From Small-Town Bar to Children’s Author at 65

What if the dream you’ve been carrying for decades is still waiting for you?

Susan Lienau is 65 years young. She’s spent over 40 years running a small-town bar in northeast Iowa. She’s helped launch a community museum, serves on the city council, co-owns an Airbnb—and somewhere between raising four boys and welcoming six grandchildren, she finally decided to write the children’s book she’d imagined her entire life.

Not because it was convenient.
Not because she suddenly had “extra time.”
But because she realized… if not now, when?

In this episode, we talk about:

 • Why so many women put themselves on the back burner for years
 • The Decorah eagle story that inspired her book series
 • What happened when 123 people asked for copies
 • Navigating criticism while leading in a small town
 • Reinventing yourself in your 60s
 • The quiet courage it takes to call yourself an “author”

Susan’s story is about more than publishing a book. It’s about reclaiming creativity, trusting your ideas, and showing the next generation what’s possible when you finally say yes to yourself.

If there’s something tugging at you—a class you want to take, a business you want to start, a creative project you’ve been postponing—this conversation is your permission slip.

Because 65 is not too late.
And your dream is not too small.

Find Susan's Ruford Series on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rufordseries 

Buy Ruford Visits the Farm on Amazon: https://a.co/d/01ykayOg 

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Transcript

From Small-Town Bar to Children’s Author at 65

​[00:00:00] 

Penny Fitzgerald: Today's conversation is a beautiful reminder that it's never too late to follow the dream that's been tugging at you for years. Susan Lienau is 65 years young. She and her husband have owned a small town bar in northeast Iowa for over 40 years. She helps start a local museum. She co-owns an Airbnb.

She's on the city council and somewhere along the way she decided to finally write the children's book. She had been thinking about her [00:01:00] entire life, not because it was convenient. Not because it was the perfect time, but because she realized if not now, when this conversation is about creativity, community courage, and the quiet ways women put themselves on the back burner for years until one day they don't.

I think you're gonna love her. Here is Susan Lienau.

Susan Lienau: Good morning, Susan. Good morning.

Penny Fitzgerald: It's great to talk to you again.for my listeners who might, um, not know Susan, you have a business up in Decorah, Iowa and have written some children's books.

Yep. And we met this summer while I was up in Decorah for a golf outing. 

Susan Lienau: Yes, we did. 

Penny Fitzgerald: So fun. tell my audience a little bit about yourself and um, anything you want us to know. 

Susan Lienau: Okay. Well, um. I'm a, I'm an old lady actually. Yes, [00:02:00] I am six. You watch your mouth lady. I'm 65 years old and, uh, my whole life I've always thought I wanted to write a children's book.

And my husband and I, we own Bambinos, which is where I met Penny. And it's a little restaurant bar. We cook burgers and we serve beer and all that. And we've been there for 43 years. And, um, my whole time I was there, I thought I was only gonna be there till my youngest boy was in kindergarten and he's now 35 and I'm still there.

And, uh, my whole time I was there though, my true passion was always to write a children's book. And I used to read to, we have four sons. I used to read to them quite often when they were little and. I would always say to myself, I could have wrote that book, or I could have those pictures and I kept [00:03:00] the other little person on my shoulder would always say, but you don't do it.

So after being in the bar business for 40 years, at that time I decided I'm not getting any younger. I need to, if I'm gonna pursue this dream of mine to write a children's book, I'm gonna have to do it while I'm here. So I thought I'll just put a, I didn't know what to write about. I was gonna do an animal.

I knew that 'cause kids love animals, but my little grandson said, grandma, you should make it about a bird. They get places faster. And so, right. So I came up with the idea. I said to him, I should make it about a young eagle from Decorah. And he's like, yeah. And I go, what would I name that Eagle? And he says.

Ruford, I thought Ruford. Oh, I'm not sure if I like that name, but I couldn't think of a better name. Uh, the whole night I laid in bed. I was excited. I was finally gonna pursue. My own dream and sit down and write this children's book for my four. Now I [00:04:00] had three grandsons, so I have four boys, three grandsons at the time.

And I thought, I'm gonna show them that I'm gonna do this book and I'm gonna get it done. So I sat down, I started writing, and that it came so easy. The words just came out. It was easy when you write about people you love. So that's what I did. I got this book wrote and thought it was just gonna be for them.

And yeah, sitting there drawing some pictures. At the end of the bar, I started seeing people say, what are you doing? And I was like, well, I'm gonna write this book for my grandchildren. And they were like, can I get a copy of that? And pretty soon I had 123 names wrote down, and I thought. Maybe I need to pursue this.

Penny Fitzgerald: You were onto something. 

Susan Lienau: Here I am. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Well, let's back up just a second. For those who might be listening and don't know the history of the, the Eagles from Decorah mm-hmm. Can you talk a [00:05:00] little bit about that? 'cause that's a big thing. 

