Romancing the Lakes Conference

Mystic Lake Casino proved to be an inviting venue location
for our very first Romancing the Lakes Conference and the chefs put out their
usual fabulous buffet along with appetizing food for the entire conference. Even
though we spent the day inside, the weather outside was picture-perfect as we observed
the golf course through large windows at the Meadows Grill on Saturday evening for dinner.

Nancy Evertz started out the morning by showing us how to create taglines for our fabulous masterpiece
novels so we can pitch them to editors and agents. It’s all about editing a one page story summary down to about thirty to fifty words. And yes, it can be done!       

Our attending editors, Terri Bischoff from Midnight Ink, Denise Meinstad from Fire and Ice the YA division of Melange Books and Jane Bolander from Melange Books offered information on their publishing companies
and answered all our questions about publishing.

Since we were at Mystic Lake Casino, which is owned and run by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, we brought in a speaker to talk about all the changes the Indian tribes have experienced from
the painful 1800’s up to the major success of their casinos today. Elizabeth Poitra, a member of a tribe in northern Minnesota, gave a compelling presentation filled with personal stories.

Our luncheon speaker, Connie Brockway, gave a heartwarming personal
story of her career from her first published book in 1994 to being selected by
Amazon’s Montlake Romance Publishing to author their first book release. The
Other Guys Bride, a historical romance set in turn of the century Egypt was a
story she’d wanted to write for many years and now it had found a home. It was definitely
a journey of highs and lows, but one that brought her to where she is today, a
New York Times and USA Today bestseller author. We were honored to
have Eloisa James, a New York Times bestseller historical romance author, a
Minnesota native and longtime friend of Connie’s join us for lunch. 

After lunch, J. L. Wilson took us on her publishing journey from small publishing houses to self-publishing. She feels it is in her best interest to use all publishing venues available to build readership and fan base.

Laura Breck showed us how to make blogging work by using group blogging. We had hands on experience as we all worked together to create a new unique group blog for our specific niches. Blogging is another
way to build that all important fan readership base.

 If you are interested in self-publishing and marketing, Dari McDonald’s company can direct you to the appropriate people to help you through the process. 

Saturday evening was filled with a chocolate fountain, gift basket auctions, chatting with book cover graphic artist—Christopher Edmond, author headshots taken by Kristy Johnson—a professional photographer, a book signing and an opportunity to pitch your story tag lines to editors. A truly fun evening was had by all!

Sunday saw many tired faces arrive for breakfast, but after coffee and food,
all were ready for the day. Our morning speaker, Lois Greiman, has authored more
than thirty books over the years. Her first book was published in 1992 and she has
over two million books in print. Not bad! But as we all know the Road to Publishing is a long, rocky road
and Lois’ journey wasn’t easy. She shared her ups and downs through the years
from having publishing contracts, back to not having contracts to self-publishing to having contracts again. It’s been a wild journey likened to the Wild, Wild West but through it all she has had her horses to keep her sane.

 Last but not least, Sara Poulos,a professional lawyer, gave us the scoop on copyright laws. I think we all
learned a lot about the legal aspects of writing and how our laws fall prey to different interpretations for each case.

All in all it was an awesome first conference. Hope to see everyone at the next one!

WE DID IT!

Almost two years ago, Kathy and I discussed publishing an
anthology of short stories similar to the anthology published by the Northern
Lights Romance Writers group a few years prior. Most people we talked to probably
thought it would never happen. But, Kathy and I are persistent in bringing our
ideas to fruition. We have been great co-conspirators in taking on this enormous
adventure of starting a new romance writers group south of the river—Romancing the Lakes Romance Writers, putting a new writing contest out to the members of Romance Writers of America—Romancing the Lakes of Minnesota Writing Contest, premiering a new annual conference at Mystic Lakes Casino—The Road to Publishing, and last but not least releasing our anthology—Romancing the Lakes of Minnesota—Summer. This anthology is the first in the Romancing the Lakes of Minnesota series Romancing the Lakes of
Minnesota—Autumn, to be released in the fall of 2014.

It’s been a long journey since last September when we first
put out the call for RTL (Romancing the
Lakes Romance Writers) members to submit short stories between 5-10,000
words. The stories needed to be set on a Minnesota lake and contain a love
story.  The weeks flew by as everyone worked hard to get their stories finished and turned in on time. Then, of
course, came the tedious job of revision after revision. You can probably never
have enough revisions as we all strived to make our stories as perfect as they
could be.

Finding the perfect photo for our cover wasn’t as easy as we
thought in the planning stages, but with the help of one of our members, Christopher
Palm, who is a graphic artist, the perfect picture was found. The sunset
picture could easily take place on any of the lakes in our stories and our
names could be drawn on the shoreline of any of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes. It
was a perfect fit! Also, having our own graphic artist allowed us to come up
with our very own logo for Romancing the Lakes Romance Writers, which enhances the anthology’s beautiful back cover. 

Seeing our writing in print has been a dream come true. For
some, it has been a dream for many years and for others perhaps only a few. But
for all of us, it has been very exciting to finally see this book in
print. 
Congratulations to all the anthology authors and thanks for all your hard work and persistence
in making this dream a reality!  Also, a huge thank you to Christopher for all his time and expertise on designing the cover and back for the anthology and creating a logo for Romancing the Lakes Romance Writers.

