MN author William Kent Krueger is back on KAXE/KBXE!

You've heard William Kent Krueger many times on KAXE/KBXE talking mysteries and the writing process with Heidi Holtan. Now he's put out a new novel that isn't part of his bestselling Cork O'Connor mystery series.  It's called "Ordinary Grace" and tells the story of a young man in 1961 small town Minnesota who has to come to grips with the darker side of life. 

William Kent Krueger is a Minnesota author who has a gift for capturing place and time.  In his Cork O'Connor mysteries he captures northern Minnesota and Ojibwe and white cultures.  In his latest, he's created a stand alone story set in Minnesota in 1961.  Frank Drum is thirteen and for the first time in his life, has to face tragedy and death. 

“Once in a blue moon a book drops down on your desk that demands to be read. You pick it up and read the first page, and then the second, and you are hooked. Such a book is Ordinary Grace…This is a book that makes the reader feel better just by having been exposed to the delights of the story. It will stay with you for quite some time and you will always remember it with a smile.” (Huffington Post )

You can read an excerpt here. 

Heidi Holtan will talk with William Kent Krueger about "Ordinary Grace" coming up Wednesday April 10th at 6pm.  You can listen online at www.kaxe.org or check the archive of Heidi's Realgoodwords interviews at http://www.kaxe.org/programs/realgoodwords.aspx.

Heidi's last conversation with William Kent Krueger was about "Trickster's Point".  You can hear the Realgoodwords archived interview here! 

2011 Minnesota Book Awards

The 2011 MN Book Awards are coming up on Saturday April 16th at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Downtown St. Paul.

Minnesota is a state that I'm proud to live in for many reasons - least of which is it's dedication to literature and books. Minnesota has many great independent publishers and one our greatest resources is its writers. Many of this year's nominees were guests this year on Realgoodwords and other KAXE programming.

During the month of March you can still vote for your favorite in the Minnesota Reader's Choice award here.

This week I feature my conversations with William Kent Krueger and David Housewright. They are both up for the award in the genre fiction category.

You can listen to the interviews I and other KAXE staff did with all of the authors I interviewed who are nominated for a MN Book Award this year:

-William Kent Krueger and "Vermilion Drift"
-David Housewright and "The Taking of Libbie SD"
-Julie Kramer and "Silencing Sam"
-Wendy Webb and "The Tales of Halycon Crane"

-Bonnie Rough and "The Carrier"
-Laurie Hertzel and "News to Me: Adventures of An Accidental Journalist"
-Chris Niskanen and Doug Ohman's "Prairie, Lake, Forest: Minnesota's State Parks" (you can hear the 2 hour Between You and Me on State Parks that includes an interview/conversation with Doug Ohman)
-Jay Weiner and "This is Not Florida: How Al Franken Won the MN Recount" (listen to Scott Hall's interview on the ampers.org site here)
-Michael Nordskog & Aaron Hautala's "Opposite of Cold: The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition" You can see Aaron's essay and photos on the KAXE blog here....
-Anton Treur's "The Assassination of Hole-In-The-Day"

Cupcakes are an important part of life!!

I talked with bestselling writer Janet Evanovich recently about her fun mysteries and the newest (and a new series!) called "Wicked Appetites".

I know so many people who read every single Janet Evanovich novel that comes out. Including a teacher friend of mine who I recently loaned "Wicked Appetite" to. She left a post-it note on the book that said

"Great fun! Certainly it is just as healthy to laugh out loud at a silly book as it is to do yoga!"

She's talking about this new novel that features cupcake baker Lizzy Tucker. I asked Janet about cupcakes and she said:

"Cupcakes are an important part of life! Cupcakes are happy! I'm in favor of cupcakes everywhere!"

She also talked about how the setting of Salem, Massachusetts plays on the history of witches. She said she was inspired by the old tv show "Bewitched" and Aunt Clara - the witch who couldn't quite get anything right.

