Blog Posts by Susan Egner

Inspirations, thoughts by Minnesota author and flight attendant

Love this definition by Neil Gaiman:

“Fiction gives us empathy; it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gift of seeing people through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” Neil Gaiman

My father was born in 1909 and was in a military school from 1914 until 1921. During that time, with no parents to encourage or explain, such things as the Spanish flu, World War I, prohibition, and the Great Depression occurred. Can you imagine? But then I started thinking about my own life, born at the end of World War II, lived through the Korean War, the Viet Nam War, multiple wars in the Middle East, the recession of 2008, and now the Covid19 pandemic. But, also the invention of television, the first landings on the moon, the invention of television, computers, and all the Internet stuff. It’s an interesting parallel.

In researching information to build one of my characters in “North Star Tribe,” I stumbled across the subject of mycology and a fascinating scientist by the name of Paul Stamets. You may have seen characters named after him in the current television series of “Star Trek” and “Hannibal.” He has a movie on Netflix called “Fantastic Fungi.https://www.google.com/search?he studyq=fantastic+fungi+netflix&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS732US732&oq=fntastic+gungi%3D&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i13i30l9

Watch it. You’ll be amazed. For those who are not familiar with the word mycology, it’s the study of fungi which includes, yeast, mold, truffles, and mushrooms. There are many more ways to use mushrooms besides sauteed on a steak.