NEMBA Wannabe

Tonight Sandy and I went to the NEMBA 25th annual event in Duluth, MN.  I wanted to buy like 25 books.  I bought 3 books so I did pretty well.  But now so many are on my list to buy or borrow from the library.  I need to add many of these books to my Goodreads "to be read list".  Eden Prairie friend and author Mary Donlin and her co-author Marilyn Rausch were nominated in the fiction category for their fun mystery novel Headaches Can Be Murder.  They are also  introducing a sequel this summer called Love Can Be Murder.

It's quite an honor to be nominated but unfortunately they didn't win.  The winning authors in the fiction category were Peter Geye's The Lighthouse Road and Danielle Sosin's The Long Shining Waters.  I want to read both books.  The criteria for the award is that the book must be written in specific counties of northeastern Minnesota and that the story/content reflects the history, heritage,culture or landscape of the area.

So...you  guessed it!  TIMBER will be submitted for the books published in 2013.  We don't know if we'll be nominated until long after submission.  Tonight we had a special treat because Kevin Kling was the speaker before the award presentation.  Wow, what a funny, wise man.  People were mesmerized, taking notes about what he said.  He's got a new book out too, I haven't read him yet but I want to now!  

Met a high school classmate of my husband's, Sheila O'Connor.  She's written two great books which I bought and will give as gifts to my family.  The one nominated this year in the children's category is called Keeping Safe The Stars and another written earlier is called Sparrow Road I can't wait to read them first before I wrap them up.   Shhh!

Did I mention there was pie and desserts at the event tonight?  What more could I want!  Lemon angel and rhubarb crisp, two old fashioned favorites. Yum.  So we strolled around (listening to a harpist playing) to talk to authors and see their books nominated this year and others they have written, it's incredible how many great books there are from Minnesota alone.  We would feel privileged to be nominated for TIMBER next year.

We'll be returning to Duluth for the reading at Fitger's bookstore on July 25 during the Tall Ships week.  We're very excited!  Make sure you stop at some of these stores in your summer travels.  Support independent bookstores!  We need to keep them alive so great books are given a chance and not just the big power house books. 

Coming events for July/Aug after our June hiatus:  
July 6:  Nisswa book signing at the Turtle Town Rainy Day bookstore 11-2
July 13: Mooselake's Art in the Park 9-5
July 20: North Branch Friends of the Library book reading 11-1
July 25: Reading @ Fitgers in Duluth 12-2
Aug 10: Book reading in Sandstone @Cheri's Flower Basket during their summer celebration/parade. 9:30-11:30

Remember, you can buy a paperback or ebook of TIMBER on Sandy's website www.alsanderson.com or the paperback only at any of the independent stores I've mentioned and on Amazon.com.  Happy Summer Reading!

PS Forgive the poor quality pictures, everything was better looking in real life.

 

Book Signing Event May 18, 2013

 

A.L. “Sandy” Sanderson (Submitted photo)

Book Signing Event:

May 18 11:00-1:00

Scout & Morgan Books

Cambridge, MN 

For more information call: 763-689-2474

Stop in and see us tomorrow May 18, this is such a wonderful independent bookstore!  The owner is a delight and we're fortunate to be a guest in her store. 

Eden Prairie resident A.L. “Sandy” Sanderson really doesn’t follow the “natural order of things.” So when she published her first book at the age of 77, she thought it was perfectly fitting.

“Timber” is set in the white pine forests of north central Minnesota in the late 1800s. Amid the rough conditions of a lumber camp in the timbered wilderness of that period, a compelling and complex relationship develops between the two unlikely protagonists and culminates in the tragic Great Hinckley Fire of 1894.

“It’s a story about survival in an environment without safety nets,” Sanderson said. “Adversity is prevalent as the main characters Sarah Stewart and Thor Nillson succeed against long odds as they conquer their past demons while forging a relationship and future together.”

“Timber” has personal connections to Sanderson’s family.

“Both my mother and father’s families were first-generation immigrants,” Sanderson said. “My paternal grandparents came to this part of the state from Sweden, and I lived on farms near Ogilvie and Hinckley for several years as a child. My maternal grandparents came from what today is eastern Germany and Russia. As an adult I owned a home in Aitkin and a summer cabin in Pine City.

“I not only feel connected to the area geographically and historically, but also emotionally. I am fascinated by what it must have been like to leave family, friends and homeland to come to a strange new country where you couldn’t even speak the language, knowing you would probably never go home again. It takes a kind of bravery that I’m not sure I would have had,” she added.
 