BOUTIQUE SHOPPING

October and November tend to be prime boutique months as every weekend there are
multiple boutiques where women can shop for new and unique items. The nearby
Wild’s Golf Course held a boutique in November. Once I heard about it, I
checked into getting a table to sell my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk, but they were already full.
Since it was close by and I wanted to check it out to see if I wanted to
reserve a table next year, I made plans to meet my cousins there. I arrived
early and decided to take a look around. It was a top notch boutique, that was
obvious. Sadly, I have to admit that I felt extremely underdressed. Who gets
this dressed up to go to a boutique? I had on every day jeans, a casual knit
shirt, leather jacket and medium heeled shoes, but almost everyone else had on
high heeled leather boots, designer jeans, fancy scarves around their necks and
big jewelry. Their hair looked like they had just left the hair salon. And to
top it all off, almost everyone had a glass of wine in one hand. I really don’t
think it had been that long since I’d been to a boutique that they would’ve
changed that much, but I definitely felt way out of my league. After meeting up
with my cousins, we browsed the tables of unique and different items for sale.
I did happen to find a child’s handmade hooded fleece coat with Scandinavian
looking trim, so I purchased one for my granddaughter for Christmas. No one had
eaten so we took a table in the bar’s dining area and had dinner. Later in the
month, I went to Shepherd of the Lake’s Boutique. This one I had received a registration
form but it ran for 3 days and I would’ve only been able to be there for one
day, so I had to decline. Since I had never been to the boutique before, I went
mainly to see what it was like. I met my sister there and we walked through
three floors of vendors. We saw many booths with items we hadn’t seen anywhere
else. They definitely did a great job on marketing the show, since it was
absolutely packed full of eager buyers. A fellow Beaver’s Pond author, Marilyn
Jax, had a table to sell her new book, Road
to Omalos, so we stopped to chat. These two boutiques were both very
upscale. The main thing I got out of attending them was to definitely dress up
when I go to boutiques from now on and be prepared to have a glass of wine,
because it definitely wasn’t so much about what the vendors had to sell, but
instead it was about the look you portrayed to everyone else.

Next
year I will do much better, now that I know.

KING AND QUEEN OF NORWAY VISIT MINNESOTA 2011

King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway came to visit Minnesota Oct 11-18, and it was their
first visit since 1995. Minnesota has over 850,000 people who have at least
some Norwegian ancestry. Their first stop was in Decorah, Iowa to visit Luther
College which was marking its 150th anniversary and the Vesterheim Norwegian
American Museum marking its 130th anniversary. Next they visited St. Olaf
College in Northfield and then on to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. A church
service was held on Sunday at Augsburg College in Minneapolis followed by a
reception hosted by Governor Mark Dayton at the governor’s mansion featuring
Minnesotans who were honored by the Norwegian government. A royal dinner was
held that evening and Bjorn Hagen, my father’s long- time friend from the
Norwegian Glee Club, was privileged to attend. He was very excited and proud to
attend the dinner and it was a night he will always remember. The following
day, the Minnesota National Guard flew the royal couple to Duluth, where King
Harald re-dedicated Enger Park, which was originally dedicated by his father,
King Olaf V in 1939. On the final day of the visit, the couple unveiled an
exhibit at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, marking the 100th
anniversary of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole. The
King and Queen then flew to New York City, where they attended an
American-Scandinavian Foundation conference, attended by officials and royalty
from all five Nordic countries. I wanted to attend one of the functions while
the royal family was in town but it proved impossible to get a ticket. I
thought it wouldn’t be that difficult or I would’ve tried earlier to get
tickets. It became apparent that unless you knew someone or were someone of
great importance you wouldn’t get a ticket. There was very heavy protection
surrounding the royal couple while they were in the U. S. most likely because
of the Oslo bombing and massacre in July. It would’ve been an awesome
experience and although it didn’t happen for me, I am happy for all those who
were privileged to meet the King and Queen of Norway on their visit to Minnesota
in 2011.

MIDWEST FICTION WRITERS FALL HARVEST 2011

Every year Midwest Fiction Writers group, a
chapter of Romance Writers of America, offers a Fall Harvest Workshop at the
end of September. This year the conference presented Margie Lawson’s Deep
Editing Master Class. Margie Lawson has a Master’s of Science in Psychiatric
Counseling and is a world-wide lecturer. On Friday night for MFW’s 35th
anniversary, they offered a formal dinner with guest speaker, Mary Janice
Davidson, who is from the Twin Cities and is the New York Times Bestseller
author of the Undead Vampire
series. She was as hilarious in person as she is in her writing. On Saturday,
the workshop consisted of Margie Lawson’s intense, hands-on, deep editing class
complete with multi-colored magic markers to highlight different sections of
our manuscripts. Sunday was a half day class with some final pointers from
Margie and included a delicious breakfast brunch. Fall Harvest is promoted to
all writers in the Twin Cities area and to all RWA chapters across the country,
although most of the participants are Midwest Fiction Writers members. This
year again it was tough to get people to sign up, probably due to the
conference being held at a location on the North side of the Twin Cities making
it a long drive for those of us who live out in the far southern suburbs and
requiring a car rental for out of town people. Also the cost was high
considering there weren’t editor or agent appointments included in the
conference and considering the state of the economy it was hard for many people
to justify the cost without having an opportunity to pitch their stories to
editors and agents. I guess most writers are just more willing to put out money
to go to an out of state conference if there are multiple classes taught by
more than one speaker and definitely more enticing if there are editors and
agents attending. It may be time for MFW to take a serious look at making some
changes in their current conference offerings and going back to the types of
workshops offered in past years. It was certainly a pleasure to meet Margie and
hear her ideas regarding deep editing, but of course with editing, it is just
one of those things that requires sitting down and trying it on your own
manuscript. So we’ll have to see if after working through the deep editing
process, my manuscript becomes a keeper for a publishing house!

