About the Author

I discovered writing in later life. In my mid 30s after the kids were grown; in 1987 I took a writing class and found out I loved writing. I met my teacher & mentor, Maureen LaJoy and took classes with her for 10 years. 

I quit my job at the frame shop in 1993 and told my co-workers, “I am going to write a book.” They said “Sure you are.” I wrote about NE Minneapolis where I grew up and modeled my book after Bring Warm Clothes–a combination of letters, vignettes and tons of photos. I created my own format with many different topics—all about Northeast Minneapolis. My style is to take different subjects and put them all in one book. People said I couldn’t do it, I did it anyway. It took about 5 years to write. 

My first book Heart and Hard Work: Memories of Nordeast Minneapolis published in 1997 was once Barnes & Noble #4 in the whole country for Non-fiction. We sold out at my first book signing, which was at Kramarczyk’s Meat Market on Dec. 18, 1997.

This event was listed in the Star/Tribune along with an interview with Chuck Haga. Pandemonium in the meat market. I didn’t know the last Saturday before Xmas is the biggest meat buying day of the year. People were in the meat line and thought they were in the book line. My husband cut his finger and couldn’t find a band-aid. He had to call reinforcements. I was signing long Polish names while my brother- in- law who is a salesman, went down the line showing pictures, and sold more books.

People I’d forgotten about appeared as if out of a time warp. My third- grade teacher, Mrs. Remquist.

People invited me into their homes—One lady knitted me a scarf &gave me a brick from my old school, one family invited me for a Polish dinner. There were lots of funny calls when my husband suddenly became my secretary. I’ll never forget the lady that said, “Your book is too Big to fit in the bathtub,” Andy Zurbey serenaded me on a concertina. Lou Snyder from Nye’s Polonaise Room sang and played showtunes at a NE book event. 

And guys calling and saying they used to date me-One guy was 85 years old. Even a guy that dumped me was bragging about me writing a book. One guys last request was to have my book put in the casket with him. 

In the beginning it was hard for me to get information. There wasn’t much in the history books or in the libraries. Then when the book came out people loved it so much, they started sending me stuff. 

What was I to do with all this info. A second book was created and we called it Pride and Tradition: More Memories of Northeast. We packed it full of photos, newspaper clippings, and people’s own memories, including all of the things that people loved about Northeast. Later a third book was made. Roots and Ties: A Northeast Scrapbook. This included some of the missing pieces that were not included in the first two books. The parochial schools, and the houses on the hill that were east of Central Avenue.

In 2008 I released a book about the 50s and 60s. We named it Green Stamps to Hot Pants, which was really a mistake because we couldn’t come up with a title. We had to come up with something quick because the book was supposed to be in a catalog. They said just use anything; we can change it later. We sold a lot of books because of the title. This book was made from the memoire of me and a couple friends I had. We would talk about the odd things we still had or remembered from our youth, which was the 50s and 60s. Such a fun time and so different from today. It started with spoolies, home perms, crinolines and Melmac dishes. My daughter in law, Melanie took some photos of my small collection and he book took off from there. This book has been my biggest seller and surpassed Heart and Hard Work: Memories of Nordeast Minneapolis. 

Later I wrote two books of stories—Bait store Angel and Other Stories and Daughter #5 the Baby of the Family. Bait store Angel was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award. I am working on a third book called Dear Genevieve. Stevie the Bat is a children’s book based on my childhood doll substitute-a baseball bat. My books of stories came about when my friend from writing group said, “Why don’t you just take your stories and put them all in one book?” I had been writing these little stories for years. Some were from my childhood living on California Street, some were about getting married and living on Beebe Lake. A couple of them were Doug’s funny stories. Others were about our crazy life together. The writer and the Fisherman. They became Genny’s true-life stories. Sometimes at Critique group I was advised to add more Genny Ness!