Ice Flight review…

Just reread this review and thought I’d share it.


Jane Susann MacCarter

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel that satisfies on many enjoyable levels

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2022

Verified Purchase

It’s both comforting and inspiring to read ICE FLIGHT, a book where the Cool Guys turn out to be the Science Nerds (and not the Snarky Characters, as they are in too many nihilistic novels). This novel kept me reading and reading to its highly satisfying and inspiring conclusion!

I’m truly LOVING the fascinating science factoids throughout this book… the many new words (new to me, anyway) like sastrugi, jumbo ittai, Russell’s Gletcher (a glacier that advances 82 feet a YEAR, astonishing and downright frightening in many ways)… as well as new fun facts like the literal ‘inner heating’ of a very cold glacier… and the 10 polar bears who trapped a group of scientists in Russia for two weeks (true story, I’m assuming?) 

Glad to hear a corroboration of my own opinion about black bears, that they’ve become more like juvenile delinquents these days due to many factors.  (I remember hearing, back in my younger days: “Oh, don’t worry about coming upon black bears in the woods, because they are more afraid of YOU than you are of them.”  But not so anymore…. )

I didn’t know that immersion in ice could cause human mummification either…. well, except for the Ice Man of northern Italy, found along a high alpine ridge where old snow had melted away. It was very poignant reading about the child sacrifices among the Inca in ancient days (the capachocha)… also, very fun reading about ‘swing’ dogs and ‘wheel’ dogs…

I’m also glad to read the most BALANCED view of climate change I’ve seen in ages… so very refreshing to read and agree with.

ICE FLIGHT is a novel that satisfies on many enjoyable levels. Try it, you’ll definitely enjoy it, and feel good about Life (and yourself) at its conclusion.

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BOO! Happy Halloween

Haunt your holiday with a new book. Join Casey and her friends when Kit decides to draw down the moon in the Souls On Board series by Susan Egner. Find it on Amazon or her website, www.egnerink.com

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Burial Mounds

There were once over 50 burial mounds in St. Paul before the construction of the city destroyed most of them. Seven have been preserved. There’s a large burial mound in the northern part of Minnesota. It’s said that it was once as high as a two-story building. Ignorance and greed caused it to be ransacked and partially destroyed. In some of my research, I read that over 300 bodies have been returned to their original burial place. What’s fascinating is that burial mounds can be found all over the world. Some are thirty-eight miles long, and others are built as an effigy to a muskrat, bear, or something else; this is without backhoes and tractors, folks.

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Getting lost in the National Forests

You may be surprised to read that over three thousand people get lost yearly in our National Forests, and you may be relieved to hear that most are found. Those unharmed are called Saves. Then others are found, injured, or deceased by natural causes; heart attack, fatal injury from a fall, etc. But, at the end of calculations, say in the year 2014 for instance, over 700 were still missing. I haven’t seen anything on the news; have you?

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You can make a mask of your whole body

In researching the Laurel people, I found that they made burial masks for their deceased. Legend has it that the masks helped them find their spiritual self. Seems like the dark ages? Not true; consider that Abe Lincoln, Stalin, Dillinger, and even a beheaded queen had burial masks. Eek, was the head still attached? And you can, too. People today can make burial asks of their faces, or whole bodies, way before death. Kind of like Roy Rodgers’ Trigger, except you, won’t have to stuff it.

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The Laurel People

In writing my most recent book, I went down a number of rabbit holes in my research. My story takes place in northern Minnesota, by Lake Superior and Superior National Forest. In looking for myths and legends related to the indigenous people of the area, I discovered the Laurel People, who preceded all others.

After I had completed the book, I read an article on the Internet about a group of Colorado-based scientists who traveled to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (basically the same area) and discovered cooking vessels, that when carbon-dated, date back to the Laurel People. How exciting is that!

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Terry Pratchett writes…


“Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.”

Everything I see or hear makes me ask, why? What do I think about that? How do I relate?

I relate by writing a story that answers the question for me. The story always tells itself.

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Sue Grafton quote

I love Sue Grafton’s reason: “I write because it’s all I know how to do. Writing is my anchor and my purpose. My life is informed by writing, whether the work is going well or I’m stuck in the hell of writer’s block, which I’m happy to report only occurs about once a day…”

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Why I write fiction

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

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Writing about my father

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.

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