Janet said,

"This is probably my favorite book of all of the books that I've written. I love the Plum books but there's something about this book that just...I had so much freedom because of the nature and I had so much fun with Shirley because I could put this kind of strange spell on her and just have a lot of fun. "

She's talking about the spell where Shirley speaks oddly. Here's a little excerpt (from P. 84 of "Wicked Appetite" by Janet Evanovich) :

Shirley had finished the turkey leg and was working her way through the Snickers bars.

"You inherited a key" I said to her.

Shirley vigorously shook her head.

I took another look at the key ring. There were three keys and a ladybug charm on the ring.

"It's the charm" I said.

Shirley nodded. "Clam bake."

I removed the ladybug from the ring and held it in my hand. It vibrated slightly and grew warm.

Shirley pointed to the photo on the end table. "Twinkies," she said. And she counted off on three fingers, "Huey, Dewey, Louie."

"I don't get what she's trying to tell us" said Diesel.


Tune in for my conversation with Janet Evanovich, or check the Realgoodwords archive.

William Kent Krueger hooks and pulls us again

This time William Kent Krueger's beloved character Cork O'Connor finds himself in the middle of a cold case that involves a serial killer. Cork stumbles upon six bodies in an unknown area of a mine called the Vermilion Drift. Krueger ended up doing a lot of research into the mines of the Iron Range of Minnesota and had this to say:

"I came away with this incredible admiration and respect for the men who spent their lives in near dark resting iron from the earth so that they could support their families - what they had to do to accomplish that just amazed me."

William Kent Krueger has had great success with his Cork O'Connor mysteries but this one, Vermilion Drift, is the first that has made the New York Times Bestseller list. Congrats Kent!

He'll be in Northern Minnesota on Saturday November 6 at the Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Howard Street Books in Hibbing at 1pm and at Woodward's in Virginia at 3pm. On Sunday November 7th he'll be at Bookin' It bookstore in Little Falls.

Tune in for our conversation on Realgoodwords. You can hear it live, audio streaming on Wednesday evenings from 6-7, Sunday mornings from 9-10 and archived online here.

Hockey, journalism & all that rubbish!

This week on Realgoodwords Bryan Gruley is back with his sequel to "Starvation Lake"....it's called "The Hanging Tree". Gus Carpenter is at the center - and this time he is trying to figure out why exactly his cousin Gracie was found hanging in a shoe tree.

I've never SEEN a shoe tree in real life, but I've heard about them. Roadside America calls them the greatest embodiment of the American Spirit you can find on the highway. Hmm. Really?

Gruley's "The Hanging Tree" just begins with this bit of great American spirit.... but what follows is a fascinating look at the passion of a Michigan hockey town and the complexities of journalism in a small town. Bruce DeSilva of the Associated Press says it’s “an exceptionally well-written novel by an author who has mastered the conventions of his genre.”

Also this week I talk with the British bestselling author Harriet Evans. Her new novel is called "I Remember You" and it's what some people might call "chick-lit" but what I call a mini-vacation. In our conversation this week, Harriet and I talked about how books in this genre can be overlooked because of quaint covers or because they aren't written by men. "I Remember You" has been called "A fabulous feel-good love story of friendship lost and love regained’ by Woman and Home.

Speaking of Realgoodwords, a couple of times during our conversation Harriet used the word "rubbish". I think I may have found my new favorite word! It's useful in so many ways!

Don't have time to read? RUBBISH?

What do you have to take out when you get home? RUBBISH!

Can't remember if you renewed your membership to KAXE? RUBBISH!

There's no rubbish this week on Realgoodwords.

Thoughts on writing from James Lee Burke

I got a chance to talk with James Lee Burke this week. Yes! THAT James Lee Burke. I was a bit intimidated, but it turned out to be one of my favorite interviews, ever. He covered the gamut in his conversation with me - from living on a dirt road, oil companies, Louisiana, writing and the movie "Slap Shot". One of my favorite moments of the interview is where he can't stop laughing at himself. That uncontrollable laughing in church kind of laughing. If you don't get a chance to hear it tonight from 6-7pm on Realgoodwords, it'll be archived tomorrow here.