CINEMA BALLROOM FALL SHOWCASE 2011

My son is a Ballroom Dance teacher and his
studio, Cinema Ballroom puts on a Fall Showcase every year at the end of
September. The show consists of students showing off what they have learned in
Salsa, Cha Cha, Rumba, Tango, Waltz and Swing. I am always impressed with how
far the students progress each time, so each time I watch a show I vow to make
it to the Beginners class on Wednesday nights. It always sounds like a great
plan until Wednesday comes around. Somehow after working all day, when it's
finally five o’clock, the sun is setting and while walking to my car I am
freezing, going straight home sounds so much better than driving across town to
take a dance class. On those rare nights I manage to get over to the studio for
the class, I am always glad I made it there. And after the class is over and I
have learned beginning steps to two different dances, I know it was definitely
worth the effort. I am always proud to watch my son dance. This was not what he
set out to do, he sort of happened upon it after college and I guess he fell in
love with Ballroom Dancing. After struggling with some health issues this past
year, I am finally feeling like I have more energy and I am even more
determined to make it to the Cinema Ballroom dance classes on a more regular
basis. So once we hit the nice weather of spring, I will be there. It is always
nice to have someone accompany you so you don’t have to walk into a class
alone. My cousin, Karin, met me at the studio to watch the Fall Showcase and we
both enjoyed watching the dancing. Hopefully, I can convince her to join me in
the spring to take a class. And of course the dresses the women wear are always
beautiful. In fact, one of the reasons I want to learn Ballroom Dancing is so I
can wear one of the fabulous dresses. I’ve had Ballroom Dancing on my goal list
for a while now; hopefully this will be my year to make it happen!

DAUGHTERS OF NORWAY’S LUTEFISK PROGRAM

I joined the Daughters of Norway’s newly formed Minneapolis group in 2011. It
consists of a group of women who have Norwegian heritage and get together to
share information and the traditions of Norway. I joined with my sister and
have thoroughly enjoyed attending the meetings and learning new things from the
programs. In September I received a call from the program director asking if I
would be interested in giving a program about Lutefisk and my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk. I
was unsure about the Lutefisk part but since she was desperate, I agreed.
Usually program speakers are paid a small speakers fee but since the group is
new and the coffers low, it wouldn’t be in the budget. I had wanted to market
my book as a program to the Sons of Norway groups, but wasn’t sure what else I
could talk about besides my book. This was the solution I'd been looking for,
to combine my book, Real Norwegians
Eat Lutefisk, with a talk about Lutefisk. The September meeting would
be a great opportunity to try out the Lutefisk program on an audience, so I
felt it would be worth my time and effort even without receiving a speaker fee.
Hopefully, I would be able to sell a couple of books at least. I began
immediately searching the internet for anything I could find out about
Lutefisk, especially anything about Lutefisk in Minnesota. To my amazement and
pleasure, I found more than ample information for my program. I printed out
anything I thought would be useful and interesting for the program. That day I
talked about Lutefisk songs, Lutefisk dinners, the Lutefisk Capital, Lutefisk
movies—Lutefisk Wars, and of course my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk. I have a professional banner
about 6 feet tall with my book cover on it, along with other display items of
my book which I brought. Next time, I will have to put it into a Power Point
presentation. The program went well and the women were very interested and
enthusiastic. They even provided additional bits of information on their
Lutefisk experiences throughout my talk. Ultimately, it went well. I was
pleased and afterwards I sold about 12 books which ended up being way more than
I would’ve received for a speaker fee. So it just goes to show when you do
things out of a desire to help others, the payback is always way more than you
ever expected!

MYSTERY DINNER THEATER

For our Wings Financial Fall employee event we
attended a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater at the Marriot West hotel in St. Louis
Park mid-September. These shows are considered interactive as the actors mingle
with the audience in between a three course meal. Generally speaking the food
is not the greatest, but, yes, it was edible. The name of the production was, A
Man in Pajamas. Of course they always involve a murder, usually in the
beginning and the rest of the time is spent trying to figure out who committed
the murder. The show begins when Detective Chase Taylor receives a midnight
visit from a stranger in pajamas who is shot minutes later and dies. He then
follows the murder trail to the Bahamas where he, of course, solves the murder.
I have never been very good at figuring out who committed the murder. These
work related functions provide a time to get to know your fellow workers and
hopefully do some bonding which must be somehow beneficial to the company, or
why would they spend the money? I usually try to attend these functions if at
all possible, as it really is a perk and basically provides a free dinner and show.
But obviously by the attendance numbers, not many people want to take advantage
of freebies. At least not this one. Ultimately, the night was enjoyable and
well worth the time spent.

