Abby Jimenez: Baker or Romance Author?

Abby is a New York Times Best Seller and has won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars. Neither were her intended professions.

Recently, I was able to attend an author presentation/signing for Abby Jimenez in a small Minnesota town, LeSuer, about a 40-minute drive from my house. The high school theater was filled with over 500 loyal fans! She easily told her life story and how she happened to take up writing, find an agent, publish her book and become a best seller, sort of by accident. Readers were able to purchase pre-signed books and have a photo with her after standing in a very long line. Signing books ahead of time is much easier on the author and her hand, which makes perfect sense since she has already had to tackle carpal-tunnel in her wrists. Posing for pictures with fans to the tune of at least 250 people is definitely an author who cares about her readers.

Owning three bakeries under the name, Nadia’s Cakes, two in Minnesota and one in California, raising three children and writing novels pretty much makes her Super Woman in my book! She even spends her spare time traveling around the country for book speaking engagements along with all her other ventures.

I purchased her most recent book, Just for the Summer, and look forward to reading it. I have visited her bakery only once since it is on the opposite side of town, meaning a 45-minute drive and I have to say I am somewhat of a cupcake snob, but the Triple Chocolate Cupcake was wonderful!

Kate Hudson: Actress or Singer?

Kate Hudson: Actress or Singer?

I have enjoyed watching Kate Hudson through the years in her various Rom-Cons. My favorites are How to lose a Guy in 10 Days, Fool’s Gold and Bride Wars which I have watched again and again. Having famous parents, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, she has managed to make her way in Hollywood basically on her own merits and through her own ups and downs. I haven’t watched all her movies, I have to admit, but the ones I’ve seen I’ve enjoyed. She also appeared in television shows such as Glee.

She is undeniably a talented woman having written two books, has a fashion line, owns a vodka company and of course is an actress. None of these things amazed me, but when I heard she was putting out an album, Glorious, I was surprised. I read that she actually has a great voice and wanted to be a singer way back but instead was swept into the acting world. I was willing to give her music a chance so I asked my Alexa to play the whole album after it was released and was pleasantly surprised. She has a very strong voice and the songs were extremely likable with some very easy to sing along to. Silly as it may seem in this day and age, I purchased a CD to play in my car. That way I can play it over and over and over. I liked it that much! My favorite song is Talk About Love, which has a nice catchy tune.

So, if you are looking for a new singer to give a listen to, try Kate Hudson’s new album, Glorious.

Northern Lights

I have always been fascinated by the Northern Lights. With my love of Norway and all things Norwegian I have seen many absolutely beautiful photos of the Northern Lights in Northern Norway. A dream of mine was to take a cruise along the western coast of Norway all the way to Kirkness on the Russian border. However, going in the winter was not on my list of things to do. I’m one of those people who is almost always cold so that wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, I chose an August date, but realized it would probably be too light out to see them with the Midnight Sun still somewhat around. I still hoped that there might be a chance. But sadly, they were visible only a few weeks after our trip.

Earlier this year in May, the Northern Lights were visible in Minnesota and other many other northern states. Living in the Twin Cities there is way too much light to see them. Beautiful photos from the northern towns in Minnesota began appearing on Facebook. I pondered the possibilities of driving up North to catch a chance of seeing them, but the prediction of exact dates seemed unreliable and the trip would involve an overnight stay. One night I tried to drive out of the city about thirty minutes. When looking at the sky, vague light green lines could be seen, but the camera was able to see much more. The colors weren’t as vibrant as the Facebook postings from Norway and northern Minnesota, but I finally was able to see the Northern Lights.

In October, the Twin Cities had another shot at seeing the Northern Lights. This time they met my expectations, complete with reds, greens, and some light yellows. I was able to get some great pictures with my Samsung S24 Ultra. This checks Northern Lights off my bucket list!

My desire to see the Northern Lights prompted me to write a short story, A Kiss Under the Northern Lights, set in Ely, Minnesota near the Canadian border. In this story the heroine, Bailey, is a photographer trying to get her once in a lifetime Northern Lights photo. She books a trip to the Northern Lights Resort along with a private tour to see the Northern Lights, never expecting to find love along the way.