Susan Lienau: It is. Uh, there's a fish hatch near Decorah, and some eagles built a nest, a mom and dad eagle.

And so they put a camera up in the nest and they used to videotape all of the actions that went on in the camera, the feedings, the births, the egg, laying everything. And so that was streamed. All, all over the world mm-hmm. Came a really popular tourist spot for people who came to Decorah and they would wanna stop in and you could look up in the tree, you could see the big nest.

And, and so it, it's always been an exciting part of our area of the county is to have the Eagles there and the live stream and, and people to follow year after year, the young Eagles that were born. So it's been an exciting thing there. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. That's really cool. And Decorah is a pretty small town, right?

Susan Lienau: I don't remember for sure what their [00:06:00] population is. It's a few thousands though. Like Uhhuh, I'm gonna say maybe 8,000. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I remember, um, some of my friends across the country knowing about that fish hatchery and fish hatchery and the, the Eagle story, and watching the camera, especially during COVID, I think it was something really wholesome and fun to do. 

Susan Lienau: Yes, 

Penny Fitzgerald: you could get out a nice distraction. 

Susan Lienau: Mm-hmm. It was, and so I'm thinking, I think I had my first, my first book out before COVID.

Mm. Mm-hmm. But I started my second book during COVID, so it gave me mm-hmm. For free time to do my writing and drawing. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. Mm-hmm. Well, and that's, I just think it's so cool that you finally pursued your dream. You know? I mean, so, so many women that I talk to hold themselves back because they're, oh, I'm not ready, or I don't have enough time, or who would wanna listen to me?

And you know, we put all. Thoughts on our, on ourselves. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. I think we think we're not worthy enough to pursue something like [00:07:00] that. Exactly. And don't do it. Mm-hmm. And you know, then you get it done. And even after I have it done, people still come up to me. Like, just this weekend I had some people come into, uh, my business and they said something about, and you're an author.

You know, it's so hard to, to call myself that because I don't feel educated enough or I don't feel, uh, worthy enough to have that title as an author, but I am, and it still ha it still doesn't sink in that, that I did do that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: I think we just, we put ourselves on the back burner for so many years that 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.

Susan Lienau: You know, with, with our families. It was something I had, you had given me a little list of some ideas of things to write down and one of the things that I thought about was, um, you had asked what, you know, what brings me joy? Uh huh. So I sat there and that was a, that was a good question because [00:08:00] back in my early years, you know, when my husband and I were first married, I would say he brought me all my joy.

You know, it's your, oh, you're in love and it's your mm-hmm. It's you and your husband and he's, he's your joy. Then we started having children and we had four boys in five and a half years, and pretty soon your, your joy re you know, focuses a little more on your little ones. Uhhuh. They're your life and it's all you do is go to work and you come home and, you know, love your children and take care of them.

Penny Fitzgerald: Put one foot in front of the other. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. And you get really involved with them. And pretty soon they grow up, they get married and the grandchildren come. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: Then you find another new joy. So I feel like my joys have shifted as I've gotten older. And so right now I have, uh, six grandchildren and they're between the ages of eight months and 18.

And so I'm [00:09:00] busy doing little things like that. But I'm also, it's kind of funny because there's a lot of mornings where it's just back to my husband and myself again. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: Or I feel like my joy has shifted back to him. And we're at an older age in our life where we at least get to, we get up in the mornings now at the same time, and we're still working many, many hours, but we're getting up purposely to spend that 30, 40 minutes outside having our coffee.

We're watching birds like old people do, talking about whether the woodpeckers showed up this morning or the hummingbirds and. To me that that's where my joy is right now. It's, it's, it's shifted and it just, I think everybody, all women experience that in their life is just, your joy is never the same.

And yeah, of course, you know, being creative and being able to write children's book [00:10:00] is a joy too. For sure. Yeah, and I've, I've always had a very creative side to me. You can talk to just about anybody in town. Actually in the last two weeks I've just created this, I painted these three stacks of wooden pumpkins so people could stick their face in and have their picture taken cute with all cornstalks and all that.

Because I just, my creativity goes to, um, decorating, like mm-hmm. Best friend Leanne and her and I are both on the same page. And if I'm not painting or drawing in my children's books or creating a story to write. I'm decorating something, 

Penny Fitzgerald: you know, 

Susan Lienau: just, I think it all goes together. It's just, it's just who I am.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: And those are the things that bring me the most joy is seeing finished products. You know, you start with a room maybe and, and you, um, remodel the whole thing [00:11:00] Or you start with a blank piece of paper. You write a story and it just, and you put it, you bring it to life through the pictures you draw.

Mm-hmm. Um, that, that's my, that's where I find most of my passion and all my joy, I guess. 

Penny Fitzgerald: That's great. Yeah. Well, can I back up just a little a second too, because you, you mentioned, you know that someone called you an author and it felt a little, maybe not uncomfortable, but it was, it struck you anyway, that, yeah.

