Historical Fiction
Date Published: 10-07-2025
Publisher: NorthStar Press
homesteader, Digger Dancy, props his feet in the oven and waits for the storm
to end. His brother, George, barges into the soddy in a swirl of blowing snow.
George announces he will abandon his claim to seek a wife. He can’ t
stand the loneliness. Digger slaps a stack of old newspapers on the table and
convinces him to place an ad for a correspondence bride in the Montana
Matrimonial News. Doctor Gamla, the almost-doctor and midwife, treats
George’ s frostbite, and offers a cure for his melancholia. She tells of
two sisters living in tar-paper shacks along the Mad Dog River. The brothers
cannot imagine how Doctor Gamla’ s cure will change their lives.
Nickelbo’ s whole world is wheat. The homesteaders talk about crops,
worry about the weather, complain about prices, and dream what they’ ll
buy after the harvest. Asa Wainwright busts sod with a grasshopper plow.
Ingrid Larson dallies over planting to avoid her sister’ s wedding.
Drunken Oscar Borgom gets lost in a storm on the way to the outhouse. Through
it all, Doctor Gamla delivers babies, treats ailments, and offers advice.
“My cures work if you can stand them.”
About the Author
Candace Simar likes to imagine how things might have been. She combines her
love of history with her Scandinavian heritage in historical novels that
examine the early days of Minnesota and North Dakota. “I write
historical novels to share painless history lessons about the fascinating and
unique history of our region.”
Her historical novels include: Sister Lumberjack, book five in the Abercrombie
Trail Series (North Star Press, March 2024) Follow Whiskey Creek (Sweet Honey
Press 2023) Escape to Fort Abercrombie (Five Star Cengage 2018) Shelterbelts
(North Star Press 2015), Blooming Prairie (North Star Press 2012) Birdie
(North Star Press2011) Pomme de Terre (North Star Press 2010), and Abercrombie
Trail (North Star Press 2009). Her short story collections: Dear Homefolks
(River Place Press 2017) and The Glory of Ordinary Time (Wolfpack Press 2018).
Farm Girls (River Place Press 2013) is a book of poetry co-written with her
sister, Angela Foster. Candace’s short stories have been published in
the anthologies: Spoilt Quilt (Five Star Cengage 2020), Librarians of the West
(Five Star Cengage 2021); and Why Cows Need Cowboys (Two Dot Press 2021).
Simar is a Spur Award winner and Spur finalist from the Western Writers of
America for her Abercrombie Trail series. Shelterbelts was a finalist in both
the Willa Literary Awards in Historical Fiction and the Midwest Book Awards.
Escape to Fort Abercrombie holds a Will Rogers Gold Medallion and a Peacemaker
Award from Western Fictioneers.
Her short stories and poetry have received awards from the Bob Dylan Creative
Writing Contest, Lake Region Review, League of Minnesota Poets, National
Federation of State Poetry Societies, Dust and Fire, and the Laura Awards for
Short Fiction.
Candace enjoys sharing her research and writing with groups and book clubs
across the nation.
https://mybook.to/MontanaMatrimonialNews