My short stories which I call Novelettes always include a recipe that is featured in the story. An unbelievably delicious Buttermilk Chocolate Cake with Buttermilk Chocolate frosting.

So, if you also have a wish to see the Northern Lights check out my story, A Kiss Under the Northern Lights, try the Buttermilk Chocolate Cake for yourself and maybe take a trip to Northern Minnesota or maybe be adventurous and go to Norway!

Choose Love—An Interactive Movie

Recently, I came across an interesting movie, Choose Love—An Interactive Movie, that premiered in August 2023. I was curious as to what the interactive part meant, so I decided to give it a try.

Choose Love is an interactive romantic comedy, filmed in Aukland, New Zealand, streaming on Netflix. Viewers are allowed to make choices for the main character Cami, as she questions her relationship with her partner Paul when two other men enter her life.

Cami's happy relationship with her boyfriend Paul is disrupted when two other men enter her life: her first partner, Jack and British rock star, Rex. Viewers are given choices for Cami to make, which affect the future of the story. In the beginning of the film, Cami is having a tarot card reading and the audience is to choose whether she wants to hear the 'good news' or 'bad news' first. The film is designed such that, after making a choice and seeing the result, the audience may go back and make a different choice, yielding a different result.

The film has six possible endings that branch from viewer decisions:

·        Cami decides not to pursue Jack or Rex and returns to Paul; the two get engaged.

·        Cami ends up with Jack.

·        Cami breaks up with Jack; Paul appears and proposes to Cami. She then refuses his proposal, remaining single.

·        Cami breaks up with Jack, then accepts Paul's proposal, and the two get married in Las Vegas.

·        Cami ends up with Rex in Paris.

·        Cami breaks up with Rex, remaining single.

One person’s reaction was that interactive films, though intriguing, seldom match the appeal of a well-told story. But on the other side, you pick the ending you want, and it gives it to you.

It also offers the prospect of a female protagonist choosing to pick being single versus being in a relationship. I found this odd as I assumed the movie to be a Rom-com with a happily-ever-after. I wasn’t even aware that her being single was an option. The options I picked the first go around had her ending up with Paul. After realizing she could end up being single, I went through the movie multiple times to choose different options in order to get different results. Alas, it was late and this was time consuming making my 1 ½ hour movie more like 3 hours! One thing I might add though is that if you don’t pick an option in the allowed time, it picks one for you. I was curious but out of time to see who she ended up with if I didn’t choose any options.

On the website Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored 35% from 17 critics and 60% from the audience. I’d say its worth watching simply to experience an interactive movie.

Rain, rain, go away! Come again another day!

May has been one of the rainiest months on record for Minnesota. Lush green grass abounds everywhere and the lakes and rivers have reached all-time highs. Many docks on Prior Lake were unusable due to the fact that they were under water. For the first time since I have lived in Prior Lake the number of boat lifts literally sitting below the water was extremely high. When the water level in the lake rises too high, the boats in the lifts can’t be raised high enough to keep the boats above the water. Luckily, I didn’t see any empty boats adrift in the lake which makes perfect sense since so many of the lifts were empty. Many other boat lifts could be seen sitting on the shores of homes on the lake. That was if they still had a shore to put them on. The water kept creeping up the shore line until a neighbor of ours no longer had any beach left.

Recently, Minnesota was in a drought. Prior Lake had dropped to an all time low. There were rocks sticking up in the water that usually were submersed under the water line. The docks and boat lifts had to be moved out further into the water because the depth of the water was way too shallow to put the boats in the lifts. What a drastic difference from last year!

Many people wished for rain this year and their wishes were fulfilled. But instead of the problems we faced last year there were new problems to face this year. I think what we can all learn from this, is to be careful of what we wish for, as it might not end up being what we really wanted or needed. This year when the sun finally comes out, we need to take advantage and seize the day to go boating. So maybe the moral to the story is—Make the best of everyday because that’s Life!

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.