Once a Yooper, Always a Yooper

The UP Book Review posted a nice review of Sunshine Blues. Yeah, I was once a Yooper. I lived in Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. And once a Yooper, always a Yooper.

Jimmy Hayes, one of the two main characters in the Sunshine series, is also a Yooper. He grew up on Sugar Island, which is just east of Sault Ste. Marie. The island is surrounded by the St. Marys River. It’s a short ferry ride from Sault Ste. Marie to Sugar Island and you’ll want to stop for one of the best burgers in the world at Clyde’s adjacent to the ferry terminal. You can watch the freighters go by in the narrowest passageway in the entire Great Lakes.

There’s more Yooper lore in Purple Sunshine than in Sunshine Blues where all the references are indirect. But I promise the UP will play a bigger role the setting of the next Sunshine book.