MINNESOTA STATE FAIR 2011

If you have never been to the Minnesota State
Fair, you are missing out on the 2nd largest state fair in the U.S. I haven’t
missed a year since I started going when I was young. It became a family
tradition as my mother took me and my siblings and I took my children. Even
though many things at the fair are the same each year, it is still always
changing. To see everything you must allow a whole day. I have a route I use
each year and manage to see practically everything of interest to me in about
12 hours of nonstop walking, looking and oh of course eating which is the
highlight of attending the state fair. It is amazing to see all the new foods
they come up with each year from deep fried bacon to spaghetti on a stick. The
Minnesota State Fair is known for all its food items on a stick. I have my
favorites-- Pork Chop on a stick and Granny's Fudge Puppies (round Belgian
Waffles dipped in rich Swiss Chocolate on a stick)--and of course those not on
a stick--Lobster Bites, Bull Bites, Nitro Ice Cream, Fresh Cut French Fries,
Sweet Martha’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Nutella Crepes, Tom Thumb Mini
donuts, and absolutely to die for London Broil Steak Sandwiches. And then I
always need to buy a bag of my favorite Minnesota grown Beacon apples to bring
home. First, I always go through the Arts and Crafts buildings to look at all
the wonderful needlepoint, knitted, crocheted, sewn and handmade items. Next, I
head to the Food Building to eat, of course. Eating is an all-day thing though
because you need to spread it out so you can try as much as you can. The
International Bazaar has vendor booths from different countries and my favorite
is a Norwegian booth where they sell Rosemaled items. This is the one place I
usually make a purchase; in fact I look forward to seeing what new items she
has to sell each year. Then it is on to the Dairy Building to see the butter
head sculptures of the Dairy Princesses. They are absolutely amazing and if you
happen to be there at the right time you can watch the sculptor at work. I am
not big on rides but I always make sure to take a walk through the Midway to
see if there are any new rides. The animal buildings are not my favorites but I
have been known to walk through them. I prefer the Hippodrome because it has
vendors which I find far more interesting than the horses. Reader sunglasses
(for reading romance books at the pool or lake) were my big find at the fair
and they were in the Hippodrome. Heritage Village offers a vintage theme along
with a couple of railroad cars filled with memorabilia dating back to the
forties. The Grandstand Building has two floors filled with vendors ranging
from kitchen wares to Minnesota Wild tickets. The Grandstand itself has top
name artists performing every night. I think I went to a
show for about 20 years up until the last couple of years when they just didn’t
have anyone I was interested in seeing. Recently, they are catering more to the
younger crowd and those who like Country music which I am not into. Through the
years I have seen Michael Bolton, Chicago, Huey Lewis and the News, and Johnny
Lang just to name a few. Of course my favorite things are anything Scandinavian
like the Rosemaling, Hardanger, and Norwegian sweaters in the Arts and Crafts building
entered to win Blue Ribbons, the Rosemaling booth in the International Village,
Lefse in the Food Building, Ole and Lena’s food booth, Rosemaled Scandinavian
Clog booth and the Nordic Surf band. In fact, there has been a strong
Scandinavian influence since way back in 1925 when the Minnesota State Fair was
the site of the Norse-American Centennial celebration and was attended by
President Calvin Coolidge who recognized the contributions of the
Scandinavian-Americans and Leif Erickson’s discovery of America. For the past
few years we have contemplated having our Nordic Treats food booth at the fair
to sell Scandinavian foods, but I think we need something new and trendy and it
definitely should be on a stick—like Lutefisk on a stick, maybe? Who knows,
maybe someday. . .

LAKE OKOBOJI

I had never heard of Lake Okoboji until last
summer. Since one of my timeshare weeks was expiring at the end of August, I
looked for a place close and drivable, hopefully in Minnesota or Iowa. What I
found available was a Studio Unit at Sunrise Cove in Village West on Lake
Okoboji in Spirit Lake, Iowa. I did some research on the area and found Lake
Okoboji was known as the Great Lakes area of Iowa, so I went ahead and booked
it. The drive wasn’t bad, only about three hours south of my house. Spirit Lake
was a small town with a cute little old style downtown area. Arnold’s Park, a
neighboring town on the lake, had an amusement park along with shopping, dining
and boat rides. Cabins, homes, resorts, stores and restaurants surround all
shores of the lake. The weather wasn’t the best as it was cool and rainy which
was unusual for August but it proved to be relaxing just the same. I went
shopping in all the cute little shops and antique stores looking for something
unique to the area. Finding the book, Okoboji,
by Peter Davidson turned out to be just what I was looking for as it was about
Lake Okoboji and even included a love story. Back at the resort, I managed to
complete the edits on my manuscript, Taking
Chances, which was the goal for the weekend. Mission accomplished! The
resort I stayed at offered a free boat ride including a tour of the lake, so I
signed up. Of course it rained, but the tour boat went out anyway. It was a
nice way to hear all about the history of the lake and its longtime residents.
On the way out of town, I stopped at the local book store, Hill Avenue Books,
located on the main street in Spirit Lake. I wanted to see what type of books
they carried and after chatting with the owner I mentioned my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk. I
wasn’t sure if she even knew what Lutefisk was, but to my surprise she told me
they had Lutefisk dinners in Spirit Lake. After looking at a copy of my book
she purchased a couple copies for her store! Lake Okoboji proved to be an
interesting resort lake area where I could relax, work on my writing and even
sell my writing!

STEVIE NICKS CONCERT

A very long time ago, back in the late
seventies, when I lived in Fargo, Fleetwood Mac came to UND (University of
North Dakota) to give an outdoor concert on June 27, 1976. At the time we
didn’t have the money to spend on tickets to the concert even though we were
huge fans of Fleetwood Mac. The night of the concert we went to UND to see if
we could hear anything from outside the fenced area. The weather forecast was
for a cloudy evening with a chance of showers. We had actually hoped we could
sneak in somehow, but that just wasn’t an option when we got there. So we stood
outside the fence and listened for awhile and then the rain started. I have to
say the thing I will always remember about that concert is seeing Stevie Nicks
on stage soaking wet in her long flimsy black dress clinging to her body
singing, Rhiannon. So when Mystic Lake Casino announced Stevie Nicks
would be performing a concert on August 24, 2011 in their new outdoor
Amphitheater, I purchased tickets. Stevie Nicks is over sixty now and looks
great still. She is performing again, has a new CD out and has been appearing
on the talk shows promoting her tour. A lot of singers like to perform their
new songs at concerts and only sing a few of their old songs which tend to be
the fans favorites, but I give her a lot of credit for giving the fans what
they wanted by performing all her hit songs—Landslide, Dreams, Gold Dust
Woman, Stand Back, Leather and Lace, and Edge of Seventeen. She, also,
managed to intertwine her new songs into the concert while explaining why she
had written each one. It turned out to be a beautiful clear summer night
although it got a little cool as the night progressed. Stevie was engaging and
funny while she talked to the crowd telling stories about her singing career.
All in all it was a must see concert living up to all my expectations. To see
Stevie Nicks perform, Rhiannon, on stage in a black flowing dress at an
outdoor concert, under the Minnesota summer stars, was way over thirty years in
the waiting but well worth it and truly a night I will always remember!

