At my recent book reading events, I asked members of the audience to fill out notecards with the names of music teachers and directors who had inspired them or their family members. I mentioned that I was collecting the names so I could include them in a blog post as a shout-out to people who have made the world a better place through music education.

I thought the activity was a fun way to get the audience involved, but it was also meaningful to me because it goes to the heart of my reason for writing my book. My great-grandfather G. Oliver Riggs made a difference in the lives of hundreds and hundreds of men and boys who performed in his bands.
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It’s difficult to convey how exciting it was to stand up in front of two receptive audiences last week—a crowd of about 25 people on Monday afternoon, and nearly 75 in the evening—and read six excerpts from my book-in-progress.

The two readings went as well as I could have hoped.

I will be reading from my book-in-progress next month, and I would love to have you (yes, you!) in the audience.

I will give two presentations on Monday, Nov. 23 — one at 3:15 p.m. at the Northfield Retirement Center Chapel, and one at 7 p.m. at the Northfield Senior Center. The presentations are open to the public and are part of the Vintage Band Festival’s 2015 educational series. I will speak for about 45 minutes and will also show pictures and answer questions about the book project.

I haven’t blogged in almost a month because I have been busy working on my nonfiction book. I recently completed Chapters 8 and 9, and this past weekend I had the pleasure and privilege of attending another writing retreat in Wisconsin led by author/editor/person extraordinaire Kate Hopper.

I hired Kate to edit the draft chapters of my book after I received a grant last spring from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC).

I have been working on Chapter 8 of my book for several weeks now, and just when I thought I was nearly done with it this afternoon, I was temporarily distracted by an extraordinary photo I found online.

I found the photo on a website about William N. Selig, a motion picture industry pioneer from Chicago.
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My mouth started watering last night while I was working on Chapter 8 of my book. I was writing about a national Elks convention my great-grandfather attended in July 1912. G. Oliver Riggs was a cornet soloist with the Kalispell (Montana) Elks Club Band, and one of the events they attended (and performed at) during the six-day event in Portland, Oregon, was a memorable barbecue at the Oaks Amusement Park.

During our family road trip out to Glacier National Park last week, we listened to the new book by David McCullough about brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, the legendary inventors and aviation pioneers from Dayton, Ohio. It is titled simply, The Wright Brothers.

If you are free for an hour or two—or the whole day—this Saturday, Aug. 1, I hope to see you at the One Day Vintage Band Festival in downtown Northfield. Twelve community and professional brass bands from Minnesota will perform concerts in Northfield’s Bridge Square, beginning at 9 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m.

The Riverwalk Market Fair will be going between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., so you can shop for fresh produce, sample delicious pastries and purchase local art while enjoying the live music.

One of the fun parts of writing creative nonfiction is that you can relive peak experiences during the writing process. That’s what I was doing yesterday while finishing a draft of Chapter 7 of my book.

The chapter describes events that happened seven years ago, leading up to and including G. Oliver Riggs Day, an event we had at the Stearns History Museum on June 29, 2008. It was fun to watch the video from that day, look at the pictures again, and remember how it all came together.

My historic research worlds collided last night with a bang. Not a real bang, mind you—although a rifle and a pistol were involved. The discovery I made while attending the opening of the Wheeler Collection exhibit at the Northfield Historical Society museum sent my mind reeling, and it sent me scrambling today to connect a few more dots.

I will explain further, but here’s the gist of it: I think my great-grandfather G.
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