Here are some comments James Lee Burke had about his writing process:

I've always been fortunate - the story has always been with me. I never know where its going! I write sometimes in the middle of the night... I keep a notepad by my bed. Sometimes I get up about 4am and write.

Shakespeare said something I never forgot, he said, "All power lies in the world of dreams" and in one sonnet he said that illumination came to him not during his sleep. He said that at dawn he woke to darkness, but illuminosity waited for him the next night. And it was out of his dreams that he fashioned his greatest poetry.

I believe that's true of every artist. That a hand other than one's own has already fashioned a story. It's in the unconscious. And it's a matter of incrementally discovering it. Leonardo said that of his sculpture - he said he never carved the figure he released it from the stone.

James Lee Burke's latest Dave Robicheaux novel is "The Glass Rainbow".

Brian Freeman & the KAXE Bookclub

I'm excited for tomorrow night - the KAXE book club is getting together at 5:30 to discuss MN author Brian Freeman's latest mystery (set in Grand Rapids) "The Burying Place".

So what's the big deal? There's a couple of big deals about this meeting.

1. Brian Freeman will be AT the book club meeting
2. We're meeting at a book club member's house - near where the action/mystery in "The Burying Place" takes place
3. It's summer in northern Minnesota! Bookclub is meeting outside overlooking Pokegama Lake!! What's not to be excited about?

So how does the KAXE book club work? Good question, and I get asked it a lot. This is the first book club I've ever been in - and we are a no-guilt, everyone-is-invited, all-fun, come-when-you-can-even-if-you-haven't-read-the-book kind of book club.

This means YOU are invited. Even if you haven't read the book. And like any good Minnesota get-together, it's a potluck, so we are asking that you bring something to share. Here's a sneak peek at the food/beverages on board for the party: buster bars, beer, sandwiches, thai fried rice, wine, brownies, potato salad and who knows what else!!!

We'll eat, hear from the author, ask questions of the author and enjoy each others company.

If you want to attend and need to find out the mystery location, call Heidi at KAXE 218-326-1234 or email heidi@kaxe.org.

Also this week on Realgoodwords - more mystery from Julie Kramer

MN mystery author Julie Kramer is back with the third in her Riley Spartz series, "Silencing Sam". Riley is an investigative reporter in Minneapolis who finds herself embroiled with a local gossip columnist. It's a fun read and also an interesting commentary on the state of news and journalism today in a world of social media. Here's a synopsis from her website:

IN THIS TOWN, GOSSIP KILLS . . .

When a widely despised gossip columnist is shot to death, Riley Spartz must secretly investigate a case after she becomes the prime suspect. In the wake of the brutal murder, our heroine discovers that news and gossip have more in common than she ever imagined. Meanwhile, competition in the Channel 3 newsroom is just as murderous. While Riley struggles to interest her boss in a story about rural wind farm bombings, a new reporter spikes the station ratings with exclusive stories about the headless homicide of an unknown woman whose decapitated body is found in a city park. Riley must fight to stay out of jail, ahead in the ratings, and even alive in a killer showdown not fit for television audiences.

Check out her book trailer and tune in this week!

Duluth author's creepy debut novel

I mean creepy in the best possibly sense of the word of course.

–adjective,creep·i·er, creep·i·est.

1. having or causing a creeping sensation of the skin, as from horror or fear: a creepy ghost story.

Duluth journalist Wendy K. Webb has just put out her first novel called "The Tale of Halcyon Crane". I'm not somebody who usually reads ghost or gothic tales, but since the author was from Duluth, I gave it a try.

And boy, was I pleasantly surprised. And did I say creeped out? I don't want to give anything away, but I'm definitely being careful when I stand in front of open windows or staircases.

Webb's character of Hallie James is at a pivotal point in her life. She grew up raised by her single father, thinking that her mother had died in a fire when she was young. We meet her as her father is dying of Alzheimer's and she is sent a letter informing her that her mother has also died and that the family home on Grand Manitou Island has been left to her.

