National Indie Bookstore Day

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures: 

A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach  [A Heartland Indie Bestseller]

A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk   [Winner of the Great Lakes Great Reads Award] 

A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure  [Long-listed for the Chautauqua Prize]

 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

Show your support for your local indie bookstore this Saturday (and throughout the year)!

Indie bookstores are vital to our communities and to keeping literature alive. 

 An essay I wrote on this topic can be found HERE.

This Saturday I will be at Brilliant Books to my sign books for you -- or recommend another great read -- to show my support for the great indie bookstores that have shown such great support for my Great Lakes Adventure Trilogy.

#indiebound

Speaking Tour 2016 Begins

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and Great Lakes speaker. She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has written three books about the Great Lakes [A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach *a Heartland Indie Bestseller*, A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk *winner of the Great Lakes Great Reads Award*, and A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure]. To learn more about her work, or to book her as a speaker, go to http://LakeTrek.com

This month I headed out on my speaking tour once again. My first engagements were in SE Michigan.

Fraser Public Library

Librarian Lawrence Marble introduces me to the audience at Clarkston Public Library

I also spoke to a nice group at the Woods Branch of Grosse Pointe's Library system.

I now have presentations for each of my adventures:

Lake Michigan Walk

Great Lakes Walk

Great Lakes Islands

The presentations correlate to my three books:

Go here for a list of my upcoming author events.
This fall I will add a fourth lecture about

ISLE ROYALE.

Mylar Balloons

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and Great Lakes speaker. She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures exploring the Great Lakes and has written three books about the Great Lakes [A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach *a Heartland Indie Bestseller*, A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk *winner of the Great Lakes Great Reads Award*, and A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure]. To learn more about her work, or to book her as a speaker, go to http://LakeTrek.com

I've blogged about the persistence of mylar balloons in the environment. In fact, the most-viewed post on my blog in 2011 was about mylar balloons I found while hiking around Lake Michigan.

This winter I had the pleasure of taking some long hikes along the Atlantic coast on North Carolina's gorgeous beaches. 

Caswell Beach, NC

Mylar balloons also accumulate here. The photo below shows 4 balloons I picked up along 

Caswell Beach.

Four weathered mylar balloons

Mylar balloons are even more harmful when in the ocean because they resemble jelly fish. Many creatures who feed on the jellies will ingest the balloons and other plastic items because they resemble the jellies. The final photo shows some of the other plastic items I found on this stretch of beach.