Carla Hagen Returns to Baudette for the Hometown Launch of her new novel

“Muskeg” continues the story of the beloved characters from “Hand Me Down My Walking Cane”

(BAUDETTE, MINNESOTA)  Novelist Carla Hagen returns to Baudette to launch her newest book, Muskeg, to her hometown community at the Lake of the Woods Historical Society. Muskeg is a follow-up to her award-winning novel Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, which was a fictional look at the real-life 1930s resettlement of Faunce, Minnesota, and other towns located in what is now the Beltrami Island Forest. Hagen was born and raised in Baudette, Minnesota, with many family members and friends still residing in the area. She grew up listening to stories about the resettlement from her late mother, also a writer, Elnora Hagen Bixby.  

“I am thrilled to be sharing Muskeg with my hometown community first,” said Hagen. “These characters and their stories were born here and nurtured from the stories I heard throughout my youth. I’m grateful to be able to share my love for Lake of the Woods County with this community and beyond.”

Muskeg takes place one year after the events in Hand Me Down and while it includes many of the same lovable characters, it focuses primarily on the story of Hazel and Minnie, owners of an Oak Island fishing resort. Carla will be reading from Muskeg, answering questions, and selling signed copies of both Muskeg and Hand Me Down, which won two 2012 Minnesota Independent Publisher Association book awards. Muskeg 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 shores 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 autographing books for guests, family and friends.

WHEN/WHERE:
1:30 to 3:30, Saturday, August 13, 2022, at the Lake of the Woods County Historical Society, 119 8th Ave. SE in Baudette, Minn. 56623

About Carla Hagen

Carla Hagen is an author, poet, radio-show host and retired attorney. She recently released the second novel in her Minnesota-Canadian Borderland Trilogy series, Muskeg. Carla’s debut novel, Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, won the 2012 Midwest Independent Publishers 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 of a weekly Latin music show with Eve MacLeish on KFAI 90.3 FM in Minneapolis named Corazon Latino.  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.