She barely remembered her mother, and to find out, late in life, that she COULD have known her, intrigues her enough to travel to the remote, gothic setting to find out what she can about her family. Based on Mackinaw Island, the setting is both beautiful and haunting.

“The Tale of Halcyon Crane is a wonderfully creepy gothic tale with a distinctly modern sensibility. Ms. Webb has written a hypnotic, twisting, and vividly imagined story about the terrible and lovely ways the past impacts the present, and how one woman’s discovery of old family secrets reveals new truths about herself and her life, and sets her on a perilous road to a future she could not previously have imagined.”—Megan Chance, author of The Spiritualist and An Inconvenient Wife

Tune in for our conversation this week - along with a talk with Walter Mosley about his newest series of mysteries as well as his post as ambassador to the American Library Association.

What's up this week on Realgoodwords

I'll be talking with authors of two very different books this week on Realgoodwords. Lori Armstrong is the author of No Mercy, a new mysery series featuring Mercy Gunderson. Mercy is a former Army sniper who comes home after her dad dies to take over the family ranch in South Dakota. Life on the ranch is almost as dark and bloody as her time in Iraq.

Wendy Tokunaga is the author of Love in Translation. It's the story of American Celeste Duncan as she sets off on a wild goose chase to find some answers in her puzzling past in of all places, Tokyo. The clash of cultures is very fun in this novel. She finds herself not only getting some answers about her own heritage but at the center of a wildly popular Japanese reality show. Check out the video trailer of the novel below.

William Kent Krueger this week on Realgoodwords

What I'm reading now

I'm halfway through the latest William Kent Krueger mystery, "Heaven's Keep". At the beginning of this one Cork O'Connor's wife Jo has headed off to Wyoming in a chartered plane.

And I won't tell you anymore than that. I'll keep you hanging. Stay tuned for a conversation with William Kent Krueger in the next month or so.

What are you reading right now?

getting ready for john sandford

MN author Julie Kramer's new "Missing Mark"

This week on Realgoodwords

Tune in for a conversation with 2 MN authors....Susan Marks and Jim Proebstle.

Susan's new book is called Historic Photos of Minnesota. She compiled the photos, did the research and wrote the text in this fascinating new book. There are so many stories behind these fascinating photos - like the one you see on the cover to the left - women's hockey at the U of MN in the 1920s. Susan talks at length about the research process and how she came to write/compile the book.

Jim Proebstle spends his summers on Leech Lake and is the author of the mystery "In the Absence of Honor" . Last time Jim and I talked his first novel had just come out. This time he talks about how he has marketed his book and what his writer journey has been like so far.

hockey and intrigue in a small town

Bryan Gruley is my guest on Realgoodwords this week. He's the Chicago bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal and he's just published his first novel, "Starvation Lake - A Mystery".

Set in small town, lower upper peninsula Michigan, Gus Carpenter is the editor of the town's paper, and a former hockey player who grew up there. We all know the importance of hockey to our towns in Minnesota, and the great holiday of the state high school hockey tournaments.... it's the same for Starvation, Michigan. Gus in fact, has always been haunted by that final game, that he, as goalie, lost for his team. Or so everyone makes him believe.

"Starvation Lake" is a dark mystery. There's humor and friendship and family and hockey, but at the core, there's a sinister story here that keeps you turning pages. Critics have said,

"Smashing debut thriller … a story so gripping that you’ll probably devour it in one gulp—like the heavenly sounding egg pie served at Audrey’s Diner." Chicago Tribune

"Outstanding… a tale of violence and betrayal that will remind many of Dennis Lehane." Publisher's Weekly.

To get a sneak peek, check out Bryan's cool website for the book here.

upcoming books on Realgoodwords

Sandra Harper's new novel "High Tea" is a fun novel - the story of a L.A. establishment called Magpie's Tearoom. They pay strict attention to the tradition of High Tea including perfect, plain scones from Maggie's grandmother's recipe and traditional sandwiches. You can read chapter one here.

