We are excited to announce Rebecca as one of our new Summer 2019 Brand Ambassadors.
"I live in L’Anse and I’m the Assessment/Accreditation Coordinator at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College. I teach the Capstone course for all graduates, and I also get to teach special topics courses. This summer it is True Crime, Victims, and the Media, since I studied the way true crime talks about criminals and victims. (It’s kind of a niche topic, and people either lean in and want to know more when I say that, or take half a step back and quickly change the subject). I spend a lot of my free time reading, although I do branch out from true crime for a good thriller or the latest Stephen King.
My grandmother taught me to knit when I was eight years old, and it was my coping mechanism in grad school. I’ve mastered the art of knitting and reading at the same time – I’ve tested multiple book stands – so my hobbies don’t have to conflict with each other. I have a friend who runs a humanitarian knitting charity that focuses on knitting for the homeless, and she and I are in agreement about the meditative benefits of knitting. It helps keep me grounded, and seeing how far I’ve come on a shawl or sweater helps me feel like I’ve accomplished something when so many other aspects of life feel like just running in place.
I’m also a published author, which still feels strange and wonderful to say. My first book, The Ripper’s Victims in Print: The Rhetoric of Portrayals Since 1929 came out in January 2018, and I used my first royalty check to buy a wonderland pendant to mark the occasion. When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher, an author, an astronomer, and a marine biologist, so having my first book published was incredible. My second book, Words of a Monster: Analyzing the Writings of H.H. Holmes, America’s First Serial Killer is due out this summer – and you can bet that if you see me out and about in a coffee shop working on something, it’s for book three. It’s not uncommon for someone to come up and greet me with “So which serial killer are you doing now?”
I don’t just write academic things, though. I’ve been participating in National Novel Writing Month since 2010, writing a novel each November. I’ve been a volunteer leader for the U.P. since 2012 and we even have weekly writers’ meetups in Cyberia in Houghton and a U.P. authors’ Facebook page. There’s always room for more creativity, and having a group to bounce ideas off means we can help each other out. I, for some reason, am the go-to for advice on murdering characters and getting away with it, at least for a while.
My current favorite Beth Millner piece is my Chocolate and Roses Twig Ring. It’s not my original wedding ring – I needed a replacement because my original ring couldn’t be resized and, since I’ve been concentrating on healthier choices and keeping my life more in balance, my old one got to be far too big. I’d had the ring in the back of my mind for a while so, as a celebration of how far I’ve come, I ordered my new ring at the end of April. All of Beth’s pieces are amazing and get compliments when I wear them, but this one just blows people away. I can’t even remember the first time I saw Beth’s jewelry, but I’ve been in the U.P. since 2007 and she just captures the feeling of natural beauty that surrounds us, coupled with the care of the handmade and intentionally designed that makes all her pieces so special."
Follow Rebecca for all her beautiful knitted creations and true crime novels here:
Instagram: @krakengoddess
Facebook: Rebecca Frost
Twitter: @krakengoddess