Candace Simar's Blog, page 4

May 17 is Norway’s Syttende Mai, Constitution Day, to celebrate Norway’s independence from Sweden. It is a national holiday where everyone wears bunads and waves Norwegian flags in parades across the nation. Many Sons of Norway groups in the U.S. also celebrate with special foods and activities. I’m hoping to find a lutefisk dinner this year.

I’ve attended a lot of Scandinavian festivals promoting my historical novels about Norwegian immigrants. The Norwegian bunads are always interesting. More than traditional dress-up clothes, the bunads are specific to the different regions of Norway, similar to a state flag. One glance tells you which region of Norway the wearer is from.

A bunad inspired me to write Pomme de Terre, Book 2 of the Abercrombie Trail Series. My opening scene is a young Norwegian woman trying on her mother’s bunad for her wedding day. Too bad the marriage is not as pretty as the bunad in my story.

 

#foogallery-gallery-13658 .fg-image {
width: 150px;
}

Recently, I spent a lovely two weeks in Myrtle Beach working on the final edits for my new book. SISTER LUMBERJACK will publish early 2024. North Star Press will have review copies ready this summer. I’ll keep you posted.

SISTER LUMBERJACK is the story of Solveig Rognaldson (Abercrombie Trail) in her widowhood. Financial pressures force her to work as a cook in a logging camp, though she feels too old to try something new.

We recently visited the Museum of Appalachia near Knoxville, Tennessee. The 60-acre farm and pioneer village set my mind whirling with story possibilities. Try to visit sometime if you’re in Tennessee. It’s a mile off Interstate 75, and worth your time. I loved the frontier buildings–and enjoyed shopping in their gift shop.

 

The rivers around Fort Abercrombie are beautiful. Known as the “Gateway to the Dakotas,” Fort Abercrombie was built on the Red River of the North. Whiskey Creek emptied into the Red River near the fort. I like to imagine the settlers and soldiers during the U.S. Dakota war. FOLLOW WHISKEY CREEK is the result of my imagining. This e-book is available wherever e-books are sold. Ask your library to purchase it for downloads. Reviews are crucial to writers like me. Thank you for supporting a Minnesota writer.
—
#Fort Abercrombie #North Dakota Civil War #Shiloh Civil War #homeschoolers #historical fiction #US Dakota War

I love all museums, but I have a special place in my heart for the museum at Elbow Lake, Minnesota. Although Fort Pomme de Terre is no longer, a to scale model of the old Fort Pomme de Terre is on display at the museum. Patti Benson, the wonderful manager, steered me toward information about the soldiers killed in the spring of 1863–when the Sioux Uprising was supposed to be over. These inspired me to write POMME DE TERRE. The photo of the ox cart was my inspiration for BLOOMING PRAIRIE. If you’re in the Elbow Lake area, be sure to stop by the museum. It’s a gem. At Elbow Lake’s annual Flekkefest Celebration, tours are given to the old Pomme de Terre site. It’s a great day trip to learn more about Minnesota history.

— I love small town museums. Often they inspire stories. I recently visited the Cold Spring Historical Society Museum. They have a wonderful antique quilt exhibit right now. If you’re in the Cold Spring, MN, area, you might take a peek.

One of the most dramatic aspects of the Rocky Mountain Locust Plagues of the 1870s was Governor Pillsbury’s call for a day of prayer on April 26, 1877. Minnesota was in a bad way. Flour mills had closed because there was no wheat. Railroads lost traction because of the slippery grasshoppers on the tracks. Farmers were desperate after five years of crop failures. People were moving away. The locusts lived on the prairies, and so the people moved to the woodlands or Minnesota–or moved away altogether. At the same time a Catholic priest urged his suffering congregation to build a chapel. (You can visit the Grasshopper Chapel in Cold Spring, MN). Another priest wrote a prayer that can be seen on the wall at Fort Sisseton in Sisseton, South Dakota. Some believe that God answered their prayers. Others are skeptical. Whatever the reason, the grasshoppers flew away without laying their eggs in 1877. A layer of dead hoppers were found on much of Lake Superior with red dots under their wings. A woman witnessed a swarm of locusts flying over her Boston home and out over the Atlantic Ocean.

The Rocky Mountain Locust has been extinct ever since. Smithsonian Magazine named the Rocky Mountain Locusts and the Passenger Pigeons as the two largest groups of animals in the history of the world. Both were in Minnesota, and both are now extinct. A specimen of the Rocky Mountain locust can be seen at the Smithsonian Institute.

On March 8, 2023, I presented a program at Cold Spring, Minnesota, sponsored by the Cold Spring Library and Historical Society. My topic? The Rocky Mountain Locust Plagues of the 1870s. I stumbled upon this most interesting chapter of history while researching ABERCROMBIE TRAIL and POMME DE TERRE. It felt natural to continue this series 11 years later by moving my characters to the 1870s during the locust infestation. You can read more about it in BIRDIE and BLOOMING PRAIRIE. Hard times make for good fiction.

About a dozen writer friends and I spent a delightful three days at the Baymont Inn in Baxter, MN. We accomplished our objective of encouraging each other and breaking up the winter doldrums. Represented were mystery writers, historical novelists, non-fiction writers, travel writers, journalists, poets, and children’s book writers. We each brought 3-5 pages to read aloud and receive critique from the group. At a fabulous dinner at Baxter Bar and Grill at the Arrowwood Lodge, we did a read aloud of the beginning of a new play by Mary Aalgaard. What fun to see the words come alive around the table.

This has become a favorite tradition. This year was extra special because a grant from Springboard for the Arts paid for everyone’s hotel rooms. Thank you Springboard!