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 hand made 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!