LOVE IS BREWING

The Wisconsin Romance Writers (WISRA) group holds a conference in a different city every year on the first weekend in June. The 2011 conference was in Milwaukee, so thus the name for the conference—Love is Brewing. If you are not familiar with Milwaukee they are quite famous for their beer breweries: Pabst, Schlitz, Miller, Blatz. WlSRA sponsors one of the better chapter conferences around. The price is reasonable and the location is close since Wisconsin is right next door to those of us residing in Minnesota. I think what I like best about the conference is they have editors and agents who take appointments with all of us writers who desperately want to become published authors. They also feature various speakers during the conference, so even if you aren’t interested in one you probably will be interested in one of the others. I guess you could say they don’t put all their eggs in one basket and only offer one speaker. Saturday’s speaker was Susan Wiggs who presented, “From Idea to Printed Page: The Evolution of a Book”. Author Brenda Novak, Harlequin editor Paula Eykelhof, and literary agent Kathleen Ortiz critiqued actual query letters from conference attendees. Each year WISRA sponsors the Fab Five Contest and announces the winners at the conference during the Awards Luncheon. YA (Young Adult) author Simone Elkeles presented, “The Secrets of a Marketing Queen” followed by Carina Press editor Angela James presenting, “Publishing Into the Digital Age”. Agent and editor appointments where we get a chance to pitch our stories in the hope of getting a request to send in our first few chapters or a full manuscript were held throughout the day. This is a big deal because it is our chance to get published. Of course getting published means we become rich, right? Not very likely, so probably keeping your day job, for a while anyway, is a good idea. Later in the day there is an opportunity to purchase books signed by the authors at the Literacy book signing in the hotel lobby. Sunday starts the morning with author Brenda Novak presenting, “Emotion: The Heart of the Novel”. Novelist Carrie Lofty follows teaching us how to write a 35 word pitch for our stories. Susan Wiggs finishes up the conference with, “How Not to Get Published”. This was the second year I was able to attend and I learned something useful from each speaker, had the opportunity to pitch my books and receive a request for my manuscripts, spent quality time with other authors and just plain had a great time. I even met another author who was writing a Viking Time Travel romance novel. As writing goes, it makes perfect sense that her story was totally different than my Viking Time Travel, “On a Midsummer’s Eve”. I unexpectedly sold a couple of my books, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk, to Wisconsin romance writers who were fellow Norwegians. So all in all, attending WISRA’s conference proved to be well worth the cost and time resulting in manuscript requests, learning new things to use in my writing, networking with other authors and having the opportunity to market myself as a writer along with my children’s book, “Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk”!

THOR THE MOVIE

Anyone who knows me knows I love the “Old Norse Vikings” and I like the much newer “Minnesota Vikings", too. Personally, I prefer the real Vikings who roamed the seas in search of new lands and had their own mythological gods like Thor, the god of Thunder, and Odin, his father, who ruled the realm of Asgaard where they lived. Marvel has published comics about superheroes for years, which included Thor. Recently, they decided to make movies portraying their comic book superheroes—Green Lantern, Captain America, Iron Man and Thor. The movie, Thor, takes place in a time long ago, when a mighty but arrogant warrior, Thor, finds disfavor with his father, Odin, and is stripped of his powers and cast down to Earth landing on a desert in New Mexico to live with us lowly humans. Of course, the first person he meets after his crash landing is Jane, who becomes his love interest while he tries to get his hammer back and find his way back to Asgaard. Nothing of course is ever simple and Odin puts a stipulation on removing the hammer from where it is stuck. "Whoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." Loki, Thor’s brother who really isn’t his brother at all but is a Frost Giant, causes more problems by trying to make himself King and sends a Destroyer to Earth to kill Thor. Thor is played by Chris Hemsworth, who definitely worked out for the show as he was a beautiful display of well toned muscles. Just looking at him would’ve made the whole movie worthwhile, but I thought they did a great job on the storyline, effects and the visual they created for Asgaad was amazing. I loved the movie and can’t wait for Thor 2 coming out in July 2013. There couldn't have been a more fitting way to end Syttende Mai then by watching a film about Thor, the Norse god!