As Sanderson learned more about the Hinckley Fire, she felt compelled write a book.

“I think having grandparents new to this country, who also lived with uncertainty and hope, helped me create the characters in ‘Timber,’” Sanderson said. “As I learned more about the tragedy of the Hinckley Fire — it was such an intense historical event — that it called both to me and to the characters hiding in my imagination, waiting to spring to life on the pages of a book.”

Sanderson said she has never followed the “natural order of things.”  “I married young and raised four children. I didn’t graduate from high school, so when my children were grown I decided to go back to school,” Sanderson said. “I got my GED in my late 30s, a BA in psychology from Macalester College when I was 43, and a JD from the University of Minnesota Law School when I was 51. A first novel at age 77 seems rather odd to people, but I was 51 when I graduated from law school, so acting outside of the box isn’t a new thing for me. I tend not to follow the natural order of things. But as has been true with other things I’ve done either too early or too late, things have had a way of working out.”

Three years ago Sanderson’s husband passed away, and her daughter, Susan Bissonette, invited her to live with her and her husband in Eden Prairie. Bissonette serves as Sanderson’s publicist.

“My mom has been a great support to me, and we’ve always done projects together,” Bissonette said. “My husband calls us Thelma and Louise or Lucy and Ethel, depending on our antics and adventures. Living together is an adjustment when one is used to being completely independent — but it has worked out for us. We’re quite different in temperament and in our approach to life. She’s much more quiet and reserved. I’m more gregarious and like to have people around more of the time, and she likes to spend time alone with her keyboard. Also, I’m more of a risk taker and she’s more deliberate.”

Sanderson has always enjoyed writing and playing with words and writing poems.

“Our farm outside of Ogilvie had a huge kitchen,” Sanderson said. “Before my mom put up new wallpaper she let me write poems all over the walls. Looking back I realize how unusual it was for my practical, work-worn mother to have allowed me to do something so frivolous. I’d like to say my writing is artsy and literary, but to be perfectly honest, I never seriously intended to become a published author.

“I began writing a novel because it seemed like a challenge, and the process kind of took hold of me. The stories came alive and my characters woke me up at night doing things I had no idea they would ever do. I kept writing without really thinking about ‘style.’ I just wrote the story,” she added.

Sanderson  writes about things she can relate to.  “Anyone who is fortunate enough to reach their 70s and beyond has experienced life in a way that not every young person today can relate to,” Sanderson said. “We lived in a world without television, without cellphones, without central heating and perhaps even without indoor plumbing. Few of us were coddled or pampered, and most of us learned early on that we had to make our own beds — both literally and figuratively. My characters are tough, gritty and determined because those are the things I can relate to.”

 

Sanderson’s next novel, “The Last Dance,” follows much of her own history in terms of where she’s lived, visited, loved and hated. The story takes place between 1940 and the 1970s.  Sanderson said the story and the two main protagonists are fictional and have nothing to do with her actual life. “The Last Dance,” will be published in the fall of 2013.

Scout & Morgan Books is located at 114 Buchanan St. N., Cambridge, and can be reached at 763-689-2474. For more information on Sanderson, visit www.alsandysanderson.com.

Contact Rachel Kytonen at rachel.kytonen@ecm-inc.com.

Senior Center Visit

White Bear Senior Center

Yesterday we visited the White Bear Senior Center to do a book signing for TIMBER.  It's great to know there are such good programs out there for folks.  We met an interesting lady, she's 76 and doesn't look a day over 65.  She attributes her youthfulness to her love of singing!  She's been in the same singing group for over 40 years!  She does a lot of volunteering through her various group affiliations (including the red Hat Ladies) and it was a pleasure to meet someone who is so giving to others not as healthy and active as she.  It turns out her mother and some of Sandy's both lived in Bottineau, North Dakota.  I'm sure her relatives and ours knew each other.  Small world, isn't it interesting how things work out?

On the Road Again!

Sandy and I had a great road trip this week.  As always we met so many warm and friendly folks and fun experiences.  We went north, way up north!  

Our first stop was in North Branch, a nice small town.  Wildflowers Floral & Gift is a new business; Janine has been there for about nine months.  Her green plants were amaazing!  She brought TIMBER in adding to her great selection of gifts.  Don't forget it's almost Mother's Day!  

