Moorhead woman discovers love for writing in retirement
By Carol Stender
Retirement hasn’t slowed Linda Short down. The 68-year-old Moorhead woman has, within a year, written three books and is working on a fourth.
“It keeps me from complaining,” she said of her prolific writing. “I get up every day and I am writing something. It might not be a whole page, but I am writing.”
Her retirement plan didn’t necessarily include writing. In fact, she really didn’t know what she wanted to do once she quit working. It all just evolved, she said.
“As I talked to old chums from high school, I would tell them stories and they would say, ‘Oh, that’s a good one. You should write that down,’” she said.
Turns out she had been writing things down throughout her life. She just wasn’t aware of how much she had documented.
“One day, after moving (to Eventide’s The Living Center), I decided to unpack all my school stuff,” Short said. “I am talking about homework assignments, papers and projects.”
She had diaries and a stack of letters to the editor. There were papers from her years at Minnesota State University-Moorhead, North Dakota State University and Luther College. She also had documents from her time at St. Lukes Nursing School in the 1980s.
“Each had a pile,” she said. “I ended up with 24 piles of words. I thought, ‘There has to be something worth writing here.’”
Writing has been a way to express herself that she was not able to achieve when growing up.
“I think l learned to talk and I can’t shut up,” she said.
For much of her life, Short sang. She grew up in Angus, Minn., a town of 100 people, located near Warren. Throughout her school years she sang for church and school events. Her high school music teacher, Mark Norlie, encouraged her to pursue music at Luther College. She jumped at the chance. “I didn’t even visit the school,” she said. “If you think about it, if I had a child and let them go sight unseen to college, I would just have a fit. I became a Christian at 13 and felt that all of this was just pre-ordained.”
Short grew up in a Scandinavian household where emotions weren’t displayed and hugs were few. She found comfort through music.
She studied voice at Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University and became part of an Andrews Sister’s tribute group.
“I didn’t get into the Andrews Sisters until then,” she said. “I love three-part harmony.”
She was director of the Park Rapids Classic Chorale and manager of the Lake Agassiz Arts Council office. Short also performed 10 seasons with Fargo-Moorhead Opera Company.
“After a while, the costumes didn’t fit so good,” she said. “That’s when I went to Minnesota State University-Moorhead and got my undergraduate degree in education.”
She taught K-12 music and, after a few years, returned to college once more this time receiving her Masters in communications from North Dakota State University. “It’s really like singing, just without the music,” she said.
Her first two books are faith based. The first, “Wisps of Light: Where Christ and Culture Meet,” is a true story and a tribute to mothers everywhere.
The second book, “Beams of Abundance: When Life Gives You Lemons, Squirt ‘em on Lobster,” is a collection of 60 true humorous stories of joyful living.
Her third is a who-done-it novel about the murder of a superintendent in a small, rural school district and is aptly named, “Who Murdered the Superintendent?”
A fourth book, “Flears the Mystery Dog,” will be out soon.
Everything she does, Short does with gusto and she wants others to do the same.
“This is what people can do in life,” she said. “It’s possible to do something if you want to. To me, life is just too precious. Some people want the predictable. There is something to be said about a routine and a schedule, but you have to throw the ball once in a while as the buzzer sounds…There is something about that three-point shot at the buzzer in basketball that has excitement.”
She did the unpredictable when she was ready to publish her books - she self-published them.
Short was dismayed at the percentage of profit companies received from sales as she researched book publishing. But self-publishing meant she would be involved in all the processes. And just like everything she has done in life, she embraced it.
Putting a book together meant creating the book cover, as well. The former teacher saw an educational opportunity for someone and turned to MSUM’s Graphic and Interactive Design Department and was connected with Maya Kruger, a senior in graphic and interactive design.
The opportunity gave Kruger experience in all facets of publishing from setting up the pages to designing the book covers, something Kruger did for Short’s first three novels.
As they worked together on the first book, they discovered they had several connections. Both are Minnesotans and they attended Moorhead’s university. Short did her student teaching in Hawley, which is Kruger’s hometown. Short was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ when she attended Luther College in the 1970s and Kruger is now involved with CRU, which is the same organization, just an updated name. A life-long friendship was formed through a connection with the arts.
The books are sold through Short’s website, www.lindasbooks.shop.
While some of her books are non-fiction, her fourth, “Flears, the Mystery Dog” is a tale told to her by her classmate and fellow Warren High School grad Mark Olson. Olson related his story when the two were in elementary school more than 60 years ago. Later, he wrote out the story for her which was one of the papers she sorted when in retirement.
The book will be published in memory of Olson who died a few years ago, she said. It is also a tribute to students of the Warren-Alvarado-Oslo consolidated school district. The goal is to put a signed copy of it into the hands of age-appropriate children in her hometown. It is a community fundraising event for the WAO school district.
Younger children will be given their own signed copy at no charge, to encourage reading and to raise funds for the elementary library. The story is illustrated by Megan Brown.
Short is never short on ideas. She has three more books she’s working on including a faith-based book centering on miracles in life she’s titled, “Are Your Miracles Red or Blue,” and another, “The Secretary” about her ancestor William Short, secretary to president Jefferson. The book is a love story about a Parisian woman he fell in love with, she said.
Yet another book she is working on focuses on another ancestor who was close friends with Abraham Lincoln.
She enjoys the creativity and challenges of crafting the written works as she embraces the journey. It is indicative of her life.
“Don’t just go through life, grow through life,” she said.
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