SYTTENDE MAI

Syttende Mai is the Norwegian National holiday celebrating Norway’s independence from Sweden. It is celebrated on the 17th of May in both Norway and the United States. Locally, celebrations are held in Milan, Minnesota, and the largest celebration is held in Stoughton, Wisconsin. Minneapolis has a celebration each year at the Mindekirken which is the Norwegian Lutheran Church. My father is a member of the Norwegian Glee Club and they sing during the church service which is in Norwegian. Many women who attend wear their Bunads, traditional folk costumes from the area in Norway their relatives immigrated from. After the church service there is a parade of the many Norwegian-Americans who proudly celebrate their Norwegian heritage by wearing Norwegian sweaters and waving Norwegian flags. In the parking lot of the church, booths are set up displaying examples of Norwegian arts and crafts consisting of Rosemaling, Hardanger, Wood Carving and books written about Norway. This year the Sons of Norway sponsored a concert with a new band, Norville, consisting of Norwegian and Norwegian Americans, at the Mall of America. Ottar Johansen, from Bodo/Oslo, Norway, is a two-time Norwegian Grammy winner in Norway and has multiple albums released. He plays bass guitar, sings and writes songs. Joe Sun, originally from Minnesota but now residing in Nashville, Tennessee, has released over fifteen albums placing on the charts in both Europe and the U. S. He plays guitar, sings and also writes his own music. Tore Anderson, from Stjordal/Oslo, Norway, won a Norwegian Grammy in 2010. He plays guitar, sings and writes songs. Karen Pendley, from North Carolina, plays the fiddle, writes songs and sings background vocals. She specializes in Norwegian and Scandinavian Folk music. The group got together in 2009 and recently released the video for their new hit song, "Take Me Back", which brilliantly captures the majestic beauty of the mountains and fjords in Norway. This upbeat new song, “Take Me Back” was recently released on I Tunes. You can watch the video on their website, www.norville.no. I attended the mini concert with a fellow Norwegian-American and we became engrossed in the new style Norwegian American blend of music. After the perfomance, we took advantage of the opportunity to have our picture taken with the members of the band. I don’t think that makes us band groupies of the Norville band, but it definitely was a uniquely different Syttende Mai!

LUTEFISK WARS MOVIE

The Minneapolis St. Paul Independent Film Festival makes its showing every May. My son had an internship working for the festival after college and still makes sure he attends at least a few of the films each year. So it came as no surprise to me, when he called to tell me there was a movie this year that he was sure I would be interested in seeing. Lutefisk Wars! Well needless to say I committed to seeing the movie that Saturday night at the St. Anthony Main Theaters. There simply was no question about my interest in seeing the movie since my current published book is, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk. Before the movie we had dinner at a quaint little restaurant on the banks of the Mississippi River and arrived early enough at the theater to get second row seats in a soon to be sold out movie theater. I had no idea what the movie was about, but was pleasantly surprised. The movie takes place in Newford, North Dakota—not a real city, just one they made up. So it wasn’t in Minnesota but North Dakota is right next door, so that works. The actors took on Norwegian American accents of our fellow Norwegian immigrants who settled in North Dakota. The main character, Karl Larsen, a Schwan’s frozen foods delivery man who dreams of becoming a chef, is sought out by an old Norwegian fisherman who wants to give him an urgent message but dies before he can tell his secret. Afterwards Karl receives threatening phone calls urging him to give up the recipe. Bad things begin happening to Karl and his girlfriend, including a dead cod fish in his bed. Everything comes to a head over a hot dish at the local Lutheran Church when the Norwegian Mafia shows up. Now I’m not sure my summary is the best so I will quote the movie’s storyline from their website, lutefiskwars.com. “A rural frozen food delivery man is mistaken for someone else and ends up in the middle of an ancient feud between two Norwegian Mafia families.” I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and afterwards was able to meet one of the producer/writers, Christopher Panneck, who grew up in North Dakota. I even told him about my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk and may just have to send him a signed copy of the book! Lutefisk Wars will be available sometime in 2012 and I will definitely be adding it to my collection of Norwegian films. Lutefisk, the fish of our ancestors is gaining popularity both in Norway and the U. S. and is on its way to becoming the fish choice of future generations!