BRANSON

I think it’s been about 10 years since my first and only previous visit to Branson.
This summer I was looking for somewhere to take a mini vacation that would be a
drivable distance for me and my daughters who live in Oklahoma. I had a
timeshare week I needed to use and there are usually plenty of available units
in Branson, so once we had our date firmed up, I booked a 2 bedroom condo. Only
one of my daughter’s was able to make it to Branson with her husband and
daughter, Teagan, who was 9 months old. The condo was very roomy with 2 large
bedrooms, 2 full baths, a large kitchen, family room and a nice patio. Branson
has a new area in the downtown area called Branson Landing. It is filled with
new shops, restaurants, and a large open area perfect for concerts and events.
The whole area overlooks Lake Taneycomo, with many of the restaurants featuring
outside patios with views of the lake. One night we enjoyed a fabulous steak
dinner at the Texas Land and Cattle Steakhouse located in the Branson Landing
area and listened to a band playing on the stage for a while before heading
back to the condo. In the downtown area, there are train tracks with a train
depot where train rides are offered. The Branson Scenic Railway offers a 40
mile scenic excursion through the Ozark foothills winding through tunnels and
then crossing bridges and trestles used by the luxury trains of yesteryear. We
were able to take advantage of the train ride which proved to be quite the
experience to see the foothills from the domed car while it moved through
tunnels and over high trestle bridges. We were not able to take in Silver
Dollar City or take advantage of a boat cruise, maybe next time. The four day
weekend flew by, especially since it was an 11 hour drive to get there, but it
was nice to get away with my daughter and her family while taking in the new
things in Branson. And nothing beats staying in a condo instead of a cramped
hotel room!

BEAVER’S POND PRESS SUMMER BBQ

Each year in August, Beaver’s Pond Press has a
BBQ for their authors. I published my children’s / coffee table book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk,
with them in 2009. They are a local self-publishing company, which is why I
chose to work with them, and the founder, Milt Adams turned out to be an old
Norwegian who fell in love with my book. They made the process easy to go from
finished manuscript to printed book. I chose to self-publish my book because it
was a niche book that would most likely appeal only to the Norwegian American
people in the Midwest. It has been successful and can be found in most of the
Scandinavian stores in the Midwest along with some independent book stores.
Considering it came out at the start of the recession, I think it has done
extremely well! I like going to the BBQ because it gives authors a chance to
meet with other authors to exchange marketing and promo ideas. And of course
the food is always tasty. This year it was a pleasure to meet Marilyn Jax who
worked as a government enforcement investigator and fraud examiner for many
years and just put out her second book, Road
to Omalos. Her first book, The
Find, received numerous awards. I chatted with Dara Beevas, who was the
editor for my book and now is the VP, about possibly putting out my second
book, Real Norwegians Eat Rommegrot,
in 2012. I have this book ready to go but have been waiting for the economy to
recover before taking the leap of faith again. It has been almost three years
though, so I think it may be time to take this next step in my Norwegian
Traditions Children’s series. This was the second Beaver’s Pond Press BBQ I was
able to attend and it was well worth my time because of the networking
opportunities it offered to me as one of their authors.

AMERICAN IDOL 2011

In 2011, American Idol celebrated their 10th
year, however, this was the first year I watched the show. I certainly have
plenty of shows to watch already, so I really didn’t need another show to
occupy my time, but I was visiting my sister in Florida last February and this
is a show she watches faithfully so I had no choice but to watch it. After a
couple nights of watching these young people sing their hearts out, I was
invested enough in the show to keep watching the rest of the season. Not having
watched the previous seasons, I can’t say from past experience, but I think
this year the final group consisted of extremely gifted and diverse singers. Of
course the elimination process never goes the way we think it will and our
favorite person is eliminated way too early. I think what intrigued me with the
show was all the different types of music these contestants performed. Naima
Adedapo, Thia Megia, Karen Rodriguez, and Ashthon Jones were not memorable
contestants, as far as I was concerned, and placed 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th.
Pia Toscano, who had an excellent voice and sang ballads, placed 9th but
managed to get a recording contract immediately. Paul McDonald, who had a raspy
voice similar to Rod Stewart, sang Rod’s hit songs. His voice wasn’t strong though
and he placed 8th. Stephano Langone had a good voice although not as strong as
the others. He sang various light rock songs and placed 7th. Casey Abrams was
obviously an accomplished musician and played almost all the string
instruments, sang Jazz and Blues and placed 6th. Jacob Lusk, who came from a
church gospel choir group had an excellent, strong deep voice, sang Luther
Vandross songs and placed 5th. James Durbin could belt out hard rock songs to
the point of practically screaming while staying in tune and placed 4th. He has
an album, Memories of a Beautiful Disaster, releasing in November. Haley
Reinhart had an intoxicating raspy voice, who sang Blues and Jazz style songs,
and placed 3rd. She received a recording contract shortly after the tour and
will be releasing a CD soon. Lauren Alaina had a beautiful voice for the
Country songs she sang and was the runner up. She released her debut album, Wildflower,
a few months after the season finale. Scotty McCreery, who had an unbelievable
deep country voice and of course sang Country songs, was the winner. He became
the American Idol for 2011 and released his first album, Clear as Day. Since I
became so invested in these people and especially loved Hailey’s version of, House
of the Rising Sun, I just had to attend the concert in Minneapolis at
the Target Center on August 3. I purchased my ticket late and because it had
been sold out earlier, this newly available section was on the side of the
stage. My seat was almost in the very last row and the
seats in that area tend to be at a very steep angle which makes you feel like
you could fall down at the slightest wrong step. Plus it tends to make me feel
a little dizzy. It appeared they had only sold the first eight seats in each
row, leaving six open seats in each row in both the top and bottom sections, so
we moved down to the lower section and all was good. These ended up being
excellent seats as the singers always walked to the end of the stage which
faced us so they were standing only a few feet away. The concert was
entertaining and the singing, of course, was top notch with all thirteen of the
finalists performing. I’m not sure if I will ever attend another American Idol
concert, but this one was definitely enjoyable and I look forward to buying
Haley’s new upcoming CD, along with Pia’s and Scotty’s, too. I have great memories
of the 2011 American Idol concert that will be remembered for a lifetime! Along
with new songs on my IPOD! So you just never know what will happen by watching
one episode of American Idol!

