An Interview With Linda Norlander

by Grace Topping 

We’ve all read books by authors we enjoy, read their blogs, and perhaps even conversed with them via Zoom. I was able to do all those things with author Linda Norlander. However, recently, I had the pleasure of getting to meet her at Malice Domestic, a fan conference that celebrates traditional and cozy mysteries. There I got to learn even more about her Cabin by the Lake Mystery series and her soon-to-be-released book, Death of a Snow Ghost.

 

Death of a Snow Ghost

 

Jamie Forest, ex-New Yorker, is on her way to her cabin to prepare for her first Thanksgiving in the Northwoods of Minnesota when she sees through the swirl of snow a ghostly apparition. It turns out not to be a ghost, but a young woman in labor. Not only is she about to deliver, but she doesn’t speak English. Jamie can’t ask her what she is doing in a lowland bog in the middle of a snowstorm. With the snow falling, she becomes an accidental midwife delivering a healthy baby girl in the backseat of her car. In the aftermath it’s clear the new mother is afraid someone will take her baby. Three days later a young woman is found drowned in Black Crow Pond. Is she Jamie’s new mother? As she seeks answers, Jamie learns that winter in the Northwoods can be both beautiful and deadly.

                                               www.lindanorlander.com

 

 

Welcome, Linda, to Writers Who Kill.

 

Jamie Forest moved from NYC to a rural area of Minnesota. What makes a big city girl move to the wilds of Minnesota? 

 

As a child, she’d spent time in the summer at the family cabin on Lake Larissa. She decides to escape to it following her divorce, the death of her father, and a traumatic experience of mistaken identity with a drug task force in New York City. She hopes to find peace and quiet and a chance to recover.

 

Jamie spent her inheritance on a “cabin by the lake that’s cold three-fourths of the year and full of bugs the rest.” Did she know what she was getting into? 

 

Definitely not! But to her surprise despite the drawbacks, she’s found a connection with the land and a growing love for the community.

 

In Death of a Snow Ghost, adoption scams and a form of human trafficking are central to the plot. Are these more common than people realize, especially in such a remote place in Minnesota? 

 

Sadly, these scams exist, but I doubt they would be common in such remote places. Small communities are tightknit, and although they might have a “live and let live” attitude, people are aware of what’s going on around them. 

 

What are “anchor babies?” 

 

Anchor babies is a derogatory term used by anti-immigration groups who claim that undocumented pregnant women deliberately come to the United States to have their babies because the babies will be born US citizens and will help them stay in the United States.

 

As a NYC native, you would think Jamie would be less trusting, especially of some pretty suspicious characters. What accounts for her being hoodwinked by one of them? 

 

Despite having been raised in the big city, Jamie has a naiveté about her. She went to private schools and has lived in a bit of a bubble. Her father was very protective especially since her mother died of a progressive brain disease and was not a big part of her life. Her ex-husband was controlling, and now that she’s on her own, she’s learning about the realities of the world. 

Jamie has some unusual experiences she can’t explain. What could account for them?

 

Jamie’s mother was half Ojibwe but left Minnesota for the East Coast to pursue art. She died after a progressive brain disease when Jamie was a teenager. Although she knows she has Native American ancestors, Jamie doesn’t know anything about her mother’s side of the family. Every so often, however, Jamie feels something—like her kinship to the woods and the wilderness—that could be attributed to her Native heritage. In a later Cabin by the Lake Mystery, she will explore her heritage further to find out more about her Native roots.

 

As a freelance editor who edits mostly romance novels, when Jamie is given a fantasy novel, it throws her. She says she needs to check out the rules for fantasies. What does she mean by the rules? 

 

Jamie knows the romance genre follows a certain formula. Before editing the fantasy, she does research on the genre to find out more about its structure and nuances. She’s committed to being a thorough content and copy editor, so she’s looking for the clichés and the worn-out concepts in order to help her author. 

Jamie’s community is struggling to keep its local newspaper going. What could happen to a community if it loses its local paper? Do you have any experience with a community paper? 

 

Loss of the community newspaper is a serious issue in rural America. In the last fifteen years, over 1400 towns and cities have lost their newspapers. Without them, small communities don’t have access to information about their schools, their local governments and the important issues relevant to them. It’s like losing both the watchdog and the heartbeat of the community. 

 

I grew up with the small newspaper. My father edited the Wheaton Gazette in western Minnesota. My mother wrote a weekly column. This was in the era before computers when everything was typeset. My father was an expert linotype operator, and I still remember the smells of the pressroom—a combination of ink, hot lead, paper and dust. I also remember the fine line he had to walk between being a community booster and reporting the local news.

 

The frozen lakes play a large part in that area of Minnesota. How?

 

In the winter, the lakes are a source of recreation. You can ice fish, snowmobile or cross-country ski on them. A lake in the winter has a voice of its own. It can be a beautiful white expanse, and it can also be treacherous. Every year someone is lost going through thin ice on a snowmobile or in a car. I remember as a child when my dad took me out on Lake Traverse to an ice fishing community. Even though he reassured me that the ice was strong, I was scared the whole time that we’d crash through it. I still have nightmare thoughts of being stuck in the frigid water under the ice and not being able to find the surface.

  

Jamie was advised to get an engine heater. What exactly is that? Why does she ignore that advice? 

 

It’s a plug-in electrical heater that keeps the engine warm enough to start the car in the winter. When the temperatures go below zero, engines don’t always start. Even if they do, it’s hard on them and can decrease the life expectancy of the car. Jamie ignores the advice because she doesn’t have the money for one and because she doesn’t realize how cold it can get in the winter. 

 

In my personal experience, I remember the winter in Minnesota when I had my car plugged in and forgot to unplug it when I backed out of the driveway. I didn’t realize it until I saw this yellow electrical extension cord fishtailing in front of me. Fortunately, I didn’t end up breaking anything except a piece of the grille on the car. I also remember the winter when I had to park the car in an open lot while I was at work. The windchills were close to -50 degrees and a group of us would trek out at noon to start our cars and run them for fifteen minutes to make sure they’d start at the end of the day. Jamie, of course, has never had that experience.

 

The locals call Jamie a tree hugger. Why? 

 

She is involved with an environmental group that maintains a trail to the lake and has been fighting to keep a mining company from setting up operations in the county. (See Death of an Editor.)

Each of your books is set during a different season of the year. What does the setting in a specific season add to your stories? 

 

When I started writing A Cabin by the Lake series, part of what I wanted to do was feature the pristine beauty and fragility of this part of Minnesota. I wanted to place the reader in the midst of each season to experience it along with the story. For me, the season is like a background character adding beauty, depth, and tension to the story.

 

Now that you’ve written several books, what is the most valuable thing you’ve learned along the way?

 

I’ve learned that readers are astute and are looking for accuracy. I was called out by several readers on a chapter in my first book that included gun shots. They told me the type of rifle I described couldn’t do the damage that happened. Another reader pointed out that a half moon wouldn’t have been visible at the time of night I was writing about. I also had a reader note misplaced commas. If I ever write another scene involving a gun or a rifle, I will consult an expert!

 

Thank you, Linda.

 

For more information about Linda Norlander and her books, visit her at https://www.lindanorlander.com