“The thing that I find most engaging is the people that I interview to help me write my historical fiction,” William Durbin said. “Many of them had literally lived the stories that I’ve written.”

Like most of his books, “Blackwater Ben” has a direct connection to Northeastern Minnesota and the people who live here.

“The book definitely deals with an area of our past that is very relevant to all of us,” Durbin said, noting he attended Virginia High School and lived most of his life in the region. “Many of the people that I interviewed during my research had parents or grandparents who worked in logging camps. And the timber harvested early in the 18th century in Northeastern Minnesota helped build America in the same way that the iron ore from the Mesabi Range helped our later industrial expansion.”

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