by Nikki Rajala | Oct 4, 2018 | Featured
Bon jour! (“Good day” in French) Have you wondered what the foreign words in “Waters Like the Sky” or “Treacherous Waters” sound like as you’re reading about the adventures and mishaps of a brigade of fur traders in the 1800s? If so, now you can check out the...
by Nikki Rajala | Sep 14, 2018 | Featured
A few days back I blogged about red voyageur sashes, though they came in many colors — the sash was the most defining piece of a voyageur’s apparel. Wearing a bright sash was a useful and stylish part of voyageur clothing. In Chapter 2 of “Treacherous Waters,”...
by Nikki Rajala | Jul 14, 2018 | Featured
The March-April 2018 issue of the Minnesota Conservation “Volunteer” magazine had a surprising article in “Crunch Goes the Cricket” — insects as a potential, sustainable and nutritious food source. They are packed with protein. (If only my starving voyageur characters...
by Nikki Rajala | May 19, 2018 | Featured
It’s in my blood—I’m descended from voyageurs. Mom found listings of a dozen engagés, or canoemen, through genealogy research into her French-Canadian roots. My grandfather, a younger son of a younger son of a voyageur, told of his connection: His great...
by Nikki Rajala | Apr 14, 2018 | Featured
My sister Kris visited Winnipeg last year and presented me with this gift card from the flagship Hudson’s Bay Company store. Love the trademark stripes — and carrying it around. Then I realized, “How apt!” Because the fur trade popularized the system of commercial...
by Nikki Rajala | Feb 10, 2018 | Featured
I have a few more thoughts for my characters to get wild protein (from the U.S. Army Survival Manual): All trails lead to water. Trails may be marked with animal droppings and trampled terrain. Birds: Flocks of birds will circle over waterholes. Some birds fly to...
