By Jeff Kenney Citizen editor
Nancy and Arthur Baxter, whose Hawthorne Publishing is responsible for Marcia Adams’ new novel, “Adventures of Alexia: A Lake Maxinkuckee Girl, 1885,” are no strangers to Lake Maxinkuckee themselves, at least not for the past 55 years. It’s been that long since the Indianapolis couple first arrived here and built a house on Queen Rd. in addition to their Indianapolis hope. Former teachers (they founded their own school in Traverse City, Mich. Before moving to Connecticut and then Indiana), the Baxters got involved in publishing in 1987, when there was no regional press in Indiana outside IU Press and the Indiana Historical Society’s publishing arm, says Nancy Baxter.

Baxter’s literary career may be best known for her “Heartland Chronicles” series of five historical fiction novels set largely in Indiana and telling, among others, the story of the Potawatomi Indians’ deportation from this area in the Trail of Death.
“I was writing ‘The Movers’ (one of the novels in the Heartland Chronicles),” recalls Nancy. “And Walden Press urged me to get active in publishing in Indiana.”
The Baxter’s company, Guild Press of Indiana (later Emmis Press, when that company bought the Baxters out) published over 200 books, mostly about Indiana. Among the novels published were Marcia Adams’ first two. “Art and I continue doing a few books a year,” Nancy notes. “We have five this year.”
“A Hoosier Farm Boy in Lincoln’s Army” was actually Nancy’s first book, and it’s still in print. However, “’The Gallant Fourteenth’ is my classic,” she quickly adds.
“I’m very proud of Nancy,” says Art Baxter. “If you Google ‘Nancy Bilblack Baxter,’ your screen quickly fills up.”
Hawthorne Publishing can be found online at www.hawthornepub.com.