In 2011, American Idol celebrated their 10th
year, however, this was the first year I watched the show. I certainly have
plenty of shows to watch already, so I really didn’t need another show to
occupy my time, but I was visiting my sister in Florida last February and this
is a show she watches faithfully so I had no choice but to watch it. After a
couple nights of watching these young people sing their hearts out, I was
invested enough in the show to keep watching the rest of the season. Not having
watched the previous seasons, I can’t say from past experience, but I think
this year the final group consisted of extremely gifted and diverse singers. Of
course the elimination process never goes the way we think it will and our
favorite person is eliminated way too early. I think what intrigued me with the
show was all the different types of music these contestants performed. Naima
Adedapo, Thia Megia, Karen Rodriguez, and Ashthon Jones were not memorable
contestants, as far as I was concerned, and placed 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th.
Pia Toscano, who had an excellent voice and sang ballads, placed 9th but
managed to get a recording contract immediately. Paul McDonald, who had a raspy
voice similar to Rod Stewart, sang Rod’s hit songs. His voice wasn’t strong though
and he placed 8th. Stephano Langone had a good voice although not as strong as
the others. He sang various light rock songs and placed 7th. Casey Abrams was
obviously an accomplished musician and played almost all the string
instruments, sang Jazz and Blues and placed 6th. Jacob Lusk, who came from a
church gospel choir group had an excellent, strong deep voice, sang Luther
Vandross songs and placed 5th. James Durbin could belt out hard rock songs to
the point of practically screaming while staying in tune and placed 4th. He has
an album, Memories of a Beautiful Disaster, releasing in November. Haley
Reinhart had an intoxicating raspy voice, who sang Blues and Jazz style songs,
and placed 3rd. She received a recording contract shortly after the tour and
will be releasing a CD soon. Lauren Alaina had a beautiful voice for the
Country songs she sang and was the runner up. She released her debut album, Wildflower,
a few months after the season finale. Scotty McCreery, who had an unbelievable
deep country voice and of course sang Country songs, was the winner. He became
the American Idol for 2011 and released his first album, Clear as Day. Since I
became so invested in these people and especially loved Hailey’s version of, House
of the Rising Sun, I just had to attend the concert in Minneapolis at
the Target Center on August 3. I purchased my ticket late and because it had
been sold out earlier, this newly available section was on the side of the
stage. My seat was almost in the very last row and the
seats in that area tend to be at a very steep angle which makes you feel like
you could fall down at the slightest wrong step. Plus it tends to make me feel
a little dizzy. It appeared they had only sold the first eight seats in each
row, leaving six open seats in each row in both the top and bottom sections, so
we moved down to the lower section and all was good. These ended up being
excellent seats as the singers always walked to the end of the stage which
faced us so they were standing only a few feet away. The concert was
entertaining and the singing, of course, was top notch with all thirteen of the
finalists performing. I’m not sure if I will ever attend another American Idol
concert, but this one was definitely enjoyable and I look forward to buying
Haley’s new upcoming CD, along with Pia’s and Scotty’s, too. I have great memories
of the 2011 American Idol concert that will be remembered for a lifetime! Along
with new songs on my IPOD! So you just never know what will happen by watching
one episode of American Idol!

