Minnesota Nice
Fri, Feb 19 2010 10:03 PM
| The Road
| Permalink
The best time to visit Minneapolis, I’d been warned, is not January. But despite the cold and the snow I still found the city to be an inviting place with a lot of character. Which also accurately describes the crime/mystery bookstore Once Upon a Crime. The owners of Once Upon a Crime, Pat Frovarp and Gary Schulze, were incredibly warm and generous hosts (Gary gave me a quick tour of his super-secret, high-security back room, which is filled with a fantastic collection of signed first editions), and my signing event, despite the weather, had a decent turnout. Among the attendees was a former MFA student of mine, Greg Burton, who is now doing some fascinating work with autistic kids; Jess Lourey, author of the very funny Murder by the Month series, who drove hours in a blinding snowstorm just to show support for a fellow writer; and the youngest audience member of the tour, Martha Sanchez, age 8 by the time you read this, who grasped more quickly and with a deeper understanding than anyone else on the entire tour the Snow White sources of Gutshot Straight. As for press coverage, the daily newspaper in town, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, sent both its managing editor, Rene Sanchez, AND travel editor, Kerri Westenberg, to cover my event. Not only that, the paper's editors put me up for three nights, fed me fantastic home-cooked meals, and let me launder clothes that were in serious need of it.
A quick aside: I know “Minnesota nice” is a stereotype, but a lot of the people I encountered in Minneapolis – car rental clerks, coffee shop baristas, etc. – did seem preternaturally NICE. By that I guess I mean polite, helpful, generous, solicitious, genuinely concerned with my well-being and safety (and not at all pushy when, for example, I declined the collision-damage waiver: “No problem!”). On the other hand, these same people also tended to be quite reserved – they were “nice” without being what those of use who have spent time in the American South would consider “friendly.” I thought this was kind of interesting, and if it shows up in a future novel of mine, you read it here first.
Next: Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee.