I can't, I can't take that label and put it on myself, but. I feel like a lot of women do that. We, we don't give ourselves enough credit for the experiences that we've had, the things that we've done, or, you know, we just, we call it putting one foot in front of the other. And, you know, you, you experience joy along the way.

Susan Lienau: Yeah. Just 

Penny Fitzgerald: fantastic. But you, okay, so you have the bambinos business, a restaurant, a very busy restaurant and bar in a small town. But wow. You draw a lot of people in [00:12:00] there that they know your, your food, they know your company, they wanna be there. 

Susan Lienau: Well, one of the reasons we have been so busy 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: And bringing in a lot of, of, uh, outsiders.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. In 

Susan Lienau: 2021, we won the best burger in Iowa. I dunno if I wanted to plug that, because it's been good and we've met a lot, a lot of people through it. Uh, so we've, we've brought in a lot of, I don't know, Uhhuh. What made you stop there? 

Penny Fitzgerald: Well, we were up in Decora for a golf outing and we were going to be golfing at, um, Oneota mm-hmm.

Golf club. And it was flooded out. You guys had had so much rain up that way that it was not available. So we came down to your community and golfed the course there. And, um, well what, what actually found you, and here's another thing that you probably don't give yourself credit for, is the museum in town.

the ladies went shoppingand the guys were looking for something to do. So they [00:13:00] came to your town and found the museum and met you, which was what brought us back to the bar then later that evening. Yeah, that's right.

But tell us a little bit about that museum too. 'cause you, you and a friend started that, right? 

Susan Lienau: It's the same girl, Leanne. Okay. I'm actually on the city council here in town too. Of course you are. And. I'm on the church council. I've been the church president forever. Mm-hmm. But, um, in a small town, you, you carry, you wear a lot of hats.

That's just the way, you know, but we, uh, being on the city council, we had the old city hall and it was sitting there empty and wasn't actually empty. It was full of junk and it was just junk that accumulated probably over the last 40, 50 years. And, you know, if you didn't have a place to put something and you didn't wanna throw it away, they threw it in that building.

Well, it was time to tuck, point that building or tear it down. So being on the city council, um, I [00:14:00] feel the importance of keeping as many buildings in our town as possible because especially with it being our old city hall and one of our oldest buildings, um, I chose to vote in favor of Tuck, pointing it and keeping it in nice shape.

Well, I did take a little heat from some of the town people. Yeah. Because it was, it was like a $65,000 project, and some people thought, we don't use it. Just get rid of it. Well, instead I said, no, we're gonna fix it up and we're gonna make some use out of it. And Nice. I always had this museum because, um, all the businesses take turns watering the hanging pots of flowers.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: And you go to the community center basement to go get on the tractor and the flower watering cart. And there sits this beautiful vintage firetruck. It's hidden in the basement of a community center and there sits our old [00:15:00] siren that we used to have on our old water tower that no longer exists.

There's an old pole cart that you pull behind a horse. That was our original fire. It has a fire hose on it and it Wow. Many, many years ago. And I'm thinking there's so many cool. Things right down here that the public never sees. Uh, it just sparked an interest in me to start a museum and I, that's what we can do with that building and go, going back to my creativity and my loving to renovate things, um, we, we tapped, pointed, we ended up, we stuck a little more money inside and we cleaned it up and made it much more presentable.

And put the word out there on Facebook. If any of you have any old memorabilia, please let me know. And people started dropping things off at, at my bar and we, I was setting it all aside for about a year and we had our big town celebration this summer of 175 [00:16:00] years. So. I wanted to have that museum as a push and I wanted to have that done.

Wow. For all the locals to come back and see a lot of memorabilia. So Leanne and we, we recruited another girl named Joyce, but about three weeks time we put that museum altogether and Wow. And it is pretty neat. I'm pretty proud of it. Mm-hmm. You know, I just got called yesterday, it's locked right now, it's just open on weekends in the fall, on Sunday.

Mm-hmm. But I get called probably three times a week. Hey, I'm in town. Would you care if I came to see the museum? So I just run next door, I unlock it, let 'em go in and, and it's a pretty cool place and I'm pretty proud of that too. But, 

Penny Fitzgerald: but yeah, the guys loved it. They loved seeing it. 

Susan Lienau: They were, they were super guests too, features.

Our old jail, I don't remember if we locked any of them in there when they were there. We have two old jail sites in there that were there from, you know, the 18 hundreds [00:17:00] uhhuh. So it was, it was, it's a pretty neat building. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Let's back up just a second for those that are listening. Um, where is, what your, what's the name of your town, 

Susan Lienau: which is spelled O-S-S-I-A-N?

It's pronounced Iowa, which is about 12 miles south of Decorah in Winneshiek County. Okay. We're way up the northeast corner of the state of Iowa. 

Penny Fitzgerald: And you're probably less than a thousand people right in your town. Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: We're about 820. Okay. 