DOLLY PARTON CONCERT

I have been a fan of Dolly Parton for many years, especially her movies—Nine to Five, Rhinestone Cowboy and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Of her hit songs, my favorites are Here You Come Again, I Will Always Love You, Nine to Five, Islands in the Stream, Hard Candy Christmas, and Backwoods
Barbie. Currently, Dolly, known as the Queen of Country is starring with Queen Latifah in a new movie, Joyful
Noise. She owns Dollywood, an amusement park in Pigeon Forge,
Tennessee, that I almost was able to visit a couple of years ago, but due to
flooding in the area, the convention I was planning on attending was cancelled.
So when Mystic Lake Casino announced Dolly Parton would be appearing in concert
on July 27, I marked it on my calendar. Generally, since we live so close to
Mystic Lake, if it works out we can make it that night to the concert, we go
over to Mystic to see if anyone has extra tickets to sell. Since Mystic Lake
Casino gives away free tickets to their high rollers, there usually are extra
tickets available. My birthday is on July 25, so I thought seeing Dolly in
concert would be a great way to celebrate. That night we went over to the
casino a little early to see what we could find in the way of free tickets and
as soon as we arrived at the box office area, I saw a man asking if anyone
wanted a free ticket to the Dolly Parton concert. I immediately went over and asked
how much he wanted for it and he assured me he didn’t want anything since it
was a comp ticket, but he only had one. My boyfriend wasn’t a big fan of
Dolly’s anyway so he was more than happy to let me make use of the ticket and
pick me up after the show. Sitting by myself next to strangers is not my
preference, but hey it worked out okay. The seat was excellent and Dolly was
quite the professional performer, engaging the audience with stories from her
life, dancing in four inch heels while singing, playing various instruments and
looking gorgeous as usual. I was thrilled to celebrate my birthday with the
opportunity to see Dolly perform all her old songs along with songs from her
new album and I wholeheartedly look forward to seeing her new movie, Joyful Noise.

OSLO MASSACRE

In the summer of 2011, on July 22, the totally
unexpected occurred. Norway, a country of some of the most peace loving people
of the world suffered a travesty of immense proportions. The unthinkable
happened to this small peaceful country on the North Sea. One of their own,
opened fire on the nation’s young people attending a summer camp on the island,
Utoya, located in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud. He showed no mercy. But instead, he
killed looking them straight in the eye. And he did it for an unachievable and
unchristian cause, using a method of unabashed cruelty and disregard for the
lives he took. Young lives that still had their whole lives ahead of them. He
was demented of course. First, he set a car bomb outside the office of Prime
Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Oslo, killing eight people, wounding even more and
leaving 10 more people critically injured. Then traveling north to the summer
camp of the AUF‘s youth division of the ruling Norwegian Labour Party. He
dressed in a police uniform and showed fake identification to gain access to
the island and opened fire, killing 69 people, including personal friends of
Jens Stoltenberg and the stepbrother of Norway’s crown princess Mette-Marit. It
was considered the deadliest attack in Norway since World War II. Anders
Behring Breivik, a 32-year old Norwegian right-wing extremist was arrested and
charged with both attacks. His mission was to stop the tide of Muslim
immigration into Europe. He hated Islam, and sadly he saw himself as a knight
dedicated to eradicating the Muslims who he felt were taking over his beloved
country. He desired to return Europe and Scandinavia back to only Christianity.
It is hard to understand why he chose to kill his fellow Christian countrymen
to try to achieve this mission. An entire nation country grieved. Anyone of
Norwegian ancestry grieved, no matter where they now reside. I attended a
memorial church service at the Mindekirken Church in Minneapolis where 69 roses
were laid in front of the altar as we grieved for those who lost their lives
and their families. We said prayers of thanks for the 153 who survived with the
help of God and their fellow countrymen who came to their aid. In the aftermath
of this travesty, my prayer is for the Norwegian people to once again feel
secure in their country. Norway is a country I plan on visiting in the near
future and where I hope to once again feel the peace and security I have always
felt in the past.

FISHING ON PRIOR LAKE

My daughter, Cassie, and her husband, James,
came to Minnesota for their summer vacation in July, bringing my 2 ½ year old
grandson, Coen, who was extremely excited to spend time at Grandma’s beach on
Prior Lake to go swimming and hopefully fishing. We managed to hit great hot
summer beach weather and Coen got his wish. If you are not familiar with
Minnesota lakes, I will just mention how very clear the water is in our lakes.
From the shoreline, the small minnows swimming in their schools back and forth
can easily be seen. To a little kid this is about as good as it gets, but
unfortunately for him as soon as you walk in the water, the minnows swiftly
swim away. He, however, had great fun chasing them back and forth in the water.
I picked up a Lightning McQueen children’s fishing rod, which he thought was
pretty neat, for him to try and catch a fish from the boat. Well, it seems luck
was not on his side that day because the boat wouldn’t start. So we opted to
try fishing from the dock. Then we moved to sitting on the boat while it was
tied to the dock. Coen didn’t have any luck catching a fish from the dock or on
the boat. Usually we can see the Sunfish swimming around, and I mean full grown
fish not minnow size fish. And that day was no different. We could see them but
he didn’t have any luck, so my daughter decided to give it a try with Coen’s
Lightning McQueen fishing rod. She managed to expertly catch one almost as soon
as the bobber hit the water. She reeled in the Sunfish and pulled it into the
boat only to have Coen back away because he was afraid of the fish. He had
never seen a fish out of the water, especially not that close to him and he
wasn’t so sure he liked it. Not at all! After he calmed down, we released the
fish back into the water. So all in all, it was really a lucky day for Coen to
participate in catching a real Sunfish, my daughter to catch a fish on her
first cast, and probably the luckiest day was for the Sunfish that was released
back into Prior Lake!

