Contemporary Romance, Romantic Drama, Women’s Fiction
Date Published: 11-21-2025
A pandemic is spreading across the globe. A national lockdown looms in the United States. A Southern journalist sees a chance to protect her health and jumpstart her career by escaping north to a Minnesota wilderness. Feisty and wary of entanglement, she piques the interest of a bored Native American rock star on his way home.
Robby Song’s career may be on hold, but Grace Wheeler is on a mission to build hers. To Robby, she’s an intriguing challenge. To Grace, he’s a distraction she’s not ready to handle. But the brutal Northwoods winter is coming. Grace flees back south . . . to soul-searching isolation and a puzzling middle-of-the-night call.
Interview with Jan Merritt
Could you tell us about any research trips you took for this story? Which places did you visit, and what made them essential to your writing?
I spent many weeks over the course of several years in northern Minnesota, specifically on Gunflint Lake off the Gunflint Trail, in Grand Marais, on the North Shore of Lake Superior, in Pequot Lakes, in Duluth, and on the Fond du Lac Reservation. I lived on a barrier island near Charleston, SC for 42 years. In Charleston, I have attended multiple Wallflowers’ concerts, one at the Art Deco Riviera Theatre. Those visits enabled me to describe settings effectively, hear accents, touch rocks, walk on sand, eat pie, paddle canoes…
What's the strangest thing you've ever had to research online for your book?
Rough sex
What research (history, mythology, science) goes into your world-building?
(for STRINGS)
Family/iron ore mining history
Gunflint Trail history
Ojibwe culture
BWCA environmental/political issues
Sulfide-ore copper mining/Antofagasta
Covid
Psychotherapy
Rock music industry
Have any of the people you've known, past or present, left a lasting impression on your writing journey? If so, we'd love to hear about a memorable experience that stands out to you.
I started an email correspondence with the director of the Fond Du Lac Cultural Center/Museum about the same time I started writing STRINGS. My dad’s family was from Duluth and had had generations of contact with the Ojibwe in that area, but I was born and have always lived in coastal SC. The director kindly agreed to answer questions as they came up about Ojibwe thinking and practices, at one point saying something like we are all humans, and everyone’s feelings are universal — most people forget that when they do negative actions. Typically wise and simple.
Do you write in the same genre all the time?
STRINGS is my first book, and it’s contemporary romantic drama and so is the next one, but the third has a definite historical element.
If so, have you ever consider writing in another one?
When I was in my twenties, I wrote short stories, but none submitted.
Which character, supernatural or human, do you enjoy writing the most and why?
People fascinate me, especially their relationships. I don’t think of myself as creating any character though. They’re already in my head…doing what they do…saying what they say. I just write it all out for them…like channeling. I almost feel guilty. Like I’m cheating, except sometimes it’s so hard or sad, even painful.
I started it because I thought if I wrote it all out, they’d be quiet and I could get sleep. Didn’t work.
Jan lives on the coast of South Carolina with strong ties to northern Minnesota. Growing up was filled with rich but conflicting narratives. Her dad told stories about his pioneering Minnesota family, egalitarian values, and the importance of self-reliance. They made annual trips to family cabins on a lake north of Duluth. But in her friends’ homes back in Charleston, she was immersed in plantation lore, tales of the Confederacy, and exclusive traditions of a social set that she was not born into. She is married to a musician who is also a mental health therapist. They have three children.
https://mybook.to/STRINGSJanMerritt
