Hello, again–just an update due to some back, neck, and shoulder health–I am cancelling my part of the Kimball event.  I hate to do this, but it is necessary.  Please contact me for a good deal on some books, though.  I can reconfigure the paypal system just for you. 

It’s that time of year–

Hopefully, the turkey is all eaten, or in its last regeneration–  soup, tetrazzini, or chili.

It is time for new–

Come on out and see what you can find for holiday gifts–a great selection of items–at the Kimball, MN, Stop ‘N Shop, at the Kimball United Methodist Church.

Don’t forget–books make great presents, and I am bringing all mine for selling and signing.

Pins & Needles is the sequel to Scruples & Drams.  Both are suspense novels, set in Clearwater, MN, the Mississippi River town in the central part of the state.  These women I write about believe that helping those less fortunate and able is part of what they’ve been called to do in their lives.  They may not always agree ideologically with each other, but help is their mantra.

Minnesota Main Street series may be set in Clearwater, but its subject is universal.  Women have been facing common issues since the beginning of time–lack of education, lack of money, lack of equal pay for equal job, lack of proper health care, and the list goes on.  Maude Porter, the protagonist in Pins & Needles, see these problems are worsened for the families suffering from the male head of the family imbibing at the booze hall across from her Millinery Shop.  She has endured as much as she can after she is harassed and a friend is beaten to the point of death. She votes for temperance and will not rest until saloon has been shut down!  

While you’re shopping for presents, pick up Around Clearwater as well to for a historic background on this village that has great ties to the Twin Cities, the east coast, Canada, and Europe.  I have a couple  of Postcards from the Old Man left as well–my memoir of my early years growing up in Clearwater. The Old Man, as mentioned in the title, occasionally causes snickers because some believe I am writing about my father or husband.  When they laugh at the title, I almost start crooning the famous Show Boat tune, “Ol’ Man River”    (go ahead, click, and listen to this marvelous song by Paul Robeson.  While he signs that he wants to run away from this body of water because it means enslavement, I feel tied to it, inspired by it, strengthened by it, and I feel it flowing in my veins.

So remember that books make great gifts, wrap yourselves up in the spirit of the season, and come on over to the vendor, craft, art sale in Kimball, MN, at  141 State Highway 55 P.O. Box 414  Kimball, MN 55353.  I heard they have a Christmas lunch and bake sale going on as well.

https://kimballunitedmethodistchurch.weebly.com/

Have a joyful and blessed holiday season.

Cindy

Come on out to the 15th Annual Holiday Stop & Shop in Annandale, Minnesota, at the United Methodist Church, from 9-2. In case you’ve never been to this town, here is the webpage  https://www.annandale.mn.us/.

You’ll notice me!  I’ll be sitting with all my books at a round table, unlike the oblong one below but with the same books and decorations,  with black tablecloth.  My sister Becky will be there too.  At 9 a.m. I’ll still be drinking cofRfee, and I may have forgotten to have combed my hair, but I’ll love to see you.

Remember books make great holiday gifts!

Just a reminder: I’ll be selling and signing my books at the 3rd Annual Clearwater Vendor and Craft Event tomorrow Nov. 10 from 10-3 in Clearwater at the Lions’ Bldg on Highway 75.

https://www.facebook.com/events/897473320460589/

I’ll be selling and signing books at the Annandale, MN, United Methodist Church, next Saturday, Nov. 17, from 9-2 for their Holiday Vendor and Arts events. http://annandaleumc.org/

December 1, I’ll be selling and signing books at the Kimball United Methodist Church event from 9-2.

https://kimballunitedmethodistchurch.weebly.com/

See you soon,

Cindy

This week I listened to a group of younger women voters state why or why not they were not voting during this mid-term election. Some of them said they had no time. Some replied that nothing changes anyway.  One woman said there was “nothing in it for her.”

I find this discouraging because it is obvious there are some out there who don’t understand that some women have sacrificed themselves for the rest of us. Winning suffrage was just a start of us.

I remember a time in the late 1960’s when I lived at home and worked at a job that gave me a decent income, more bucks than my father made, and yet he had to co-sign for me to buy a car and get a credit card.

I still fight at the car dealerships because if I bring my husband in with me to buy a car, that credit-giving-guy–the one sitting behind that big desk in that huge glassed in office–assumes Frank’s name has to come first on “such” important paperwork.  I finally had the courage to make one guy start over again on his “paperwork in triplicate” to that put my name first because I was making the payments.  We are talking this is almost 100 years since we women have had some rights granted to us!

Since given the vote, we women have been balancing on a pinnacle.  Our freedoms are that fragile! There are those who’d like to take away our rights to make our own decisions.

So what’s in it for me to vote?  To protect my female rights--my 21st Century rights–to protect all women’s rights whether they believe the way I do about life, liberty, and our individual pursuits for happiness.

We have only had these rights because of those women who were on the extreme side--willing to shout, march, and suffer –some to be jailed and force-fed when they went on hunger strikes fighting to earn THE VOTE.  Others sat idly on the side-lines and called them fanatics.  Yet the hardest fighters earned the right all of us women the right to vote.

It may be a slow fight forward but we need to fight for equal rights in all that matters. It’s not too late.  We have a few hours left.

• PS
• Just a reminder to drop in at the 3rd Annual Clearwater (MN) Crafts and Art Vendors Event this Saturday, the 10th, from 10-3.  I’ll be signing books–Maude Porter, my protagonist, would be sad if you didn’t come.  Great deals on Christmas presents.
• 
•  I also choose to postpone knee replacement.  The date, Dec. 4, was coming way too fast, and neither my husband nor I could wrap our minds around the surgery or the potential for painful therapy and recuperation
• I am available for book talks and other Christmas teas !!!!
• Yes, give me a buzz, at books@cynthiafrankstupnik.com and I’ll talk about my dynamic duo–Maude and Jennie–two  of Minnesota’s Main Street Women!