Candace Simar

Candace Simar writes historical fiction rooted in Minnesota and North Dakota, drawing on regional archives, Scandinavian immigrant history, and family memory. Escape To Fort Abercrombie returns to the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862 through three children attempting to reach the frontier fort after their family is attacked. Five Star Cengage published the novel in 2018. It is a coming-of-age story with some battlefield danger. The book received a Will Rogers Gold Medallion and the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award. Simar's interest in the setting began with family history about a great-grandfather who drove a stagecoach to Fort Abercrombie. That material also informed Abercrombie Trail, the opening novel in a sequence that includes Pomme de Terre, Birdie, Blooming Prairie, and Sister Lumberjack. Her work connects fictional families with documented regional events, giving younger and general readers an entry into nineteenth-century frontier history.