WHO: Nora J. Janack, Lisbon, is a clerk in the Canton Post Office, an employee of North Country Children's Clinic in Canton and the author of an article in the August 2007 edition of Lighthouse Digest on an Alexandria Bay lighthouse. The Web site of Lighthouse Digest is www.lighthousedepot.com

Sunken Rock Lighthouse got its name because it sits on an artificial island built in 1847 on a submerged rock. It is owned by the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp.

HOW DID YOU COME TO WRITE A STORY ABOUT SUNKEN ROCK LIGHTHOUSE? "I've subscribed for five years to Lighthouse Digest. It's based in Maine, but it's dedicated to the preservation of lighthouse history.

"They ran an ad from 1977 showing a lighthouse for Canadian Club whiskey in which they buried a case of whiskey in the Thousand Islands and they asked, 'Does anybody know what this lighthouse is?' I started with Canadian Club, and they only had one person who remembered the contest.

"The person who won was from Gananoque, Ontario, but they didn't have his name or the name of the lighthouse. I checked different Web sites. I took a drive so I could figure out which one it was. It's the one right in Alex Bay.

"There's a whole bunch of different Web sites on lighthouses, and I just compiled information I found on them. I wrote an article, and they published it.

"It ended up being two pages long, and they included a recent picture of the lighthouse and the ad. On the next two pages, they included pictures of 13 other lighthouses that are in the Thousand Islands, kind of like a sidebar.

"The article was called 'Found Treasure Finds Treasure.' You can read it on their Web site. They have all the issues.

"I was supposed to get $75, but I never did get paid for that. I did ask them, and they didn't respond so I dropped it. At least I can say I'm published. I love to bring it out to my relatives and say, 'Do you know this girl?' because it has my name on it."

DO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER? "My ultimate thing is to write a novel someday, but it's going to be a retirement thing. I have taken home correspondence classes. I started writing a romance novel and I got to page 186 or something, and my daughter read it and said, 'That's great. How are you going to end it?' and I never have ended it."

WHY DO YOU LIKE LIGHTHOUSES? "When I travel, I go and see lighthouses. There's a lot more of them than you think. I'm not as crazy as some. I've seen 23. There's an awful lot of history involved. I guess I just like the idea that there's something constant. They keep people safe."

If you know someone who would be a good subject for a Times Q&A, contact Martha Ellen at mellen@wdt.net.