"Wintergirls" is the new novel by Laurie Halse Anderson.... Anderson is the bestselling author of the young adult novels "Speak" and "Catalyst" among others..."Wintergirls" explores the obsessive, competitive culture of eating disorders through the eyes of Lia.

Starred review, Booklist, Dec. 15, 2008"...a devastating portrait of the extremes of self-deception. This is a brutal and poetic deconstruction of how one girl stealthily vanishes into the depths of anorexia..." "Anderson illuminates a dark but utterly realistic world..."

Our friend Minnesota author Brian Freeman is back with two new mysteries. One continues the story of Duluth's Jonathan Stride... "In the Dark" (or in the U.K. "The Watcher" ) explores the mystery that Jonathan has never really wanted to look back into - the 1977 brutal killing of his girlfriend's sister. Also, Brian is writing a wholy different kind of novel, under another name. This one is called "The Agency"...

And Minnesota writer and judge Mark Munger will be talking with us soon about his biography of his uncle, Willard Munger. It's called "Mr. Environment: The Willard Munger Story".

State Representative Willard Munger was the longest serving member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. During his long career, Munger authored every major environmental or conservation law adopted by the state. Now his story, beginning with his birth in a log cabin in Otter Tail County, continuing with his search for work in the shipyards and factories of Duluth, and culminating with his storied legacy as Minnesota's "Mr. Environment" is ready for readers to enjoy.

Julie Kramer's first novel, "Stalking Susan" is a mystery that centers around Minneapolis news reporter who is looking into some cold cases that all involve the death of women named Susan. The author herself is a freelance TV news producer for NBC's Today Show, Nightly News and Dateline. She lives in Minnesota.

Stay tuned for more information! And post your current reading here!

Crazy Schools

Tonight I'm talking with Cornelia Read, mystery author of "The Crazy School." Madeline Dare (also featured in Read's "A Field of Darkness") is working at a boarding school in the Berkshires for disturbed youth. The death of two students is labeled a double suicide but Madeline thinks there is more to it. It's a fascinating read by Read (I had to say it) - but even more fascinating is that The Crazy School is based on a real boarding school in the Berkshires of Massachusetts where a friend of mine, Leslie Rossman, attended school. Leslie told me, "The things I saw no one should see." I talk with Leslie at the end of the show.

Cornelia talked about what is was like for her as a teacher at DeSisto.

"Endless faculty meetings that would devolve into screaming group therapy sessions which was really terrifying - you never knew when the entire room was going to turn on you for some imagined or true character flaw - the exhaustion
of that just wore people down, broke them down and they started to go along with the system and it was really astonishing to see people who fought against it at the beginning just knuckle under and become convinced that in fact it was a positive experience."


I hope you get to listen to our conversation either tonight, on Sunday morning at 9am, or on KAXE's archives.

I had a really interesting conversation with Cornelia about writing. We talked about writing in terms of how the imagination works - how fascinating the creative process can be...

"When I was writing the first draft of "Field of Darkness" I was about halfway through with it and I was calling my main character, Madeline Dare, Caroline Dare - which is an anagram of my name. I suddenly thought THAT'S NOT HER NAME! Her friend was going to show up and I knew that she would call her Madwoman Dare and it was when the name changed that she really began to work as a character. Sometimes you'll have a character do something on the page that you absolutely didn't see coming and I remember the first time that happened to me: I called my sister and said, "Oh my god - I feel like I'm channeling someone - I just hope it's somebody with talent."

Tonight!

The Minnesota Crime Wave is coming! The Minnesota Crime Wave is coming!

Tonight is the last big event for The Big Read of Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon". All month long, along with discussing the book and watching movies we've been reading mysteries.

I've had the privilege to read MINNESOTA mysteries this months - thanks to the fine folks you see in costume here - Carl Brookins, Ellen Hart and William Kent Krueger.

