Leo Solstrom

I'm a writer, musician, and nature lover who lives in Northeast Iowa with my family. I love exploring the American West, especially big mountains, quiet streams, and wide-open prairies. Over the past few years, I feel as if I've reconnected with my first love: time alone in the quiet stillness of nature to think, walk, listen, write, and dream. It's in those times apart, away from normal life, where I feel the most at peace inside, the most connected to life, and the closest to the divine.

This past year, I've been doing a lot of writing, mostly about my favorite place in all the world: the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Northern Minnesota. The result has been my first novel, "Northern Lights," along with a new collection of songs too. The book captures the essence of life in the Boundary Waters, and it's based on my experiences up there on the lakes as a canoe guide. Although it's a work of fiction, it was inspired by many aspects of my life, especially who I was when I was a college student so many years ago. Of course, it includes some personal reflections on life, love, beauty, faith, kindness, grace, and more.

As I just mentioned, I've written some songs too. They go along with the storyline of the book. The music is mostly quiet and reflective, but it makes me happy, so I went ahead and did it ... just for fun. It's available at my website or on Spotify, iTunes, etc.

I invite you to check out the book and the music too. If it's not really your thing, that's fine. I'll be okay. I'll just keep writing, singing, listening, and dreaming as I've always done. I hope you will too.

Northern Lights

Young Adult, Action Adventure, Contemporary Romance

When a college student from Iowa gets his dream job at a wilderness adventure camp in Northern Minnesota, he sets out on a journey that will lead him far away from everything he’s ever known. As he wrestles with the challenges of being an inexperienced guide in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, his two best friends end up being a rough and tumble teenager from Chicago and an exotic foreign exchange student from New Zealand.

When the three friends paddle away on a trip deep into the North Woods, their adventure leads to a host of personal challenges, unexpected surprises, and delicious awakenings. As they explore the beautiful lakes and forbidding forests, they share intense joys, simple pleasures, and unforgettable experiences that teach them about true friendship, young love, perseverance, and sacrifice.

Delicately wrapped in the mysteries of the stars and constellations high above, their time together overflows with warm characters, earthy humor, and honest dialogue about the more important things in life. Northern Lights will capture you in its starry web, embrace you for a season, and then release you to freely dream of the endless possibilities in your own life and the lives of those you love.