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Ellen Airgood

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://ellenairgood.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction

Member Since

March 2019

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I grew up on a small farm, the youngest of four children. My father was a blacksmith and a schoolteacher. For the last nineteen years I’ve been a waitress in Grand Marais, Michigan. I was twenty-five when I came to this tiny, Lake Superior town, on a camping trip with my sister, and fell in love with the man who made my cheese sandwich and chocolate malt at the local diner. We met, exchanged assessing, almost challenging gazes, and six months later we got married. I told my sister we would, on the way back to our campsite that first day. “You’re crazy,” she said worriedly. But pretty soon she grinned, shook her head, started getting into the spirit of it. “Well,” she said. “This is going to be interesting.” And it has been.

I’ve never been s I grew up on a small farm, the youngest of four children. My father was a blacksmith and a schoolteacher. For the last nineteen years I’ve been a waitress in Grand Marais, Michigan. I was twenty-five when I came to this tiny, Lake Superior town, on a camping trip with my sister, and fell in love with the man who made my cheese sandwich and chocolate malt at the local diner. We met, exchanged assessing, almost challenging gazes, and six months later we got married. I told my sister we would, on the way back to our campsite that first day. “You’re crazy,” she said worriedly. But pretty soon she grinned, shook her head, started getting into the spirit of it. “Well,” she said. “This is going to be interesting.” And it has been.

I’ve never been sorry. My husband Rick and I run a diner together, a job which is always consuming, often punishing, and hugely fulfilling. Most of what I know about maturity and compassion, not to mention story, I’ve learned from waiting tables. We work eighty to a hundred hours a week together almost year around, and one way or another we’ve faced the constant barrage of setbacks and frustrations and equipment failures that restaurant work is, the high stress and long hours. There is so much satisfaction in it, though: the goodness of hard work, the joy of feeding people a meal they love, the delight of long friendships, the pride in a job well done. All kinds of people come here from all kinds of places, and we get to meet them, to hear their stories, and pretty often we get to make them happy for the time that they are here.

This is the route I took to becoming a writer. I didn’t get an MFA or study writing in school. I could have learned about life anywhere, but fate brought me here, to the end of the earth and a tiny town that time forgot. My customers have given me good practice as a storyteller, too. It’s a matter of survival. If I can entertain people, draw them over to my side, they won’t murder me when I’m the only waitress of the floor and the cook is swamped and the wait is long and we’re out of silverware and I didn’t know the fish was gone when I took their order. ...more

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Ellen Airgood’s books

Average rating: 3.69 · 8,418 ratings · 1,471 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	South of Superior 3.59 avg rating — 4,258 ratings — published 2011 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tin Camp Road 3.60 avg rating — 2,110 ratings — published 2021 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Prairie Evers 3.98 avg rating — 1,554 ratings — published 2012 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Education of Ivy Blake 4.01 avg rating — 449 ratings — published 2015 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works by Ron Riekki (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Sharon Dilworth (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Janice Repka (Contributor) 3.70 avg rating — 43 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bob Seger's House and Other Stories (Made in Michigan Writer Series) by Michael Delp (Contributor), Charles Baxter (Foreword), Ellen Airgood (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.39 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Ellen Airgood's Blog

A Secret

I’m a sucker for writing supplies. Journals, pens, colored pencils, typewriters, methods (and as of three weeks ago, washi tape): bring it all on. Some things take, others fade, but all keep me afloat at least for a while. Often during book talks, people ask about my writing process and wonder what advice I’d offer [...]

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Published on March 05, 2020 09:45

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Ellen is Currently Reading

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The Last Layer of the Ocean Kayaking through Love and Loss on Alaska's Wild Coast

by Mary Emerick (Goodreads Author)

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Sep 21, 2021 05:19AM

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How to Cook a Wolf

by M.F.K. Fisher

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Apr 14, 2021 10:48AM

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A Writer's Time

by Kenneth Atchity (Goodreads Author)

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Jun 20, 2020 05:15AM

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Ellen Airgood has read Wild Seed (Patternmaster, #1) by Octavia E. Butler	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Ellen Airgood entered a giveaway Kyra, Just for Today by Sara Zarr (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Quotes by Ellen Airgood (?)

“It was more that he did better being busy, keeping to a routine. It helped hold the black dogs of thought at bay. Also he had learned that a person could be happy with having done the best they could under the circumstances. It didn't always have to be bright and shiny and impressive to the outside observer.”
― Ellen Airgood, South of Superior

tags: depression, meaningful-work

5 likes

“You know, people thought it was so sad that I gave up so much to take care of Emmy, but it wasn't sad. It was love, it was life.”
― Ellen Airgood

tags: family, love

3 likes

“The basket would never make her famous or end up in a museum. The best part of it was the making of it, sitting at the table weaving while outside the lake crashed into shore and the seagulls roosted somewhere for the night and two women stopped for a moment to watch.”
― Ellen Airgood, South of Superior

tags: art, creativity, inspiration

3 likes

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