Penny Fitzgerald: And in a small town that you have all of these things going for you.

And a, it's a large part due to you and your friends. Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: We have an old cabin up at the city park that Of course you do. They were gonna tear it down. Um, they wanted to use the space at the park for other things. And some of the town people were upset because that cabin is on one of our Christmas ornaments, our town ornaments.

It's kind of been, you know, it, it got moved in in the [00:18:00] seventies from Fayette County. So it's having any true meaning, uh, from years ago. It doesn't. Mm-hmm. But it's always sat there, it looks like a tourist information booth is what it looks like. Mm-hmm. But it's a really neat old cabin. 

Penny Fitzgerald: It's a log cabin, right?

Yes. Yeah, I remember seeing it. Yeah. Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: So that has sat there just empty and dirty and disgusting for probably 15 years. And in lieu of this hundred 75th anniversary celebration, this same girl Leanne, who shares my passion for decorating and revamping, we went in there and we cleaned the cabin all up and it's all decorated inside.

It looks just like a Laura Ingles Wilder place. You walk in, we've, we've found an old stove in there. It's got old wooden rockers, it's got herbs drying, hanging from a ladder in the ceiling. It's the cutest little thing inside. So that was another project we did this [00:19:00] summer, just to, just to have something more for the people when they come to, to tour and see, you know, a little bit more of what we have in our town.

Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh. Wow. and you mentioned you have an Airbnb. Yeah, we you're gonna need another one. I think after everyone 

Susan Lienau: learns about all these things. Same girl, Leanne. Her and I, uh, it was always my passion and dream to write a children's book. Mm-hmm. And we've been friends 'cause our kids were friends. And so, um, it was her dream always to have a guest house.

And so one day after I got my first Ruford book done, uh, she came up to me and she goes, look at this neat little house I found in Decorah. And it was, it was quaint, it was old, it was, had a lot of character. And I said, Leanne, just go do it. You know, again, we hold ourselves back. She's always been 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.

Susan Lienau: Whole, uh, wife and mother and, you know, a Susie [00:20:00] homemaker. She has baked goods always at her place and, you know, soup in the crock and just, but she always had this passion to have. A guest home and share her talents of decorating and her, her, just, her love of making people feel at home. That's the, that's the way she is.

So she's always had this, uh, passion to buy a, a house and do them. I said, Leanne, do it. You know? 'cause there again, she was in her late fifties and, and she go, I said, what's holding you back? Do you need a business partner? And she goes, would you? And I said. I'll go in with you on it. Let's do this. Because I wanted her, it wasn't really necessarily my dream to have a guest Uhhuh, but it was hers.

And I wanted her to be able to follow hers also, because being best friends, and I had just reached mine with my children's book. I wanted her to do hers. So we went to Decorah one night to a meeting. Her and I were there and we drove by [00:21:00] this house and I, they had one of those little, you know, locks on the door that you could push a, a button to get in.

And we called, um, her, her stepmom is a realtor. And we said, Hey, it was like eight o'clock at night. And we're like, we're driving by this house in Decorah. Is there any way? We were peeking in the windows as it was the inside of it. So she called a guy that owns the realty company. He gave her the combination, she drove over, she showed it to us, and by 10 30 we put an offer on the house.

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

Susan Lienau: And, uh, didn't tell our husbands,we got home, I, I didn't get home till like quarter to 11 and my husband, I stopped into Bambinos. I'm pretty excited, right? Uhhuh. He goes, are you just getting home from your meeting? And I said, yeah. And he goes, what took you so long?

And I said, we bought a house. And he didn't, he didn't have any beefs about it. And I, I showed it to him and I said, are you okay with that? And he goes, what's the worst thing that can happen? We, [00:22:00] we'll just sell it if it doesn't work, if the business doesn't work. And her husband wasn't quite as receptive.

He, to have his wife right there and in their little box, you know, and yeah, her wifely things and her motherly things and, and I think he was nervous. She was stepping outside of her, her box, so to speak. Uhhuh, 

Penny Fitzgerald: you know, so brave, 

Susan Lienau: so many of us never do and right. Once you get a taste of that, it's like, I am somebody besides a wife and I am Yeah.

Besides a mom. Mm-hmm. And so her and I bought this house, they accepted our offer and we fixed it all up. And so we've had this Airbnb for seven years. It's it's paid for itself. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. And 

Susan Lienau: it's been a great little business venture. And she, we, every once in a while, 'cause we always said it was never going to, uh, break our friendship up.

'cause sometimes, you know, friends will Oh yeah. Business together, it's not good. And I mm-hmm. Before anything ever [00:23:00] happens, our friendship will remain, we will get rid of the house before. So about once a year, we look at each other and we say, do you still wanna do this? We both look at each other and we're like, yes.

Yeah. And it's, we clean it ourselves. We go over booked every weekend from May till, till November. We don't have a weekend hardly that, that her and I can go and swap out decorations. It's just, it's been a really good little thing for us. And you would think we would get tired of cleaning it, but it's our happy place we go.

