MONTANA MATRIMONIAL NEWS NOW AVAILABLE!
Digger and his brother homestead on adjoining claims near Nickelbo, Dakota Territory. They search for wives in the Montana Matrimonial Newspaper. It’s risky to agree to marry a stranger, but the men are lonely and isolated on their claims. Told in interconnected stories, MONTANA MATRIONIAL NEWS reveals life on the frontier in all its struggles. Doctor Gamla, the almost-doctor of Nickelbo, delivers babies and treats all manner of maladies while dishing out advice. “My cures work if you can stand them,” she says.
You are invited to a book launch at the Brainerd Library on Friday, November 7. Doors open at 1pm with a program at 1:30pm. Refreshments will be served.
It’s been great working with the good people at North Star Press of St. Cloud and Blue Cottage Agency. Thanks to Sheila O’Connor and the participants of Camp Candace who helped critique my efforts. Also, thanks to my sister, Angela Foster, who edited MONTANA MATRIMONIAL NEWS. Hope to see you at the launch.
Montana Matrimonial News: Loneliness gnaws and chews like the relentless prairie wind. Dakota homesteader, Digger Dancy, props his feet in the oven and waits for the storm to end. His brother, George, barges into the soddy in a swirl of blowing snow. George announces he will abandon his claim to seek a wife. He can’t stand the loneliness. Digger slaps a stack of old newspapers on the table and convinces him to place an ad for a correspondence bride in the Montana Matrimonial News.
Doctor Gamla, the almost-doctor and midwife, treats George’s frostbite, and offers a cure for his melancholia. She tells of two sisters living in tar-paper shacks along the Mad Dog River. The brothers cannot imagine how Doctor Gamla’s cure will change their lives.
Nickelbo’s whole world is wheat. The homesteaders talk about crops, worry about the weather, complain about prices, and dream what they’ll buy after the harvest. Asa Wainwright busts sod with a grasshopper plow. Ingrid Larson dallies over planting to avoid her sister’s wedding. Drunken Oscar Borgom gets lost in a storm on the way to the outhouse. Emma Wilson kneels in the cellar and prays for the hailstorm to miss their farm. Sunniva hauls buffalo bones into town with a team of mules. Skeeter Jorgenson plots for his correspondence bride to arrive in time for the harvest festival.
Through it all, Doctor Gamla delivers babies, treats ailments, and offers cures and advice. “My cures work if you can stand them.”
Pequot Lakes author, Candace Simar, likes to imagine how things might have been. Her historical fiction combines her love of history with her Scandinavian heritage. Simar has been recognized by a Spur Award from Western Writers of America, a Will Rogers Gold Medallion, a Peacemaker Award from Western Fictioneers, and Laura Awards for Short Fiction. SISTER LUMBERJACK received the Midwest Book Award, was a finalist for the Willa Literary Awards in Historical Fiction, and took 3rd place in the Catholic Novel category of the Catholic Media Awards.
