an undergraduate
student studying journalism and speech.
After graduating Norman returned
to Illinois to attend graduate school at Northern Illinois University. Norman worked for a couple years as a radio
news director and high school teacher before returning to River Falls.
Norman accepted a teaching
position at UW-RF as a journalism professor, where he taught journalism and
mass communication for nearly 30 years.
Norman was the journalism department chair for 18 years of his career at
the university.
Norman wrote his first book, Haunted Wisconsin, in 1980 with
co-author Beth Scott. The book is a
compilation of ghost stories from several different regions in the state.
Norman said he chose to write
about ghost stories in Wisconsin because no one had ever done it before. Many of the stories in the book come from
first hand accounts of people who claim to have experienced a supernatural
encounter. Other stories in the book
come from diaries, journals and other second hand sources.
 Haunted Wisconsin was successful and inspired the Haunted America
series, which Norman and Scott continued to author books of true ghost
stories. The series includes the books Haunted Heritage, Historic Haunted America,
Haunted America and Haunted Homeland.
The books Haunted Heritage and Haunted
Heartland include two ghost stories from River Falls. One ghost story being of a house built in the
19th The other story is of a theatre director
encountering a ghost at the UW-RF theatre during a play dress rehearsal. century, which is now haunted by a benevolent spirit and a
“negative spector” with a weak presence in the house.
Norman also co-authored two
grammar books with Carol Roecklein, both designed for people ages 12+ to
enhance their vocabulary.
| Norman is also an accomplished
play write having written several plays.
His play Entering the Circle: The
Lives of Pioneer Farm Women was written for the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial
celebration.
The Nearly Departed is Norman’s latest book to be released in
September. The book is a collection of
over 30 ghost stories from Minnesota, that took nearly three years to
write.
Norman gathered these ghost
stories in the same manner as his previous works, through interviews with people
who had a ghost story to share or second hand sources like diaries and
newspaper articles.
Norman’s journalism and mass
communication experience show in the writing all of his books. He collects the information as a reporter
would for a news article and does not try to convince the reader that ghosts
exist, but reports factual information from people who have a ghost story to
share.
Norman has been writing ghost
stories for nearly thirty years and maintains the objectivity of a good
journalist.
“I’m an open-minded skeptic,”
Norman said. “[Ghost stories] raise
profound questions that no one really knows the answer to.”
Norman plans to do book signings
for his new book in the fall. A schedule
of these upcoming dates and other general information about Norman can be found
on his Web site www.michaelnorman.us.
Norman’s books can be purchased
on the Web site www.amazon.com, and can be
found in most public libraries. |