We both, we clean together usually, um, every time we leave we say buy house and we, we always say, we wish we could stay here. And we don't because it's always busy. Yeah. But it's, it's got 

Penny Fitzgerald: good energy because of your, the way that you treat it, 

Susan Lienau: you know? And there's a lot of truth in that, you know? Yeah. I'm a believer in the energy around and, oh, 

Penny Fitzgerald: yeah.

Susan Lienau: [00:24:00] So her and I are both, we both just, we. We have the same, um, passions. And you had also, one of the questions you asked about was a special memory with a best friend or something like that. Uhhuh. And mine would be with her. Um, she's hardly been outta the state of Iowa. Um, I get a little vacation in every three, four years.

I have a son that lives in Las Vegas. I have a son that lives in Philadelphia, so I will maybe go out and see them. So I do get out of Winneshiek County once in a while. She hardly gets out of Winneshiek County. I'm, I'm not kidding you. In all the years I've known her, I thought she only got outta state other than to go see her brother in Kansas City, like once in 30.

Oh wow. So we planned a Thelma and Louise trip. It was just. A couple women who just packed a van full of stuff. Everything from a needle and a thread to snacks, you name it. And we took off [00:25:00] on a 12 day adventure and we went to, this was just two years ago, we went to South Dakota. She had never been there.

So we went to see Mount Rushmore and, and did all the sites there, the Badlands. And then we went on to Montana, Wyoming, Yellowstone. Um, we drove through Yellowstone, we went through Utah. We came back through Colorado and we never had any hotels booked or anything. We just drove as far as we wanted to drive and that's where we stayed.

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, so spontaneous. That's great. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah, it was the best time. I just, I wanna do it again so bad, and maybe go out east or go up to Maine or something like that. So yeah, that's on my bucket list. Oh, nice. But we had a wonderful time and it's just people don't take the time outta their lives to mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Really 

Susan Lienau: do things.

Sometimes we just get so saturated in, in our everyday life that we just, like you [00:26:00] said, put one foot ahead of the other. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: It's so important to, to make some of those memories. 'cause Absolutely. 65, I'm learning we're, we're not gonna be on this earth very, you know, forever. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: There, you know, as you get older, a lot of more people that are your age and older are passing and it just really sets in, hits home 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.

You 

Susan Lienau: to pursue those, those things. So, you know, if you have an ounce of energy left in, you go for it. Right. Um, that's how I sign all of my first books. Um, so I, I sold about 4,000 copies of them, Uhhuh. When I sign them, I always say, follow your dreams. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Hmm. 

Susan Lienau: Or, because I've always felt you were never too old to follow your dreams.

Penny Fitzgerald: Absolutely. 

Susan Lienau: Uh, that, one of the, a neat thing is I had a gal who wrote to me and said, you inspired me to pick up and learn to play the piano. And she was [00:27:00] three years older than me and so she started taking piano lessons. Mm-hmm. It was such a cool thing. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: At, you know, she was probably 62 at the time.

Mm-hmm. She just do piano lessons and the next year for my birthday, she sent me, um, uh, audio of her playing Happy Birthday on the piano. Aw. I'll just never forget that. I thought it was one of the neatest things. So 

Penny Fitzgerald: Sweet. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I, I wanna go back a little bit. You were talking about the pushback that you got from your community in the beginning, before they saw the vision that you had for the celebration for the town and for the, the museum, and for all of the things that you helped develop within the community.

How did you change hearts and minds? 

Susan Lienau: Um, the, the main pushback I got was the amount of money that we had mm-hmm. Spent building. And, um, [00:28:00] I think I didn't change any minds until it was done. One of the, one of the main guys that, uh, raised his voice pretty loud at me, has been in that museum, I'll bet you 20 times.

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh 

Susan Lienau: wow. And he comes in there when we're open on Sundays, he just comes and hangs out. Um, the first time he saw it, I'll never forget, he came into Bambinos and he gave me that little, it's perfect. Which he's so proud of it because, you know, we, we featured the veterans in our community. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: We featured our churches, we featured a lot of past businesses.

Um, he's just so that, that to me made it all worth it. That the man who was the most angry about, uh, the money on it seems to be the happiest about it. So I knew once it, it happened that people would be like, you know what? This was a great idea. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: One of the [00:29:00] guys came in who? Well, we had some help from a gal named Joyce when I told you we recruited that.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: Her husband is a handyman, so he did a lot of drilling along with Leanne's husband, drilling of the holes and the walls and things like that. And we were all done. And he knew that this was something I wanted. And he asked me a, a neat question. He said, so is it everything you visioned? And, and I said, it is, it is it just, it was something, you know, there was a couple things.

Being on the city council, I've been on there, this is my third term, so I've been on there 10 years. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: There were a couple things that I really wanted to accomplish while I was on the council. One was a museum for our town and the other was the Veterans Memorial. And I got both done. So nice that my girlfriend Lean said, can we take a little break now?

