Welcome to the treehouse
Welcome to Mulberry Treehouse, illustrated true fiction by Lisa Horstman.
A treehouse is an amazing place.
When I was little, my older siblings built one in our giant mulberry tree that grew on our parents’ farm. I vaguely remember being around 4 or 5 years old, too small to climb up the treehouse ladder myself, so I was lifted up by my big sister onto the wood platform under the welcoming, shady umbrella of deep green mulberry leaves.
As I grew older, the treehouse became a favorite place to spend a summer’s day reading a good book while sheltered beneath those leafy branches. There was even an old mailbox up there, used to store books inside. Unfortunately, it leaked.
Years have passed, but the tree is still there. It was struck by lightning one year, effectively splitting the tree down the middle. Still, it survives, a giant V on the flat Ohio farmland.
After my parents died, the farm and its land was sold to a family member. I decided to create this corner of Substack in their memory, and the mulberry tree seemed like a natural symbol of the place where I learned to love the combination of words and pictures in a story format.
This is the place where an award-winning children’s book author will create and publish graphic novels and stories for an older audience than the picture book crowd. The stories here will be fictional tales based on true events…for the most part.
The Treehouse audience may vary from book to book. Most, if not all, of the stories will take place in the past but offer up situations relative to our current world. All stories will be illustrated in graphic novel/comics format. The books will be serialized, with a chapter coming out each Friday morning.
The first book, Chronic: An Unauthorized Autobiography, began its free serialization on May 27, 2022. It’s now available as a digital PDF graphic novel, but if you’d like to take it for a test drive, the first two chapters of Chronic are here to read for free. If you'd like to read more, there’s a link provided to purchase the full digital PDF.
Look for the second book, titled Putnam County, coming in 2023. If you like true crime stories presented in an unusual way, this one’s for you.
Welcome to the treehouse. Come on up!