By Will Tuell

A novelist from Washington State who has family ties to the greater Machias area will be visiting the area in early May to promote his latest work, a historical novel spanning several generations of “Dooling” or Dowling family history and an entire continent. Mike Neir, author of Trees in the Mist, said that researching his family history led him to Machias, where he discovered, and incorporated, his ancestors’ participation in the Battle of the Margaretta into the historical romance.