We just, let's go to Montana because I gotta focus on my own house. [00:30:00] Can we have a little break from, um, she's such a neat gal too, you know, she went around and she stained all the city benches out of the goodness of her heart to get ready. And she sees weeds, she goes out and sprays them. They're not even on her property, but if she sees weeds on a road or something, you know, she's just very conscientious and she's really, uh, in tune with, she wants people who visit our little town to leave with a good feeling.

And we, we heard a lot of that this summer. Our, our two town boys were, were super about keeping things up too. And I had so many customers stop in and say, you have such a beautiful little town. Did, did you notice or did you, what'd you think when you came? 

Penny Fitzgerald: We absolutely thought it was a beautiful little town.

Susan Lienau: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And that's, you know, part of the reason why I asked you on the podcast, and of course you made a big impression because we'd seen all these things that you've done. The, you know, my husband had seen the museum, we had been to the [00:31:00] little bar, and it just, it was, the whole town is super cute. Just really fun to visit.

Just a real nice vibe, you know? We just had a great time. I'm glad, I'm glad you did. Yeah, for sure. How did you, how did you raise the money to get the museum done and to do some of those improvements? 

Susan Lienau: Um, well each year we, we budget a certain amount the city council does, you know, so I was putting a bug in the rest of the council members' ear that, you know, we wanna stay, we wanna get this museum going.

So it was talked about for a good year before. So last year when we did our budget, we ended up and we budgeted a certain amount of dollars. Yes, we went over a little budget. And, um, but we do have, um, uh, different general funds, money that we get. Uh, we do have, um, also a donation box mm-hmm. Sitting there.

Mm-hmm. And people will drop donations in there because right now we're [00:32:00] still taking donations because this is a two story building. And the upstairs used to ho be home to our, our town library Oh. At the time. And it's got one heck of a flight of stairs to go up and the upstairs hasn't been touched or looked at.

I would say in 30 years. It, it's got, it needs a lot of work. It needs, mm-hmm. A lot of cleaning. It has an old bar up there that was, um, it belonged to our veterans. Um, the, um, VFW Club, Uhhuh, uh, used to store a lot of their things up there, and so now nobody's been in there, um, and done anything to it for at least 30 years.

So I do have an extension of what I wanna accomplish. I wanna get the upstairs at least all cleaned up, um, made so that it can be rented out. Whether somebody wants to start, [00:33:00] uh, yoga classes, or spin cycle class.

So, um, we're still taking donations from anybody, you know, for, for that project. And, and we hope to expand that museum. 

Penny Fitzgerald: So you have a vision for more space. Yeah. What else is on your horizon? What other, what other projects do you have coming up? 

Susan Lienau: Well, um, I think really just the upstairs. 'cause my girlfriend, I had to slow down a little, um, because whenever I have a hair-brained idea, I call her. And I say, Hey, I was thinking she always loves, but she also knows in the back of her mind, it's another job for her too.

Yeah. 'cause she goes in out of full force with me. And, um, so really the upstairs is, is my next project. And I, I will probably start that this next summer. Actually, first and foremost though is I'm starting book three. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh you are? 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. Yeah. So this Ruford, uh, book [00:34:00] was a series, if you wanna get back to that.

So, yeah. Do 

Penny Fitzgerald: you have, do you have them there? Can you show, oh, there we go. Yep. So if you're watching on, you need to watch this on YouTube so you can see the books. 

Susan Lienau: So here was book one. It's called, uh, Ruford Visits the Farm. And of course this is the Young Eagle from Decorah that leaves the nest for the first time without his mom and dad.

He's four months old. That's why he is got the brown head. Um, a lot of the little kids, when I go to the schools and read, they look at that, you know, like, that's not an ego. But when I explained to them that, you know, he, he hasn't got his brown head, he doesn't get his, or he hasn't got his white head. He doesn't get the white head till he is five years old.

So this was the first book that I wrote and I illustrated all the pictures because, and I did it all with crayons because I thought, well, the kids can relate to the crayons. Um, I'll just open up to probably one of my favorite pages. It is, um, where he meets Jim the Cow the first time, [00:35:00] Jim the cow, Jim the cow, and all of the characters in this book.

All the animals are animals that I knew or loved, or people, some like. The mouse in this book is named after my favorite bar customer, which was Eddie Clark. So his name is Eddie. And, uh, uh, when you write about, uh, and you incorporate people that you love, I put their personalities into the animals even.

Um, it's so easy. It's easy to write a story when you write about people you love and things you love. So this was book one. It was Ruford visits the farm. Then I, I always told myself, if this goes over, well, I named it Ruford visits the farm because I thought I can do Ruford visits, the city Ruford visits the school Ruford visits the zoo.