Each writes mysteries set in Minnesota that are unique to the genre. Ellen's are more of the "cozy" type - involving amateur sleuth/restauranteur Jane Lawless. This doesn't mean they are timely or pertaining to current events. In her latest "The Mortal Groove" Jane's father Ray is running for Minnesota governor. What could be more timely than political races that dig into the private lives of candidates?

The author of over 20 novels, Ellen is a five-time winner of the Lambda award for Best Lesbian mystery, and twice winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Crime & Detective Fiction. She was made an official GLBT Literary Saint at the Saints & Sinners Literary convention in New Orleans in 2005, and she has been awarded the Alice B. Readers Appreciation Medal. She teaches mystery writing at the University of Minnesota and at the Loft Literary Center.

Carl Brookins latest "Bloody Halls" is set on a college campus right in the middle of downtown Minneapolis. Jack Marston is an administrator who has been asked to look into the murder of a student. Brookins writing is sharp, funny and compelling.

Carl has written crime fiction reviews for Mystery Scene Magazine, two Internet sites, Reviewing The Evidence and Books n' Bytes, and for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. An avid sailor, he is the author of a sailing mystery series featuring Michael Tanner and Mary Whitney, published by Top Publications. They are titled Inner Passages, A Superior Mystery, set in Wisconsin's Apostle Islands, and Old Silver, published in May, 2005. His first detective novel, featuring PI, Sean NMI Sean, was released in September 2005 in hardcover from Five Star Mysteries called The Case of the Greedy Lawyers.

William Kent Krueger is the award winning writer of the mysteries with Cork O'Connor at the center. The latest "Thunder Bay" sets Cork on the trail of his spiritual advisor/Mide's long lost son and long lost love. Krueger's work is set firmly in the wilds of Northern Minnesota and Canada, with setting almost important as character. In Thunder Bay he also writes a seering love story, a tale of a Native medicine man, and a contemporary family drama.

His first two books, Iron Lake and Boundary Waters, received a number of awards including the Anthony award for Best First Novel, the Minnesota Book Award and the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award. His third novel, Purgatory Ridge, won the Minnesota Book Award for 2001; his fourth, Blood Hollow, won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of 2004. One critic has dubbed him the Michael Connelly of the Midwest.

Join us tonight for the free event at Itasca Community College. It's at 7pm at Davies Hall!

The Minnesota Mysteries continue with William Kent Krueger

I talked with MN Mystery writer William Kent Krueger today - you can hear it Wednesday night from 6-7 and Sunday morning from 9-10. OR, you can come hear Kent speak as part of the MN Crime Wave happening in Grand Rapids on Monday evening at 7pm at ICC's Davies Theater.

Kent's mysteries take place in fictional Aurora, Minnesota - a landscape that he says "cried out to him". Kent went on to say:

"A fiction writer looks for conflict. Conflict drives great stories.
Aurora has conflict in the land, conflict in the weather and conflict within
the community. Stories rise not just out of the landscape but out of the
incredible melting pot up north."

As a wannabe-writer myself, it is always interesting to hear of the rituals that writers have. If you look at Kent's website you'll see he has a habit of writing early in the morning at a coffeeshop. For most of his career he did that at booth #4 at the St. Clair Broiler in St. Paul. I asked why he writes in a public place, he said:

"Ernest Hemingway had always been one of my favorite authors and what I
knew about Hemingway was that he loved nothing better than to rise at first
light and spend a couple of hours writing. He thought it was the most
creative time of the day - so I thought, well, whatever's good enough for
Hemingway....I was living a block from the St. Clair Broiler, a classic
coffeeshop in St. Paul - and they opened the doors at 6am. So I would get
up at 5:30, get myself ready for when they opened at 6 and write for about 1
hour and 15 minutes until the bus came to take me to work. "

"I tried to write at home but I couldn't do it for this reason: when
I'm at home what happens around my house demands my attention. At a
restaurant it all becomes white noise and I think myself really deeply down into
the imagining of whatever I need to work on at the moment. I think
we all have rituals - those elements of magic that help us accomplish this
incredible process that I think none of us understand."