A treasure trove of new tales has just arrived, thanks to Clark Lake author Bill Leutz.  You may have seen or read Bill’s books, as a growing number of fans have spread the word about them.

Bill’s latest book is a collection of short stories, titled The Realms of Twilight.  The stories, each one engaging in its own way, span the genres of fantasy, speculative fiction, and folk tales.  Sometimes they are a mixture of those characteristics.

Bill Leutz, Eagle Point Road, Clark Lake

Each story has its own relevance, but one in particular, will stand out to Clark Lakers.   Tantalizing references to Clark Lake’s history will grab your attention.  The short story opens on a beautiful mid-June day in 1919 as a guest from Covington, Kentucky, arrives by train.  John Martin is due for some surprises.

Bill has made available “Mishibizhiw: A Tale of Old Clark’s Lake” to be read on this website as a sample of what you can expect if you acquire the whole book.  Click here to read it.

Bill, known as William K. Leutz on the covers, now has four books in circulation.  His first, The Clams Are Still Baking: Memories of Clark Lake, focuses on growing up and spending summers at the lake.  The other two books showcase his considerable talent as a poet:  What Do You See?: Poems of Perception, and River of Stars: Poems.

No question that writing requires a lot from the author.  What inspires Bill?  Travel and reading.  In Bill’s life, that covers a lot of ground. He believes “every experience in life, every trip to a museum, every movie watched goes into one’s psyche and comes out as creative art.”

Bill grew up in Toledo, attended Scott High School and graduated from University of Toledo as a chemical engineer.  How did his life experience provide the raw materials for his writings?  His career took him to foreign oil fields where he worked in exploration and production for Sun and Hess.  Ten of the 15 years overseas were spent living in Norway.  Always curious, he also explored bookstores, and you’ll see the results in some of his stories.  Fascinating ideas came from leather bound books that were diaries of English sportsmen who came to Norway to hunt reindeer and fish salmon a hundred years ago.  His last career stop was Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He volunteered at the Nature Conservatory’s Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near what was the Osage Reservation.  Delving further into Native history and customs, he volunteered at the Thomas Gilcrease Museum of American History and Art.   Bill returned to Clark Lake in 2014, where he now lives.

Bill’s books are available at Doyle’s Market, Hyde Road, Clark Lake, or directly from Amazon.  Click here to find them.

More about the Realms of Twilight from the Author

This collection of short stories explores a number of different aspects of the broad genre of Speculative Fiction. Science fiction, Native American Mythology, Old World Folktales, and Fantasy are all represented.

In “A Trip to La Pa,” a 20th century American businessman accidentally  finds a connection to an ancient Peruvian god. “The Long Night” relates a 19th century British sportsman‘s experiences in the high country of Norway. “Gunther’s Heir” relates the first phases of the next Dragon Mage, while “White Birches” speaks to the life-long evolution of a Native American boy’s vision quest. In “New Beginnings” we find an early science fiction tale, set in an alternative timeline and, in “Behind the Shop in Go-Down Street,” we are returned to Lord Dunsany’s wonderful world of Faerie. Twelve stories such as these, drawn from the author’s travels, both real-time and armchair, are presented for your pleasure.

It is hoped that you, the reader, might find a few of hours of enjoyment herein and, with a little luck, be transported, for a brief moment or two, into those lands never mapped by man that lie within The Realms of Twilight.”

Bill Leutz
2023