We stopped into the North Branch library, the branch director Sue was welcoming and offered to put us on the Friends of the Library May agenda.  We'd love to do a book discussion there.  You can reserve and borrow TIMBER from any of the East Central Libraries.

Now it's almost noon and we're heading into Tobies.  It's a Hinckley institution which has been there for many, many years.  

See the cinnamon and caramel rolls?  It's not an optical illusion these babies are the size of a huge grapefruit.  Have I mentioned I'm getting really tempted?  Tobies already has a nice book selection for those heading up north and to the cabin.  But they added TIMBER to their shelves so we're excited that we're now in the town closest to our fictional town Pine Crescent and of course the site of the Great Hinckley Fire.  Grand Casino already carries TIMBER and we stopped to say hi to Barb.  They run a tight ship!  It's a very nice and popular casino.

Sandy is a slave driver, finally we stopped for lunch!  (ok one of us is type A) We can't stop for a minute...onto Moose Lake.  Sidenote: We're going to a cabin on Sand Lake in Moose Lake this summer.  We're excited because we'll have grandkids and our children visiting!  We're already in Moose Lake Floral and Gifts.  The owners are a couple of nice folks who told us about Agate Days!  We're going to see about this event, it sounds fun.  We got into another Thrifty White drug store, they are like old fashioned stores with everything you can imagine available to buy.  Our last new store is a huge gift store called Wyndtree Lakeside Traders.  Check this out!  Now we are in three stores in Moose Lake!   It's the big time.

Cloquet is the site of Bergquist's Imports.  They're the store with the giant red horse outside of it.  But seriously what gorgeous gifts!!  They're been there since the 1950's.  Another institution.  For those few people on earth who don't know our hero Thor, he's Swedish!  The book opens with him sailing to America.  Barb was working there and was part way through reading TIMBER and loving it!

We're up on the Iron Range.  Hibbing and Virginia are the farthest north we went.  Our hotel was strategically placed next to a busy railroad track that waited until it was outside my window to blow the whistle.  It's the next day, coffee first.  The Virginia Thrifty White is our 5th of those pharmacy and variety stores that are saavy enough to see TIMBER is a good book to sell there. 

Hibbing has a newly remodeled library and the staff is great about helping Minnesota authors.  Howard Street Booksellers is a lovely store in Hibbing owned by Joe and Mary Keyes.  We hope TIMBER will become part of their great selection of books.  We are working on arranging a book signing to kick things off.  Didn't get to spend much time there this time.  Next time for sure!  We may also get into the Hibbing Daily Tribune to promote a book event at Howard Street Booksellers.

Check out this impressive "Iron Man/Miner" statue in nearby Chisholm.  It's 85 feet high and may be the third highest free standing statue in the United States. It's one I hadn't seen before.  It salutes the men who mined the iron ore and helped build the US into an industrial giant.

Next stop, Grand Rapids to the Village Bookstore.  It's loaded with wonderful books, puzzles, and gifts.  We left TIMBER for the owner to read and hopefully it  will be added to their large number of books written by Minnesota authors.  

Heading back home our last stop was Scout and Morgan in Cambridge.  Judith has created a unique bookstore you can tell is run by book lovers.  Their Facebook page has tons of testimonies about the great book advice they were given.  Actual SERVICE!  They also have lots of authors come and discuss their work.   

Upcoming event scheduled at Scout and Morgan for May 18 from 11-1.  We're proud to be there to promote TIMBER, Sandy will sign books.  Come up to Cambridge and see us!

Neighborhood Book Club Rosemary Woods/Tuckaweye

Have I mentioned I love book clubs?  Yes I have!  What could be better than to get together with a fun group of women, munch yummy treats, drink wine, gossip and...talk about the book!

Sandy was invited to come to a meeting of the Rosemary Woods/Tuckaweye book club. This club has been together for about 15 years!  They're such a fun group of friends and neighbors.

Most of the women had read TIMBER beforehand so they came with lots of enthusiasm, questions and thoughts about the book!  Questions for Sandy included ones about her writing process, how she comes up with ideas and how she manages to deal with delicate plot twists.

The group commented about how vivid the scenes were written making it seem as if they were actually there!  Several people commented about how well drawn the characters Sandy created are.  In addition to Sarah and Thor there are several more interesting and different characters.  These appealing characters add to the richness and complexity of this story. 

Sandy appreciated all the thoughtful comments and questions and enjoyed the group's camaraderie.  She loves gathering with groups and chatting with new friends about books and other fascinating topics!  Let us know when we can come and visit your club!