NORWAY DAY 2011

 Norway Day falls on the second Sunday in July each year. This year will mark the 79th
year of celebrating on July 10, 2011. It is held at Minnehaha Park in
Minneapolis, the home of the Minnehaha Water Falls which due to the heavy rains
we have experienced in the past few months was flowing with great force. This
day is a celebration of Norwegian ancestry which has become a yearly tradition
for many local Norwegian immigrants, their children and now grandchildren. I am
a first generation Norwegian-American and I attended my first Norway Day with
my father and mother when I was about two years old. I don’t know that anyone
would have thought we would still be participating in this celebration some
fifty years later, but we are. First there is always a Lutheran Church service
(most of the Norwegians are Lutheran) presented by the Mindekirken Church in
Minneapolis where services are still held in Norwegian and of course English
too. The Nordic dancers perform on stage along with the Norwegian Glee Club
which my father has belonged to for over fifty years. This year a newly formed
group, Daughters of Norway, had a small choir perform, also. The event consists
of booths selling Norwegian and Scandinavian books, sweaters, music and an
authentic Scandinavian food booth, Nordic Treats. A number of years back, my
sisters and I attended the event and were shocked to see there were no
authentic Norwegian foods to purchase. Now it may seem odd, but our mother who
is 100% German learned to make the Norwegian foods and taught us, so we decided
to sign up to have a food booth at the event the following year. Thus in 2005,
Nordic Treats booth was started. We serve Norwegian Meatballs, Klub, Romegrott,
Norwegian Heart -shaped Waffles, Norwegian Ferry Boat Pancakes, Sandbakkles, Krumkake,
Lefse, and Norwegian little Donuts. We also sell Nordic Photo cards featuring
photos I took in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, a Norwegian
Children’s book I wrote, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk, with matching T-shirts,
a Nordic Family cookbook my sister wrote, Norway Day bookmarks my sister made
and other miscellaneous Norwegian items. It has become a family tradition,
where each year we add more items to sell to our list and are joined by family
members who come great distances to be with us. Last year on probably the
hottest day of the year, my daughter and her family came from Oklahoma, my
nephew came from California, my sister came from Florida and my son and nephew
along with other family friends from the Minneapolis area

SARA PALIN FAMILY BOOK SIGNING

The Mall of America has tremendous drawing
power for celebrities of all kinds. Movie starts, recording artists and
politicians all make their appearances there. Recently the Sara Palin family
had a book signing at the MOA at the end of June 2011. Sara signed her books,
“Going Rogue” and “America by Heart”. Bristol Palin signed her new book, “Not
Afraid of Life—My Journey So Far”. And even Todd Palin was on hand to sign
Sara’s books. Since Sara falls into the Politician category the security was
intense with police, mall security, and bomb sniffing dogs, along with the
whole area being blocked off with barrier blockades. The crowded rotunda area I
was expecting did not await me, but instead I was able to purchase books
immediately. To get past the barricades and stand in line for the signing, you
needed to purchase Bristol Palin’s new book and if you also wanted Sara Palin’s
signature you had to purchase one of her two available books. I think this
showed how Sara looks after her daughter. As a writer, I wish my mother could
help me sell books with an incentive like that. After your purchase, you were
allowed to enter the barricaded area, but only after a search of your bags and
undergoing a wanding of your full body. The line was short and pictures were
only allowed while standing in line, so no pictures at the signing table. And
if you thought going through security at the airport was bad, once you were
approaching the signing table, you were required to put all your bags, purses
and cameras in a plastic container. You were handed a ticket to retrieve your
belongings at the other end after your books were signed. But wait, that wasn’t
all, you had to submit to the wanding process once again. I really wasn’t sure
how they thought we could acquire other things while standing in line, but it
was not open for debate. I brought my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk,
to give to Sara and Bristol as a keepsake from Minnesota, but was told by
security I would not be allowed to bring the books up to the singing table.
Bristol was the first to sign and I must say she is a very beautiful and
gracious young woman. After watching her season on “Dancing with the Stars,” my
heart went out to her for all her willpower to keep learning the dances. I
think everyone applauded her success and how far she made it in her dancing
knowledge and expertise. She shook my hand and I told her how well I thought
she had done on the show. Sara was next; she shook my hand and asked, “What do
you do in Minnesota?” I told her I was a writer and wrote a book called, Real
Norwegians Eat Lutefisk, and I wanted to give her one but security
wouldn’t let me. She was more than willing to receive the book, and mentioned her
son, Tryg’s name was Norwegian. She motioned to security that it was okay to
leave a book for her with them. Sara Palin proved to be a very beautiful woman
on both the outside and inside along with being a genuine, friendly and
gracious woman who I admire. 

SVENSKARNAS DAG (SWEDISH HERITAGE DAY)

Every year on the last Sunday in June, shortly after Midsummer’s Day, the people with
Swedish heritage celebrate at Minnehaha Park. In 2011 they celebrated the 78th
year with one of the largest Swedish celebrations in the U. S. The day begins
with a church service, followed by singing and dancing performances by local
and visiting Scandinavian groups, and includes the crowning of a Midsummer’s
Queen for the Minneapolis Aquatennial Celebration held in July. The Midsummer
Pole is put for attendees to dance around and celebrate the longest day of the
year. The event includes art and craft vendors and of course food vendors
offering tastes of the delectable Swedish foods including a complete Swedish
Meatball dinner with potatoes and lingonberries. Saffron buns, herring and
pepparkaka are also available to sample. We decided to check it out in 2011,
just out of curiosity, to see if it was different from Norway Day. The food was
slightly different but interesting and we sampled the meatball dinner sponsored
by the Swedish girls’ choir. It was quite an experience to see the Midsummer’s
Pole decorated with fresh flowers which is a tradition dating back to the
Vikings Era and is still celebrated in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland
along with many European countries with large bonfires and food, of course. It
is most likely a celebration of more importance in the Scandinavian countries
because of their ties to the Vikings and the fact they have the longest days on
Midsummer’s Eve due to their northerly locations, thus the term ”The Land of
the Midnight Sun". So if you are Swedish or have any Scandinavian
heritage, I highly recommend experiencing Svenskarnas Dag to celebrate
Midsummer’s Day.