Minnesota with Transplant Debbie Kump

Minnesota may be known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” but the actual number is closer to 12,000, providing more lake and river shoreline than the states of California, Florida, and Hawaii combined. Birthplace of the mighty Mississippi River and bordering Lake Superior—the largest fresh-water lake in the world by surface area—it’s little wonder that the sport of water skiing originated here in Minnesota in 1922 by 18-year-old Ralph Samuelson who proposed if you could ski on snow, then you should be able to ski on water as well.

To pass our long, grueling winter months where temperatures plunge to –20ºF or below and snow often blankets the ground for more than half the year, many Minnesotans live and breathe hockey or flock to one of the largest indoor malls in the United States, The Mall of America, containing an entire amusement park in its center. Yet Minnesotans enjoy engaging in lesser-known sports like broomball (originally played on frozen lakes with an orange leather ball and brooms dipped in a coat of rubber) and turkey bowling (where a flooded lane carved through the snowbanks provides an excellent bowling alley for frozen supermarket poultry).

Lying at the northernmost tip of Tornado Alley, summers are known for equally wild weather including golf ball-sized hail, swirling clouds in angry shades of olive green, and straight-line winds that easily twist mature trees like strands of licorice. Minnesota’s exciting—and often unpredictable—weather regularly provides the inspiration for my writing as evident in my Whiskey Creek Press Young Adult Romance, 

Exiled to the North.

 Regardless of the time of year, a transplant like me has found there is much to see and do here in Minnesota.

As a teen, I enjoyed writing and illustrating my own books. I’d spend hours pounding away at the keys of my mother’s typewriter, dreaming of one day getting published. I put those dreams on hold to pursue my other love: teaching.

After graduating from Cornell University with degrees in Biology and Education, I taught middle and high school science in Maui, Seattle, and the Twin Cities and worked as a marine naturalist aboard a whale watch and snorkel cruise.

When my husband and I decided to start a family in Minnesota, I resigned from my teaching job with the intent of returning to the classroom when our youngest son entered first grade. Yet a genetic autoimmune disease called Iritis flared in my eye following the birth of our first son. To cope, I regularly wear mountaineering glacier glasses and a hat, even when indoors.

I viewed this as a new opportunity to turn my childhood dream of writing into a reality. When I’m not working on my next novel, I enjoy coaching soccer, hockey, lacrosse, and baseball and dog sledding with our three Siberian huskies.

For more information, please visit Debbie’s website:

http://sites.google.com/site/debbiekumpbooks/

(Pictures provided by Author)