Readers and writers: St. Paul poet celebrates going viral and new Zelda Fitzgerald book

“It’s all about St. Paul, Baby. It’s 651 all the way.”

An ebullient Danny Klecko, never one to hold back his emotions, was jazzed that his poem “45 Minutes in Central Park” went viral after it was published last Sunday in the New York Times’ Metropolitan Diary feature. The poem isn’t about St. Paul; it’s about him watching a woman with an umbrella give comfort to “a weeping man in the grip of some battle” in New York’s Central Park.

But setting doesn’t matter to Master Bread Baker and poet Klecko. Anything he writes he credits to St. Paul, making him this city’s biggest booster. (That’s why he proudly references 651 — St. Paul’s area code.).

Monday morning, the Times’ editor called again to ask Klecko if he had any more poems, saying that “45 Minutes in Central Park” was “doing very well” on the internet.

“Now I’ve been in the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post and the New York Times,” Klecko says in his not-modest way.

That’s the first bit of news from Klecko Nation. Second, Klecko is partnering with St. Paul Public Library to carry on his passion — renewing interest in St. Paul-born F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. A born impresario, Klecko will do four public events focused on Fitzgerald’s short stories. The first will be at 6:30 p.m. April 13 at Friedli Gallery on West Seventh Street, focusing on one of Fitzgerald’s most popular stories, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair.”

“My programs about Fitzgerald will not be based in academia,” Klecko says. “I prefer bull—- and gossip. And I invite everyone — Black people, poor people, queers, those with tattoos. For younger people we’ll show the relevance of Fitzgerald’s writing to our contemporary society. Fitzgerald’s novels are well-known, but many don’t realize it was short stories that made money for him to send his daughter to private schools and pay for his wife’s frequent stays at mental hospitals.”

Which brings us to the third Big Thing in Klecko’s life — introduction of his new poetry collection, “Zelda’s Bed,” in Asheville, N.C., when Asheville’s Aurora Studio and Gallery presents Zelda Fitzgerald Week, commemorating the 75th anniversary of her death on March 10, 1948, in a fire in Highland Hospital. The mental institution in Asheville no longer exists.

Aurora Studio and Gallery hosts special events highlighting Zelda as she represents the spirit of an artist. “Like the artists who partake in Aurora Studio, her life was affected by trauma, mental health issues and hospitalizations,” says their website. “She persevered, chronicling her life through her art.”

On March 10 Klecko will be a special Zelda Week guest when he introduces “Zelda’s Bed,” partly inspired by his visit to Zelda’s birthplace, Montgomery, Ala., last August when he stayed in her elegantl -restored bedroom in the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum and Airbnb.

While Klecko was in Alabama he introduced “The Dead Fitzgeralds,” first in his trilogy based on the Fitzgeralds and how they were entwined with St. Paul.

He describes “Zelda’s Bed,” second in the trilogy, as “soft and sweet, very Kafka, about going to the South, being intimidated by the heat and enjoying their Sothern hospitality.”

When Klecko went to the South he had a new understanding of Zelda, for whom he has deep respect. “Zelda is so important. To understand Scott Fitzgerald you have to understand his partner from the heart of Dixie,” Klecko says. “I am glad to be her ambassador.”

He defends Zelda against stories about how, during her months living in St. Paul, she disliked Northern women and kept to herself during her pregnancy.

“It’s true she was not as friendly as passive-aggressive Minnesotans,” Klecko says. “I think she also struggled with post-partum depression after the birth of daughter Scottie (October 1921). I think that’s why Scott staged the Bad Luck Ball at the University Club on Jan. 13, 1922. (The ball, which included a fake newspaper making fun of the event, drew all of St. Paul society and the Fitzgeralds were the stars of the evening. In the fall they left St. Paul, never to return.)

When Klecko returns from Asheville he’ll go back to work as production manager of Grandma’s Bakery in White Bear Lake and finish writing the last of his Fitzgerald trilogy. He’ll work in his Summit Avenue mansion catty-corner from the building where Scott Fitzgerald was born. All his books are published by St. Paul-based Paris Morning Publications.

