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 a...

**A tale of survival, friendship, and unexpected paths in the harsh Minnesota wilderness.**In 1893, widow Solveig Rognaldson faces losing her farm after her son's departure. Desperate, she ventures into the male-dominated world of logging camps. Nels Jensen, haunted by past mistakes, seeks redemption in the same unforgiving landscape. Their lives intertwine with Sister Magdalena, a spirited nun sent to minister to the isolated lumberjacks.Amidst the towering pines and rugged terrain, an un...

The Sioux Uprising of 1862, the largest Indian war in U.S. history, was over by that fall--or so the government declared. For Gust and Serena, newlyweds and fresh immigrants from Iowa, settling into their farm at Pomme de Terre was challenging as Indian raids continued in the western part of Minnesota. In their camps Sioux men, women, and children also were challenged--by promises by the government that were not met, supplies that failed to come, and starvation.

Blooming Prairie is the fourth and final novel of the Abercrombie Trail series. Widow Serena Gustafson returns to Pomme de Terre where her husband was killed during the Sioux Uprising. Her dreams of financial independence dissolve when land values plummet after a scourge of Rocky Mountain locusts. Serena must release the past before she can embrace her future. Evan Jacobson, homesteading in nearby Otter Tail County, takes a job driving mules over the Wadsworth Trail. While Evan is on the ...

Evan Jacobson's life in Norway was half a world away from the new life he found in Minnesota, 1859. As a stagecoach rider across the state from Fort Snelling to Fort Abercrombie, Evan encounters the effects of the Civil War to the south, the challenges the frontier settlers along the trail faced, and the all-too-close dangers of the Souix Uprising of 1862.

1873 Minnesota. Evan and Inga Jacobson struggle to raise their family in the midst of bank failures, grasshoppers and lingering effects of the 1862 Uprising. Harsh economic realities force them to relocate to Otter Tail County where they must begin again in a hostile environment. Ragna Larson, their foster daughter, grows up haunted by her missing sister, Birdie. Though both girls were kidnapped by the Sioux during the Uprising, only one returned. Ragna must make peace with the past before...

The Storyville Project is a publication of the nonprofit organization, the Lakes Area Writers Alliance and is a collaboration of creative nonfiction and fiction from our Minnesota-based author/members. Because our members come from all walks of life, you will find a variety of subjects and styles within.The Lakes Area Writers Alliance's goal is to encourage and support our fellow writers.Everyone published in this book, and all who worked to see it...