The Doublewide by Ann Goethals

A Novel

Roll Up With The Doublewide—a Heartfelt Story About Making a Life, Creating a Home, and Finding Love in Northern Michigan

Traverse City, Michigan—“Hello, it’s me.” With a nod to both Todd Rundgren and Judy Blume, Ann Goethals recently introduced herself on Substack in advance of publishing her first novel, The Doublewide, Mission Point Press, (June 5, 2025). As a high school teacher and union leader, Goethals set aside her own writing aspirations for three decades. Then COVID-19 delivered retirement—and with it, the opportunity for Goethals to focus her energies on her writing. She began with essays and short fiction published in journals such as Birch Bark’s MicroLit Almanac, then pivoted to “writing a story about my favorite place: Northern Michigan.”

The Doublewide: A Novel

The Doublewide is Goethals’s story of Candy Schein. Back in high school she’d always been in the middle row, halfway back. No trouble, no questions, no drama. She’d discovered early that being a fat girl was endlessly funny to the world, so she stopped talking to it. Turning away and keeping her head down suited her just fine—it was comfortable there, no tight seams or binding waistbands.

At twenty-eight years old Candy was four years into saving for her dream of owning a home. A dream that had sustained her as she bought second-hand clothes and furniture, ate frozen dinners and generic ice cream. Then she saw it, the mystic blue doublewide. For it to become her home, she’d have to leave the comfort of her apartment above the pizza parlor and learn to face the world.

Realizing the Dream

As Goethals was developing Candy’s story, “she took up residence in my imagination … and I became, more or less, her stenographer.” At the same time, Goethals’ mom was in assisted living, a long-term situation with many caregivers involved. Drawing on the experience, Candy was born, living in an apartment she had nicknamed “the Dump” and pulling double, even triple shifts in a retirement home.

“I’ve described The Doublewide as a ‘little book’ as the action (small) takes place in a far northern town (small) and is concerned with people who we all too often relegate to the margins: caregivers, contractors, cashiers,” Goethals said. The people in Candy’s life—Graham, Janelle, and Clint—accompany her in ways big and small as she moves from living inside her head to realizing her dream.

Goethals is currently at work on the sequel, Sheltering in Place, which finds Candy navigating a sometimes bumpy relationship and coming into the world to protect the people important to her.

“A writer is what I’ve always wanted to be, starting with the illustrated My Cat Sam published in a limited edition of one sometime back in the sixties. But a high school English teacher is what I became and I spent thirty-four years teaching and learning about the power of the written word, the ability of literature to teach empathy, understanding, and perhaps most importantly, empowerment,” Goethals shared.

Upcoming Author Events

Saturday, August 30, 3:00 p.m., 

Glen Lake Community Library, 10115 W. Front Street, Empire, MI

Author, Ann Goethals

The Author

Ann Goethals is a retired high school English teacher who set aside her own writing aspirations for three decades to nourish those of her students. During that time, she also developed new teacher training programs, created a student writing center, and worked in union leadership. She retired “into COVID” (a not unhappy coincidence) and has since focused her energies on her own writing. Goethals works in all genres and has had several pieces published in online journals. The Doublewide is her first novel and she is busy working on a sequel. Goethals divides her time between Northern Michigan and Chicago, accompanied by her partner Richard and their dog Dude. She is never far from the lake.

The Book

The Doublewide

Ann Goethals

298 pages, 6 x 9 inches, B/W

Fiction, Romance, New Adult, Small Town & Rural

ISBN: 978-1-965278-56-7, $29.95 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-965278-58-1, $18.95 (Softcover)

Mission Point Press, September 25, 2025

Copies are available for preorder at Bookshop.org, Amazon, and other online retailers. On its September 25 publication date, it will be available for purchase wherever books are sold. For information or to arrange for signings and events, contact the author at anngoethals.com.

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