By Barbara Falconer Newhall

More about Lake Michigan in a minute.

First — if you haven’t already done it, now’s a good time to order “Wrestling with God”. You can get both the Kindle ebook and the paperback through Amazon, or you can order the paperback through your local bookstore. It’s also available as a Nook ebook. To find out more, visit WrestlingWithGodBook.com.

It will help the book’s visibility on Amazon if a lot of people order it soon, in this first week or so of its launch.

One of my favorite aspects of the entire Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith project, btw, is that the cover was designed by a western Michigan woman, Michelle Lenger.

There was much emailing back and forth last summer with sketches and ideas and colors and what would show up best on a book shelf or on Amazon. I got a lot of pleasure out of imagining Michelle working away on this design within breathing distance of my dear Lake Michigan, my home spot.

Lake Michigan is a character in the book — along with the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Native American, atheist and Wiccan folks who told me their stories. You’ll see why when you read the book.

I suspect that those of you who have ever spread a beach towel out on the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan (or on your own special beach somewhere else in the world) will enjoy the story of the adolescent me sprawled out on the sand, dreaming of God.

More Lake Michigan stories at “She Walked Around Lake Michigan, Now I Don’t Have To” and “The Windmills of Mason County — Blight or Art?”