Blown Tire Swerves Into Fiction: Wakefield Landing Is Coming Soon
August 27, 2026 | 4:39 a.m. CDT
By Lisa Loucks-Christenson
I had to rewrite the divide.
Wakefield, Minnesota, and Wakefield Landing, Wisconsin, are fictional Blufflands towns separated by the Mississippi River. Yet the real divide is larger than the water.
Tourism divides families. Hard times push people out. Corporate takeovers force Ma-and-Pa businesses to cross the river to survive. On the other side, they must face the family they abandoned long ago.
That is the beginning of Wakefield Landing.
It is also where the Sturgeon Moon begins its pre-show ahead of the full moon on Friday, August 28.
When the sturgeon appears…
In this story, the omen has never failed.
On August 26, I was traveling toward the Wisconsin side to collect photo reference for the story’s opening scene and cover illustration: the rising moon over the Mississippi River and the visual atmosphere surrounding the omen.
Before we left, I was writing out my prayer and Bible verse, 1 Corinthians 2:9. I had written the verse only as far as the word:
“Prepared.”
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared…”
Then the rear tire blew.
No time to finish.
With a semi behind us, my husband fought to keep the vehicle on the road, activate the flashers, and avoid a collision. The tire was gone. The rim began grinding and clunking against the blacktop, leaving a black line behind us like an unintended em dash.
We reached a turnoff road with cell coverage shortly before the highway dropped toward the valley floor and the steep, winding curves ahead.
Later, I left my prayer exactly where it had been interrupted—with the word “prepared” as the last word written. I completed the rest of the verse separately:
“…for those who love him.”
I wanted to preserve the history of the interruption, the place where our night changed, and the final word I had written before it did.
Instead of photographing the moon over the Mississippi, I watched it rise from the Minnesota side over farm fields.
Then two things happened.
A coyote yipped in the darkness, but it sounded as if three coyotes were calling.
A Wabasha County sheriff’s deputy stopped, asked whether we were okay, asked whether help was coming, then asked again whether we were certain we would be all right. The deputy drove down the dead-end road and did not return.
For an author and illustrator writing Wakefield Landing, it was impossible not to notice the way real life began moving toward fiction.
Did the sturgeon shape-shift into a yipping coyote on the Minnesota side?
Or did the omen arrive in headlights, as a deputy who appeared when we needed help?
The story can hold its mystery.
The real-life thanks are clear: thank you to God; to my husband for getting us safely off the road; to the Wabasha County Sheriff’s Department for checking on us; and to the Mayo Clinic employee who gave us a ride home.
That employee will likely arrive at work on time, but with less sleep, because they took the time to make sure we got safely home.
The real Sturgeon Moon reaches its full phase tomorrow night, Friday, August 28. For now, I am thankful for the photographs I did get, the moonlight over Minnesota fields, and the unexpected way a night of reference gathering became part of the story itself.
Watch for Wakefield Landing. I will announce it here.
Lisa Loucks-Christenson is an investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, author, illustrator, and publisher. She creates environmental, wildlife, true-crime, and Blufflands fiction through Lisa Loucks-Christenson Publishing, LLC.
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