Colson's first book is released

In the summer of 1995, I worked a three month internship at The Warroad Pioneer, which I'm sorry to say has since ceased operation. This was the first professional newspaper that I worked for in my career, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had only worked at Bemidji State University's newspaper for about a year and half before landing the internship. At The Pioneer I gained experience in sports, feature, beat and government reporting. I designed pages, took and developed photographs and was responsible for community relations. The best part is that I remain friends with the owners nearly 30 years later.

July 11, 1995

By Devlyn Brooks

Some people say that this northern most part of Minnesota breeds a certain bit of free-spiritedness in its inhabitants. If that is true, maybe the Northwest Angle is responsible for spawning the career of one more writer.

Constance Colson of the Northwest Angle is celebrating the release of her first book "Cherish" by the publisher Questar/Multhonah/Palisades.

Colson, whose parents own Jake's Resort on the Angle, said that she has always wanted to be a writer, and it has been a long, winding trek to reach this goal.

"In my own words," Colson said, "I would say (the book) is a story of healing. It's about having the God given ability to open up and try again ... to move through pain again."

Colson was born in the Cities and then attended elementary school part-time in the Cities and also attended part-time at the one-room school at the Angle. Her family then moved to the Angle permanently, and she attended high school part-time at Warroad and part-time once again at the Angle.

Colson graduated from Warroad and then attended college at the University of Minnesota. She graduated as an honor student with a degree in English writing.

"I've always wanted to write," Colson said. However, in college she was first enrolled as a pre-med student, which just didn't suit her, she said.

"It was just such a struggle," she said. "So, I decided this probably wasn't the place for me."

She said that she knew that the she wanted to write. So she explored both the possibilities of journalistic and English writing.

"I walked into the journalism department and there were all these lights, and there was all this glitz and glamour," she said. "Then, I walked into the English Department and there was people sleeping, and it was dark and drab. I said, 'This is me.'"

The U of M was also where she met her husband. She said that she was not expecting this turn in her life because she had always envisioned herself too busy for men.

"I had always thought that I was going to own two things," she said, "a pencil to write with and a jet so I could zoom all over the world and report."

She graduated with her degree and landed a job teaching at a private Christian school here in Warroad.

"I told myself that I was married and back in Warroad teaching," she said. "I wondered, 'What am I doing? I'm right back where I started from.'"

She said that the teaching was something she really enjoyed, and it made her wonder what exactly she wanted to do. Enjoying teaching made her question whether writing was really what she wanted to do.

Colson and her husband started looking for teaching positions elsewhere, and she said that they really didn't have any problems because there were private school openings all around the country. Whereas, she said, if she would have been a public school teacher, she probably would have had a hard time finding a job.

Their teaching careers took them to southern California, where they started teaching in another private school.

While she was in California, however, she also worked as a reporter and editor of a daily newspaper. She said that it was fascinating work and she enjoyed the variety, but when they promoted her to being an editor, she said, that it wasn't the same. The job became too time consuming and, she said, that she started not to enjoy it anymore. She said she knew it was time to get out.

She and her husband then returned to Minnesota because he wanted to get an elementary degree in teaching. She said that he had made up his mind that that was what he wanted to do.

On the other hand, she still had no idea what she was going to do.

"I thought maybe I'd end up cleaning toilets," she said. "My parents own a resort, and I had become very adept at cleaning."

She decided to try teaching once again and approached the head of the English Department at Mankato State University where her husband was attending school. The department chair offered her a job teaching as a graduate assistant, which meant she could earn her master's degree in the meantime.

"Instead of cleaning toilets, I got to teach," she said. She also said that things couldn't have worked out better because she received excellent training by teaching how to write.

After receiving her master's degree, she and her husband moved back to the Angle, and this is when she decided she was going to write.

"I just sat down at the computer and started writing," she said. "I had no idea I was going to write a novel. Short stories are always what I had wanted to write, but there wasn't a market for them."

Several months later she had written her first book. However, her trials and tribulations didn't end there. She had to try and sell the book to a publisher.

She sent out a packet of information to different publishers that included about three chapters of her book, information about the plot and character definitions, and hoped for an answer.

She received an answer from an editor that worked at her current publishing company, asking her if she could turn her story into a romance.

She wrote the editor back telling them that her book was not a romance. The editor wanted to see it anyway, and agreed with Colson that it was not written to be romance.

Colson then suggested to the editor that maybe she should just write a new book. The editor liked the idea.

"It is just so much easier to start over than to go back and fix a book," Colson said.

She then wrote the book which has now been published, and the same company has the option to buy her next two books she is writing also. She said that she is just putting the finishing touches on her second book. The third one, she said, will be a book about a roving reporter and will be set in southern California.

Colson said that she now spends anywhere from three to eight hours a day writing. When she first started writing, she would sometimes work 12 hours a day, leaving her drained afterward.

Another change for Colson has been the fact that the publishing business works on fast deadlines.

"I like to write slow," she said. "That's not how the publishing business works. AS I become more established as a writer, I would like to take more time with my writing," she added.

The current book is set on a fictional island that lies in the Northwest Angle, but she said that there are real places mentioned in the book. The book does mention Warroad, she said.

The books is available at Heppners Etc. or also at a Book Release Party that the Friends of the Warroad Library will be hosting Thursday, July 13, at 7 p.m. at the Public Library.

Although Questar has the options to buy her next two books, she said she doesn't know if they will. So, she said, that she is enjoying every minute of this first book.

"I don't know if I'll ever sell another book again," she said. "So, I'm just going to enjoy myself now. I'm just going to have a lot of faith."