He can go anywhere. He's a yeah, you know. So my next book then [00:36:00] was I wanted to make him with a white head, and this is Ruford visits the North woods. And, um, in this book, one of the Eagles from Decorah, they put a tag around its ankle and it a tracker, and it did fly to one of the Great Lakes. So with Lake Superior being my favorite lake.

I decided, and Duluth one of my favorite cities, I decided to make Ruford fly all the way to Duluth. So I have in both books, I have a map in the beginning of this book. Oh, nice. And in this one, it shows the route that the young eagle took to get all the way to Duluth. His overnight stops. I plugged some neat little towns that got, uh, quaint things in 'em.

Like Waha is home of the National Eagle Center. So of course Ruford spent one night in Waha. I think it's because in book one, one of the neatest things about this story, I have like [00:37:00] three highlights. One of the neatest things was a little eight-year-old boy came in one day from Webster City and he was carrying this book and he is like, I need to talk to this lady.

And it was the author, you know, talked to this lady and he walks in and he had gotten the book from his aunt. She must have ordered it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. And he wanted me to sign up for him and his dad come in just like 10 feet behind him. His dad took him to Decorah for the weekend. And in this book also I have the map of Ruford travels that day that he left the nest, I have the fish hatchery and, and so when.

The little boy and his dad came to Decorah. They stopped at all the stops that Ruford on that morning and they videotaped in front of each place. And he did a book report and they turned in the [00:38:00] videoed book report to his school teacher. And they sent me a picture of all the videos. It was the neatest thing.

And I thought, what a neat thing for a dad to do to take his son on the same journey that this eagle took that day. So I mm-hmm. Picked family friendly stops in book two because, um, Elias and his dad went on this journey also all the way to Duluth. Wow. So there will be a third and final. And I always had, in my mind, I'm gonna make three Ruford books.

And the third one I have the story is all up here. Go, um, this winter, I'm gonna work on it. Uh. At the end of this book, so in book number two, Ruford meets a a girlfriend. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

Susan Lienau: everybody needs someone with guidance. She's a little bit bossy. Her name, he meet, her name is what Patty. Okay, her name is Patty. So my first [00:39:00] grandson named Ruford.

I let my second grandson name Ruford's wife, and he picked Patty because he loves to read Diary of a Wimpy Kids' books. And there's a bossy girl named Patty Story, so that's how he got her name. But anyway, in this one at the very end, uh, he's taking her back to Decorah. He asked Patty to go flying. They leave the North Woods and they head back to Decorah.

So the third and final book will take place by AU and you will see Bambinos restaurant Ball Nice in the background of one of the photos that I draw. So they're gonna land on the railing in front of my place. The kids are gonna get to see the eggs hatch. There's gonna be a family in the third book, and that'll be the, it'll be like his whole life.

You know, he started out when he was little and then he has offspring of his own. So that's my little trilogy. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I love it that. So much [00:40:00] of the people, the history, the travels, the journey, the locations. It's just spurring kids to be wanting to take that journey and wanting to discover all these places and these, it, it's a learning tool for them to learn about the Eagles and about the area and all of the places that, just getting that, that thirst for travel and adventure.

And 

Susan Lienau: I, I've read at a lot of schools and the Uhhuh I find and the kids are like, so interested and one of the things I talk to them all about what is about, who likes to write, you know? Mm. They're only in third grade. Who likes to write and who likes to draw because probably. One of the things I would've done different is mm-hmm.

Earlier. So yeah. Always been a doodler. I've always been a, uh, a writer. I've always been a reader and I've always been a singer. [00:41:00] Um, singing was probably, um, I'm, I don't mean to brag, but I was a really good singer. So used to, um, have a qui machine. I went around to all the bars and set up my qui machine for like seven years and would let people get up and sing and, and do their thing.

But if there was anything I would really change about my life mm-hmm. It would been probably to pursue my singing career when I was 19, 20 years old. Mm. Um, now they have all these TV shows, you know, like the Voice. Oh yeah. And I've wrote music and I put, uh, so I have three songs out there also that have all the instrumental behind them.

Uhhuh. So it's all part of being creative. So I tell these kids when I go to the school, if it's, if you love doing that, keep doing it and mm-hmm. Ever, you know, just go ahead and, and put your words [00:42:00] to paper. Even if they're only 12 years old and they have a story that they wanna make up and write, or a true story that they wanna write about.

Just write it down and, and if they like to draw, put some pictures with it. You know, start out little small like that. And, and I just, I really push them to pursue that part of their, their life if they have a passion for that. Because I feel like I waited so long, so long. Mm-hmm. And just because I was a mom and I 

can't 

Susan Lienau: do two things at once, I've learned that.

