It’s here — my first collection of short stories, Somewhere in Minnesota, available from Kirk House Publishers, Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com.
Each story in this collection tells the tale of a character experiencing moments of change or crisis. With Minnesota lakes and seasons as the backdrop, each story shares a different tale of characters navigating life’s unexpected turns — from peculiar circumstances to moments of crisis — that at least temporarily set their world off its axis.
Why Read Somewhere in Minnesota?
These are tales about the things that keep us up at night. The mishaps, the arguments, the twists of fate. While the stories are set in the state of Minnesota, the people that populate them could be your friends, your neighbors, your relatives, or yourself. In writing these stories, I attempted to create mini relatable universes. As I shared in my author interview on the Mandy Eve Barnett blog, “Whether a reader recognizes the setting of a story, my hope is that the characters’ idiosyncrasies, insecurities and moments of reflection and revelation will make people nod in recognition.” I hope you have that experience, and that these stories resonate with you.
Information for Book Clubs, Bookstores, and Organizations
Interested in having me join your book club for a Zoom meeting, or your indie bookstore for a reading or author event? Please use this contact form, where you can provide information about your interest and the type of event.
Book Club Questions for Somewhere in Minnesota
Here are some book club questions to support your book club discussion. You can also find them at the back of the book.
- Questions for A Last Night in Fargo:
- Teri is struggling with her feelings for Carl after having had a romantic encounter on her business trip. What are some of the factors that can drive a wedge in a relationship?
- Do you think Teri just had a weak moment on her business trip, or are the challenges and differences in her relationship with Carl possibly insurmountable?
- Questions for Prodigal Father:
- The author chooses to write from the perspective of a 12-year-old boy. Is it believable?
- Max finds three perfect blue robin’s eggs abandoned in a nest. What do they symbolize in the story?
- Max’s father sometimes seems to tower over him, and other times seems old and shrunken. Why do you think Max sees him in both ways? And does one of these views of his father seem most true? Further, are we all multiple versions of ourselves, sometime great and sometimes small?
- Questions for Ripples:
- The primary conflict in this story is that Jeffy has run out onto a lake covered with melting, unstable ice. What are the other conflicts?
- If Madeline hadn’t figured out how to get onto the lake with the canoe to save Jeffy, what do you think would have happened?
- How are egos and storytelling explored in the story?
- Questions for The Picnic:
- Josh experiences a range of feelings and emotions, yet outwardly he is rather unemotional and stolid. Does this serve him well, or does it cause some of the problems that occur in the story? What causes people to “keep their cards close to their chest”?
- If you could give Josh one piece of advice, at what point in the story would you do so, and what would it be?
- Marriage and commitment are key themes in this story. What are the different ways these themes play out? How does this tie into the concurrent theme that none of us truly knows what the future holds?
- Questions for The Walled City:
- Why do you think the city of Lucca, Italy was chosen as the setting for a story timed with the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic? What is the significance of a city surrounded by enormous fortress walls?
- Discuss how beginnings and endings are featured in this story. Vulnerability and innocence are also themes that could be interesting to discuss.
- What do you remember about the initial days of Covid 19, before it was declared a pandemic? While this historic event was a clear demarcation in modern history and happened at the very beginning of the 2020 decade, to many people the timeline of what happened and when is a blur. Why do you suppose that is the case?
- Questions for Cast Off:
- This story ventures into magical realism, a genre in which a story is told very realistically, yet things happen which do not occur in real life. Did you get the sense that the alternate reality things Jules experiences are real in the context of the story? Or are they things she imagines?
- The name of the story has multiple meanings. What are they and which did you think of as you read the story? Are they symbolic in some way?
- Questions for Hiding in Plain Sight:
- Delia ends up in a homeless encampment, on the run from her abusive husband. Why does she choose this instead of going to her mother or her best friend, or to a women’s shelter?
- The minister in this story reads a psalm about despair and then provides his take on it. He says it is always darkest before the dawn, and that in those moments “We discover that the grit and determination we have needed all along reside deep within, and that the moment has come to lift ourselves up.” Some are skeptical as he gives this sermon. Discuss whether you would find this message uplifting if you found yourself unexpectedly homeless.
- Michael is a former drug addict and homeless person and is therefore perhaps not a good candidate as Delia’s knight in shining armor. But is there cause for hope that there is a good reason for these two people to have accidentally crossed paths again under these peculiar circumstances? Why are some people “good on paper” but, in reality, are insufferable humans, while others have seemingly terrible curriculum vitae and yet have a richer inner life and more to give?
- Questions for The Usher:
- Frederick is tied in knots by finding a $100 dollar bill that does not belong to him. While it’s not a lot of money, for someone of very limited means like Frederick, it’s enough to cause serious angst. What would you have done in his shoes? Do you think any given person in his situation might feel differently depending on their circumstances and station in life?
- Frederick underestimates several things in this story. He underestimates the effect it will have on him to hold onto the hundred dollars. He also underestimates Jimmy, and it therefore comes as a huge surprise that Jimmy is not only taking classes but pursuing a degree that will elevate him out of the minimum wage job. And finally, he underestimates himself. Discuss Frederick’s transition over the course of the story. What do you think will happen next for him?
- Questions for Three Things:
- This story attempts to capture the difficult challenge of helping someone who is experiencing deep depression. The reaction of the neighbor, Victor Fisher, to Ollie’s depression is juxtaposed against Linda’s. Where Victor has no tolerance, Linda tries to understand and be supportive. Do you think she succeeds?
- Discuss different societal approaches to mental health issues. For example, Linda attempts to identify the cause of Ollie’s depression, as if she can reverse engineer it. And there are several analogies used in the story to compare depression to things that can be fixed by a surgeon or a mechanic. Why is it so difficult for people to deal with a person who is struggling with mental health problems? As a society, have we become better at this over time?
- Questions for The Lake Home:
- This story is told from the perspective of Forest, who is rather boorish. Discuss whether he is a likable character, and how his character changes as the story progresses.
- Of all the things that happen on the night when Alexandra’s family comes to stay, what do you think is the catalyst for Forest wanting to move back to town and make his wife happy?
- What role does pride play in this story?
- Questions for Neighbors:
- Why does Benny get so worked up about what his new neighbors are up to?
- It becomes apparent that Benny is somewhat emotionally stunted. How is this manifested throughout the story, and what changes for him by the end?
- Benny clearly misses his old neighbor, Maynard. Discuss Benny’s approach to managing his grief, and what aspects of that serve him well, and which don’t?
- Questions for The River Bluffs:
- Gracie misses Griff even when she is with him. Why do you think that’s the case?
- This story discusses the notion of family, and the trauma of a family breaking apart. While no two families are the same, do you think it is part of the human condition that many people wish for some notion of a traditional family?
- The story climax has Gracie thinking about leaping off the edge of the bluff with her brother. Discuss what drove her to such an extreme, and how she recovered from that terrible momentary desire.