“The Devil You Know”: by P.J. Tracy (Minotaur books, $27.99)

Detective Margaret Nolan and Sam Easton, half of whose face was melted by a bomb explosion in Afghanistan, are back in this Minnesota author’s third novel set in Los Angeles and surrounding cities. Nolan, a tall Scandinavian who doesn’t much like people, and Sam, who is putting his life back together, were introduced in “Deep Into the Dark,” followed by “Desolation Canyon,” given a starred review by Publishers Weekly.

P.J. Tracy is the pen name of Traci Lambrecht, familiar to thriller readers because she wrote eight of them with her mother, P.J. Lambrecht, featuring the Monkee Wrench gang who helped law enforcement using their computer skills. After P.J. died Traci wrote two more books about the Monkee Wrench geniuses.

Traci has kept the pen name she shared with her mother for the new series, which draws on her knowledge of the City of Angels, where she lived for 10 years.

In “The Devil You Know,” Nolan and her partner, Remy, are involved in the cut-throat world of finance and entertainment as they investigate the death of beloved actor Evan Hobbes, whose body is found in the rubble of a Malibu rockslide a day after an incriminating, fake video ruins his career. Suicide? Murder? Enter Hobbes’ agent, who has plenty of his own problems, especially with women. The cast is made up of those who have made it in show business and wannabees.

Readers who enjoy police procedurals with involving characters and without psychopaths will enjoy the twists and turns in this story.

Library Journal awarded “The Devil You Know” a starred review (“a must read for mystery lovers”). And Publishers Weekly praised the book’s “Great atmosphere, vivid characters, and an intricate fair play plot…a winner.”).

“Rainbow Rock”: by Dan Jorgensen (Speaking Volumes LLC, hardcover $24.95, paperback $17.95)

If you want a taut thriller that doesn’t waste a word, this is the one for you. Set over three days in the winter of 1955, it begins with Frank Silver Shore trying to wake up his prone friend, Gene Darveaux, dying of a gunshot wound Gene mutters something about rainbows and hidden money, then expires. Frank, who is confused, sees a police car and two private vehicles driving into the parking lot of the local cafe. Being a young Native American who can be accused of anything, Frank doesn’t want anyone to see him near his friend’s body.

With someone shooting at him, Frank dives across train tracks with a train approaching. He gets away from the grain elevators where Gene died and makes his way to Lakota lawman Al Twocrow, who is in his late 70s and as sharp as anyone half his age. Twocrow has taken under his wing Maria Tager, a bold young reporter at the local newspaper.

The reader learns in early chapters that the bad guys are the sheriff and his two pals, running drugs in the terrain around the Black Hills. They’re looking for a lot of money that was in a bag Gene took with him when he realized he was driving for a drug operation and escaped. The bag is supposed to be hidden under Rainbow Rock. But neither Frank nor Twocrow knows where that is. As the sheriff realizes Twocrow and the two young people are getting close to the truth, danger ramps up and Maria is backed into such a tight corner she risks her life to escape.

There’s interesting writing here about the famous Fairbourne Agate fields and the Black Hills, sacred to the Lakota Sioux.

Jorgensen lives in Colorado but grew up in South Dakota. This is his ninth book, after writing many hundreds of news and sports articles and feature stories as journalist and in public relations.

“Fields Apart”: by J.N. Kelly (Rowe Publishing, $14.99)

Millie Bauer is 14 and the envy of the boys in her Wisconsin town because she can pitch a baseball better than any of them, just like her brother, George, who’s in the military in World War II. When Millie gets a big box with a new mitt she can’t believe it came from George, who arranged for a friend to drop it off. Then, she’s alone at home when a telegram comes saying her brother is missing in action in Italy. Not wanting to upset her busy mother, she keeps the secret to herself.

Millie’s mom, meanwhile, spends almost every hour caring for wounded soldiers. But she’s proud of every newspaper story that credits Millie as a pitching hero.

Talent does Millie no good when Paul, once her friend, now bullies her. His dad sponsors the team, and when Paul wants Millie’s position, even though he isn’t qualified, she’s bumped off the mound. Even the coach, who is a family friend, can’t help her. So, she gets on the train without telling her mother, and heads to try-outs for the all-American Girls League.

Turns out both Millie and her mother are hiding secrets that are a lot bigger than baseball in this middle-grade novel that explores the homefront during war, dealing with unfairness, and family love.