ALT FOR NORGE

Alt for Norge is a reality television show filmed in Norway for Norwegian Television. At this time it is not broadcast in the US. A few months earlier, they put out a call for auditions which I ran across on the internet totally by accident while searching for Norwegian topics of interest. However, I was not eligible to audition. The show takes Norwegian Americans back to Norway to find out where their grandparents and great grandparents immigrated from and to see if they still have any relatives who are still alive. Unfortunately as far as the show is concerned, even though I am a first generation Norwegian American, I do not meet their qualifications since I already know where my Norwegian relatives live and have met them numerous times. I think this actually makes me very fortunate, even though I would’ve loved to have been able to try out for the show. So after reading about it online I didn’t give it another thought. Then one Sunday in April after church, we decided to try out a new restaurant for breakfast. It is a small restaurant in Savage, Windmill Cafe catering to the locals. A friend of mine from work frequents Windmill Cafe and recommended it highly. It was quaint and the breakfast was delicious so we took our time eating and reading the Sunday newspaper. As we were getting ready to leave, a large group of people came in followed by a camera crew who set up to interview them. On our way to the door, I stopped and asked one of the women what the interviewing was all about. She graciously informed me her husband was chosen to be on a reality show about Norwegian ancestry that would be aired in Norway. I knew before the words came out of her mouth that we just happened to be, totally by accident, where they were filming one of the contestants for Alt for Norge. Her husband was a trucker and this little quaint restaurant provided a great filming location for parking his semi-truck and interviewing him along with his friends at a place he frequently ate lunch. During a break in the filming action, I introduced myself to the show’s producer and seized the opportunity to give him a copy of my book, Real Norwegians Eat Lutefisk. He was surprised to see it was in Norwegian and graciously took the book. That copy may be the first one to end up in Norway! The co-producer advised me to audition for the show next year, but I regretfully informed her I already knew my relatives living in Norway and had traveled there numerous times. We stayed a little longer to watch the Alt for Norge camera crew film the lucky Norwegian American trucker as he chatted with his friends while seated at a table. Ultimately, this totally unplanned stop ended up being one of those times when I happened to be in the right place at the right time and only through sheer coincidence. Or maybe it was by accident? Or maybe an act of God? All I know is I am very thankful I chose to attend church that Sunday in April and decided to have breakfast at Windmill Cafe!

