As a patent attorney at the law firm of Davis & Kuelthau, S.C. in Milwaukee, Joseph Heino has published numerous articles in professional journals and has done a large amount of technical writing.
But now his writing has taken a new direction. Recently, Heino published his first novel. The book, “Seamless,” is a Midwestern ghost story based on actual events, Heino said.
“My grandfather lived on a farm in northern Wisconsin,” Heino said. “When I was a young boy my grandfather told me a story that just stuck with me and motivated me to put pen to paper.”
Heino started the manuscript for the story in 2005 and after putting it aside for about a year, got it published earlier this year.
The book outlines the story of Heino’s grandfather and the night his twin brother died.
“When my grandfather was 19 his twin brother fell ill and his parents had to rush him to a hospital in Minneapolis,” Heino said. “At 2 a.m. he went to the window and saw what he thought could be headlights coming around the bend. As it got closer, he could tell it was a single light, not two like a car headlight. He still thought it was his parent’s car. As it got closer to the house, my grandfather saw the light shoot up over the house and disappear.”
The next day his grandfather found out that his brother had died at 2 a.m. exactly the same time he saw that light.
Heino has turned his grandfather’s story and other accounts of strange occurrences by other family members that night into a ghostly novel.
The book is available at most major book sellers as well as on Amazon.com.
Heino is also outlining another story based on actual events when his father-in-law was stranded after a boat he was on sunk in the Indian Ocean during World War II.
“It’s the old adage that you write what you know,” Heino said. “These stories were very close to my heart. They were family stories that were passed down and I just saw this as a perfect opportunity to do something I love and tie them all together.”
