2025 AUTHORS
*authors are subject to change
Rose Marie Meuwissen
a first-generation Norwegian American born and raised in Minnesota, always tries to incorporate her Norwegian heritage into her writing. After receiving a BA in Marketing from Concordia University, a Masters in Creative Writing from Hamline University soon followed. Minnesota is still where she calls home.
She has traveled around the world, including Scandinavia, but still has many places to see, enjoys attending Scandinavian events, writing conferences and is usually busy writing Christmas Poems, Minnesota Lakes and Nordic Contemporary Romances, Viking Time Travel Romances or Norwegian Traditions Children’s Books.
Visit her at www.rosemariemeuwissen.com
Gay Strandemo
Grew up in northern Minnesota and now lives just outside of Madison, Wisconsin. For twelve years she wrote, produced, and directed plays for children based on international folk tales. One of these was based on stories from the Nordic region and included an Icelandic scene.
Her research on Iceland was so fascinating that she delved deeper into the subject, incorporating Icelandic customs into family life as well as writing and illustrating the picture book The Yule Boys, which is based on the jólasveinar. Gay has finished illustrating a story written by Bryndís Víglundsdóttir titled Gudrither's Saga, which will be published in 2022.
Gay is a public librarian who schedules and writes grants for adult programming. She loves to read, draw, write, travel, study languages, and dance flamenco.
Denise Meinstad
Author Denise Devine, a USA Today bestselling author of seventeen books, has had a passion for books since the second grade when she discovered Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Her newest sweet romance series, West Loon Bay, takes place in a small tourist town poised on the shores of Lake Tremolo where the people are friendly and hard-working and there’s never a dull moment in this close-knit community of second and third-generation of Scandinavians. But everyone harbors secrets…
In the first book, Small Town Girl, Annika Nilsen has big-city dreams…At twenty-eight, she’s stuck in her hometown of West Loon Bay, Minnesota, population 397, with no boyfriend, no money, and no future.
In her historical series, Moonshine Madness, Charlotte Johnson, born and raised in Swede Hollow, is poised to escape poverty when she marries Gus LeDoux, a brewer's son. Life is good until Prohibition shuts down the brewery.
The first book, The Bootlegger's Wife, takes place in 1925 in St. Paul, Minnesota, a haven for hardened criminals—and the women who find themselves trapped in a dangerous game…
Visit her website at: https://www.deniseannettedevine.com
Lars Walker
Lars Walker is a native of Kenyon, Minnesota. His lifelong fascination with the Viking Age had him reading heavily in the field from an early age. He found his hero in Erling Skjalgsson of Sola, a Norwegian chieftain who flourished around the year 1000 and was brother-in-law to King Olaf Trygvesson. His critically praised Erling series of historical fantasy novels has extended to six books to date. Lars is also a Viking reenactor with the Viking Age Club and Society of the Sons of Norway. He has visited Norway five times, walking many of the locations he describes in his novels. In the summer of 2022 he participated in the 1,150th anniversary jubilee of the Battle of Hafrsfjord at Avaldsnes on Karmøy island and in Stavanger. He has lectured to numerous groups, as well as on ocean cruises to Norway.
Lars is also a Norwegian translator. He translated the historical book Viking Legacy by Prof. Torgrim Titlestad into English, and has worked on numerous movie and television scripts including the “Atlantic Crossing” miniseries and the films “Narvik” and “War Sailor.” He is editor of the journal of the Georg Sverdrup Society.
Lars Walker will be selling his books in the Viking encampment.
Tara Vasser
Tara Vasser lives in the frozen north in Minnesota with her wonderful husband and two rambunctious little dudes. She is an engineer during the day, a crazy mom in the afternoon and a wicked writer at night. She enjoys spending her time playing in the dirt when her gardens aren't covered in snow and listening to a wide variety of music that inspires her writing - sometimes doing both at the same time. She writes books about Viking Vampires, Contemporary Romances set in Minnesota and Choose You Adventure Fairytales. In her left-over free time, she makes chain maille, dragon and fantasy themed jewelry.
Heidi Herman
Born in the United States, Heidi cherishes the Icelandic heritage passed down from her mother. Heidi loves to travel, sharing Icelandic culture and her books. Her first works were children’s folklore, inspired by her mother’s memoirs of growing up in Iceland. The Legend of the Icelandic Yule Lads, The Guardians of Iceland and Other Icelandic Folk Tales, and The Icelandic Yule Lads Mayhem at the North Pole were followed by an Icelandic cookbook, Homestyle Icelandic Cooking for American Kitchens co-authored with her mother, Íeda Jónasdóttir Herman. The following year, in 2018, Heidi published her debut romance novel, Her Viking Heart. On With the Butter!, an inspirational guide to living a zestful life, is based on life lessons learned from her mother, who was active until her passing at the age of 94.
Renee Petersen
Renee Petersen is a teacher, first and foremost. She has been teaching theatre, reading, English, cooking, and various ages in history. Her latest foray into Historical Reenactment is in Archeo-culinary experimentation; Iron Age Scandinavian foods.
She is Danish by descent, so she decided it was time to dig into her own history. Now she spends weekends dressed as a Viking cooking for a living history group. She also creates ceramics. She’s been studying the history of Viking foods from a variety of angles including from a cooking or food vessel angle including ceramic, wood, stone, and metal. She also studies botany, archeology, biology, and surrounding cultures to find the Scandinavian food shed from 1100 years ago.
Modern Urban Viking Cooking is her first published cookbook. She hopes for many more as well as publications from her travels and research.