TEAGAN’S BAPTISM

My newest grandchild, Teagan, was baptized on May 8, 2011. I flew down for the baptism and for a long awaited visit to see my daughters and grandchildren. It just happened to be Mother’s Day that Sunday and would be the first Mother’s Day I would spend with my daughters in at least five years. Little did we know the weekend would become almost a total disaster. The evening after my arrival, Travis, my daughter’s husband, came down with a 24-hour vomiting flu and needless to say he was up all night. Postponing the baptism for a later date was discussed, but after taking into consideration the fact that I flew down specifically for the Baptism and everything was already set up along with brunch reservations for Mother’s Day for all four mothers—myself, my daughters, Tiffany and Cassandra, and Teagan’s other grandmother, Linda—Travis took some anti–nausea medicine and went back to bed to try to sleep for a little while. A call was made to the pastor at their church and the baptism was changed to a private ceremony after the regular Sunday church service. An hour later, we all got dressed including a very weak and still sick Travis. The church handed out carnations to all the mothers, and since we arrived at the end of the service, all four mothers received a carnation. We proceeded into the private chapel for Teagan’s baptism. When there is only the baptism without the regular church service, it takes much less time, so we were done quickly and on our way to the Mother’s Day brunch at the club house of a local golf course. Travis, still not feeling well, and knowing he wouldn’t be able to eat any food, went home instead. The brunch was superb and filled with many delicious entrees and desserts. Afterwards we went Cassandra’s house in an effort to prevent anyone else from catching the vomiting flu. Opening Teagan’s baptism gifts was next on the agenda, along with Mother’s Day gifts for the Grandmothers which consisted of hard cover picture books of new baby Teagan, and Coen, my grandson. As soon as we were back at Tiffany’s house, she started not feeling well and went straight to bed with some anti-nausea medicine. Travis started to feel a little better but still was weak. About ten that night I started not feeling so well, so I also took some anti-nausea medication and went to sleep praying I would not feel nauseous in the morning for my flight home. I didn’t feel great in the morning, but at least I wasn’t vomiting which was a real plus and I managed to make it home without getting sick on the plane. That was definitely an accomplishment after the past 24 hours. Baby Teagan will not remember her baptism day, but considering the circumstances, I don’t think any of us will ever forget it!

SCRIPT FRENZY

Script Frenzy is a worldwide contest to see who can write a movie script consisting of 100 pages in one month. April is the month set aside to do this. The people who sponsor this contest also have the NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) contest each November where you commit to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month. So if you put this writing goal into perspective, realistically it should be by far easier to write the movie script. I currently have one movie script, "No Angels In Hell", about the Sturgis, South Dakota Motorcycle Rally and it is copyrighted with the Writer’s Guild of America. The McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis gives $25K grants to deserving individuals every year in various writing categories. I have wanted to enter this contest for a number of years now, but there was one little hang up—you need to have 3 copyrighted movie scripts to enter the contest. So every year the contest deadline nears, I tell myself I will write two more scripts by the next year. When I saw the Script Frenzy contest, I knew it was just what I needed to get another script written, so I signed up. This one would be a sequel to "No Angels In Hell", and would take place in Daytona, Florida at the Daytona Biker Rally. April started out as a good month for this writing challenge, even though Easter fell in this month with its traditional Easter church services and Easter dinner. I was on track and only had thirty pages to go on the evening of Apr 29, when I sat down to tackle the last pages. I knew I had all day Saturday to work on it too and felt pleased with my progress, knowing the goal was totally reachable. That was of course until I typed in a couple of pages and my laptop shut down. At first I assumed it must be the battery, but upon further examination of the electrical cord, it became evident it was indeed still plugged in. I tried frantically to power it up for at least an hour, but to no avail. Finally, I decided the battery had to be dead and I would have to take it in to the Geek Squad at Best Buy in the morning. I still felt confident I would reach my goal. Saturday proved to be an extremely disappointing day, especially after hearing the verdict from the Geek Squad that my laptop had died and would not be coming back on ever again. And they meant never. They kindly informed me most laptops only last 3 years and I was extremely lucky mine had lasted 5 years. This, however, did not help my script in the least. Unfortunately when writing scripts you need to use a special program, like Final Draft, which I had on the laptop. Being the trusting person I am, I had forged on writing the script and was waiting to back it up on the jump drive when it was finished. So needless to say it was not backed up. Luckily though, being the paper fanatic I am, I had printed hard copy the night before, so at least I have 1 printed copy. However, there was no way I would even try to attempt retyping the script onto my old desk top into an old version of Final Draft. The deadline came and went and I didn’t make my goal of 100 pages, but I did make it to 70 pages, which in itself is an accomplishment I am extremely proud of. In the next weeks I will get a new laptop and they will pull all the info from the hard drive (hopefully!) and put it back on the new laptop. Hopefully, my script will magically appear on this new laptop and I can forge on to page 100. So just a word to the wise for everyone, ALWAYS, ALWAYS back up your work because you never know what tomorrow will bring in the world of computers!