Shakopee Author Catches Ancestral Spirit in First Novel

If it wasn’t for a great aunt he never knew, Shakopee resident Lyle Scott Lee might not have completed his first novel.

“She was the motivation I needed to push me,” he said about completing “The Spirit of Nora,” which was published in late November.

Indeed, what little Lee knows of his great aunt Nora Anderson’s story is intriguing. During the early 20th century, Anderson, who grew up in Thief River Falls, MN, became a teacher and then earned a nursing certificate, allowing her to serve in France during World War I. Two months after Armistice Day, on Nov. 11, 1918, and while still in France, she succumbed to the Spanish Flu. She is buried in France, Lee said.

While he knows little more of her story than that, it gave him something to build on.

“I created a what-if scenario—what if she hadn’t died?” he said.

The result is a story that takes readers to New York, Paris and Russia with the fiercely independent Nora, who spends much of the novel searching for redemption after a tragedy involving her friend. Nora becomes wrapped up in the permissive lifestyle of French artists until she learns of the communal setting established on the estate of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.

The novel has a spiritual tone, as well, and Lee says Nora becomes more spiritual as her journey eventually leads her back to Minnesota.

“Nora comes in contact with all these temptations,” Lee said. “I wanted to make her character flawed, but trying to do her best.”

Lee embarked on the book in 2010 after taking a class in Shakopee on novel writing, but he also had 25 years of practice in writing short stories.

“I’ve read for so many years and thought, 'I think I could write a story like that,'” he said.

Lee’s novel took about six months to write—mostly mornings and evenings when he wasn’t at work as a data specialist at Supervalu. He spent some of that time researching French and Russian language and making sure events in the novel were chronologically accurate.

Once he had it finished, Lee didn't want to shop the book around to agents. Instead, he found Tate Publishing, which Lee described as a cross between a traditional and self-publisher.

“I didn’t want to sit around waiting for agents to reject me,” he said.

The book has generated positive nods since it came out in November. One reviewer on Amazon.com, Marie Landry, gave the book four stars out of five and described Nora as “very real—relatable, amusing, and at times frustrating.” Landry also noted enjoying following Nora on her journey because she was so relatable, and that she learned some things about France and Russia and what life was like before and during World War I.

“The reviews make me feel like I touched all the bases and wrote a good story,” Lee said.

Lee is signing copies of the book from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, at Dunn Bros Coffee in Eden Prairie. To order “The Spirit of Nora,” visit Tate Publishing.

Of course, one of most important reviews came from his mother, for whom he said he wrote the book.

“She wants to read it again,” he said. “Everything from here is icing on the cake.”