Not Ready for Prime Time

Innocently enough, I wrote to a couple of hometown papers last week. In my never-ending search for the kinds of letters, newspapers, diaries and photos that our characters are finding in trunks and through word-of-mouth, I decided to do a little reaching out of my own. I was at a point where I felt kind of stuck--like I was just making things up without hearing some more first-hand accounts of life over a hundred years ago.

This is a clip from the Warren Sheaf where
they mention that my great grandmother's
sister had been up for her sister's funeral
It happens to be election day, as well.

Now, those of you who are my Facebook friends know that for a couple of weeks I was posting incessant clips of archived newspapers from the early 1900's which I found online thanks to "The Warren Sheaf"--the newspaper from Warren, MN, near my mother's home town. (See link below.)

There was the one about the guy who took a train ride but wasn't cracking jokes as usual because he was dead. (It was his obituary.) Then there were ads for a massage parlor in Warren offering massage and medical gymnastics...in your home. My favorite ads were telling of the whereabouts of my long ago relatives and their visits to each others' homes. I even found my great-grandmother's obituary, which no one, including my mother, had ever seen. It recounts her untimely death a few days after giving birth in 1900.

But, back to my innocent emails to local papers in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.... By the next morning, I had received an email from "The Exponent" in EGF wanting an interview with Cindi and me--and photos. Both of us went into a frenzy, because we hadn't even thought about the publicity aspects of writing a book, beyond this blog, of course. (For me, this is just an extension of the book, more than anything.) All I was hoping for is a 2" by 2" ad requesting that people send me their grandparents' stories!

Should we give the interview already? Should we wait for a bigger publication? Should we wait until the book is going to print? I called and talked to the person who wanted to do the story--a Ryan Bergeron. I thought, "Hmmm. Sounds pretty young." But having been interviewed by high school kids for the school paper every year of my life, I figured it has to turn out better than most of those stories! In the backs of our minds, we were (and are) pretty excited and flattered that anyone is interested in the book.

Cindi and I spent the next twenty-four hours (besides working our jobs) answering the interview questions and sharing them back-and-forth for editing and locating pictures we didn't both hate of ourselves. Guess I'll need some professional head shots in the future! Anyway, the finished product will be here Wednesday:
http://www.page1publications.com/editionviewer/?Edition=09ed0444-8da6-48de-9e4c-7633159d3268

However stunning (or not) this newspaper coverage comes across, please remember that we are interested in your older relative's stories of Grand Forks & East Grand Forks between 1900--1930. Did they save old newspapers, diaries, letters? We'd like to read them or just hear about them through you! Of particular interest are stories that involved crimes, The Hollow (red light district), the lumber or railroad workers but ordinary family life can be very helpful, as well. This is a book of fiction and no names will be used. Also, we're not really looking for story ideas--the book is over half written and the plot well-developed--just more texture; more authentic events.

Best of all will be when our parents open their paper and are surprised to see the story. When you're in your late 80's and your "kids" are in the paper, you have bragging rights. If you know them, please don't call them and ruin the surprise.

The Warren Sheaf may be found here: http://www.warrensheaf.com/74444/2118/1/home

P.S. I found myself wondering what happened to Miss Christina Lind, who may have been just a teenager at the time of her sister's death, that in the April 9 issue it was reported that she was "able to be up again" and would soon be returning to her home. It didn't seem like anyone recovered from much of anything back then, so I'm relieved.