Carla Hagen to launch her new novel, MUSKEG, at Open Book
The novelist continues the journey begun in her first novel Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
(ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA) Novelist Carla J. Hagen will launch her latest novel, Muskeg, to the Twin Cities community at the Target Performance Hall of Open Book. Muskeg is the follow-up to her award-winning novel, Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, a fictional look at the real-life 1930s resettlement of Faunce, Minnesota, and other towns located in what is now the Beltrami Island Forest, located near the Minnesota-Canada border.
“I am thrilled to re-introduce these characters to the world with Muskeg,” said Hagen. “While this novel is quite different from Hand Me Down, the characters and their stories were born from the same place and nurtured from tales I heard throughout my youth. I’m grateful to be able to share my love of Lake of the Woods County and the borderland with the rest of Minnesota and beyond, and to do so at Open Book. The fact that The Loft, which has been so important to my development as a writer, is housed there makes it even more meaningful.”
Muskeg takes place one year after the events in Hand Me Down and while it includes many of the same characters, it focuses primarily on the story of Hazel and Minnie, owners of an Oak Island fishing resort. At the launch, Carla will be reading from Muskeg, answering questions, and selling signed copies of both Muskeg and Hand Me Down, which won two 2012 Midwest Independent Publisher Association (MIPA). book awards. Muskeg is the second novel in what will be the Minnesota-Canada Borderland trilogy and is officially for sale on amazon.com. Here is a summary of Muskeg:
It’s a steamy summer in 1922. Hazel and Theda are young and in love, but that love is savagely interrupted by a police raid at a Savannah speakeasy. Pressured by Theda’s wealthy family, Hazel avoids prosecution by moving as far away from Theda as possible, eventually finding peace on a remote island on the Minnesota-Canadian border, where she is captivated by the wild beauty of Lake of the Woods. In 1937, Hazel is running a fishing resort with Minnie, her new love, when Theda suddenly appears with her twelve-year-old son. An angry husband and a posse of detectives are furiously tracking her, and Hazel must make a potentially dangerous and life-changing choice.
“Muskeg is my favorite kind of novel: wickedly paced, steeped in historical details that resonate, resplendent in the northern Minnesota setting, and full of characters to fall in love with,” said Peter Geye, author of The Ski Jumpers. “At once frightening and frolicsome, here’s a story with something for everyone by a writer with more heart than most.”
PHOTO/INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:
Carla Hagen reading from her novel and signing books for guests, family and friends.
Refreshments will be served.
WHEN/WHERE:
Thursday, September 8, 2022, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Target Performance Hall
1011 S Washington Ave #200
Minneapolis, MN 55415
About Carla Hagen
Carla Hagen is an author, poet, radio-show host and retired attorney. She recently released Muskeg, the second novel in her Minnesota-Canadian Borderland Trilogy series. Carla’s debut novel, Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, won two 2012 Midwest Independent Publishers (MIPA) Awards for best literary fiction and best historical fiction. Her work has appeared in anthologies such as Voices for the Land and When Last on the Mountain and in journals like Talking Stick, Saint Paul Almanac, Border Senses and Sing, Heavenly Muse! Carla is the co-host with Eve MacLeish of Corazón Latino, a weekly Latin music show on KFAI 90.3 FM in Minneapolis. She lives in St. Paul, Minn. with her husband and is working on the third novel in her Borderland trilogy.
For interviews with Carla Hagen, please contact Ella Carlsson, Red Mood Marketing, 612.805.0572, ella@redmoodmktg.com.