performing in dozens of shows from Oregon to Maine. After founding and running a professional Equity theater for seven years, Classon earned her MBA and began working in international business. She also holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of New Mexico and has written a memoir and over six hundred columns.
In her 600-word weekly column, The Postscript, Classon writes about the transformative power of optimism and how to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. She champions the idea that it's never too late to reinvent our lives in unexpected and fulfilling ways. She performs a live show based on her writing—with lots of sequins. With her husband, Peter, and former street cat Felix, Classon splits her time between St. Paul, Minnesota, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her debut novel, Loon Point, and reported the following:
I would be very happy if a reader were to open to page 69. While it might not be the most defining moment of the book, it offers a great glimpse into the character of Wendell and, without Wendell, there would be no story to tell.Visit Carrie Classon's website.
In the scene, Wendell is introduced to the Chickadee Cabin, a log cabin in a resort on the shore of a northern Minnesota lake. It is offered to him as a place to live after the roof of his house collapses in a late March snowstorm. Wendell is rescued, somewhat unwillingly, from his ruined home and taken to the Chickadee Cabin until a new home can be found.
Wendell surveys the neat and well-maintained cabin, decorated in a chickadee theme, and sees none of it: not the comfort of the cabin, nor the beauty of its environment, and certainly not the generosity of the people who offered him a place to live when he had nowhere to go. Wendell surveys the cabin despondently and thinks, “So. This is what it has come to.”
Wendell came into being after I read a Facebook post quoting from my weekly syndicated column, The Postscript. The post was written by someone I knew named Wally, and it was 1200 words of criticism concerning my excess of optimism—or idealism as the writer, Wally, would describe it.
He went on to say how my brand of optimism caused people to ignore or dismiss natural disasters and mass shootings and could only be maintained by people who kept themselves deliberately ignorant. He finished the piece with a touch of regret that he was unable to maintain this level of stupidity, as he was sure it would make his life more pleasant.
I was hurt, angry, and intrigued—in that order—for about 48 hours.
I was hurt because I was genuinely concerned that I was seen as someone who lacked empathy, but I concluded that a concerted effort to see the good in the world made me far more empathetic than I would otherwise be.
I was angry that Wally would say such unkind things about my character after quoting me by name.
But finally, I was intrigued by his point of view and wondered what, if anything, would cause a person who believed what Wally believed to change his mind.
And Wendell was born.
--Marshal Zeringue
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