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Says, says the woman who has all these projects. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. I, you know, they always say when you, uh, retire, you're gonna get, life is gonna slow down. I feel like mine has quadrupled. Mm-hmm. You always think, well, I got this extra time. Okay, I'll do that, I'll do that. You know, and pretty soon you're doing a lot of things.[00:43:00] 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: But 

Penny Fitzgerald: I So many fulfilling things, so many things that are in service of others. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: And, and I, I don't, I've always, I would say that's probably sometimes I wonder why I get involved in all that, and I think do I just, I don't do it for the fame of it, honestly, none of that. I think I do it because I maybe deep down always try to seek approval and Hmm.

Uh, if I do this. They're gonna like me or something. Or you know, maybe that goes way back to my childhood. I don't know. But I, I feel like I do it a lot of times, uh, to feel good, and I want others to feel good when they see things I want them to enjoy. I'm just so, so big on making other people happy.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. [00:44:00] 

Susan Lienau: Uh, I wonder if that's why I do it. I don't know. Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: It could, well, I don't think you can ever go wrong if you're trying, if you're doing something that is in, you have in mind, it's in service of others. You know, you're trying, you're helping to make the world a better place. You're bringing light into this world.

Susan Lienau: That's my goal. That's my ultimate goal is, yeah. Is to make other people happy, I guess, and 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: I think that's. Probably now. Maybe that's where I find my most joy. Mm. Making others happy, because I think that's why I do what I do and that I get involved in so many things is because I just, I enjoy that, that I mm-hmm.

Enjoy seeing them happy and the positive energy that, that you can send out to them and hope that they send it out to somebody else. It, it is just rewarding. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. W we were talking about energy a little bit ago that I believe that too. That mm-hmm. It's all energy and [00:45:00] what you put out, you attract back and it just grows.

Susan Lienau: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I have many, um, uh, rocks, but that was, yes. Stones, crystal crystals, uhhuh. So that was probably one of our favorite places. When Leanne and I went to South Dakota, we went to, I think it's called Hills City. Okay. A rock shop there. We spent three fourths of a day in a rock shop because we were just, you know, finding the right stones for us.

And the right bracelets and uhhuh we're really big on that magic morphos. Yes. Isn't that the best place? It's so fun, so happy.I do believe that they send off energy and mm-hmm. It, you know, what you, what you put off to other people is what, what they all feel.

And so I'm big into that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I love that too. [00:46:00] Yeah, for sure. Did you grow up in 

Susan Lienau: No, I actually grew up on a farm, Uhhuh. My farm animals in the book. But um, I grew up near Waverley, Iowa. Oh yeah. Out in the country. We were Uhhuh Ola School, Ola High School, Uhhuh, a small little one, a school. But I was almost in Waverley 'cause we were, we were so close, we only missed like the bus route line by about a mile mm-hmm.

To Waverly school. 'cause it was like a good 10 miles to my school and it was about 11 to Waverly. So I grew up, I, uh, grew up in a family of eight children. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. 

Susan Lienau: And we, I used to milk cows and I played basketball in high school. And, um, just farm girl, we did it. Yep. Work and Yeah. I was a farm girl 

Penny Fitzgerald: too. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah.

You, there's a good value coming from farm girls, I think. Yeah. You know, you learn how to work hard, your [00:47:00] work ethic. Yeah. Like, uh, we worked very hard on the farm. We didn't have anything modern at the time mm-hmm. When I grew up. And so, you know, you, you cut the weeds outta the beans and you, you know, you pulled weeds, you picked up rock in Bremer County, there's a lot of rock.

So you picked up rock out of the fields and, and you milk the cows and took care of, we had, we raised all of our food that we ate, you know, we raised chickens and ducks and beef, and beef and, and had her own milk. And so there's a lot of work in that. But at the time, I always swore I was never gonna live on a farm again.

When I, I moved to cr Yeah. Rapids. That was my, I, I just loved it there. I went to 

Penny Fitzgerald: the big city. Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: Kirkwood. Yeah, I lived on the Southwest side, it was called Gateway Gardens. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: Uh, my, I got a college roommate that I didn't know. I found her on a bulletin board. We're still best friends [00:48:00] and, um, I always swore, oh, I'll never go back to a farm and live on a farm again.

So my husband and I, we live in town here, just a few blocks from our, our business. But with that being said, every time I go visit a friend who lives on a farm, I swear the minute I step my feet out of the car onto the earth out there 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: Just something that comes over my body and I say, I'm home.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: Not even a farm I grew up on, but I feel like. I'm home. I'm where I'm supposed to be. So there must be some connection with me and the energy out there that, that's where I belong, is out in the country. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. We pick up so much from our past and our parents and their 

Susan Lienau: parents. It's just every, every farm it's like, I get, I step out of that car and it's like weight is off [00:49:00] my shoulders, and it's like, this is where I, these are my roots, you know?

So it must be just born into me, I guess. And yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Do you ever go out into the country to write like. To get inspiration. Um, 

Susan Lienau: I haven't, but I should because this third book that I'm doing is gonna take place, um, out in the country near my church. I, I belong to a little country, rural church called Steger.

And in the first church book I, um, featured, uh, country Church called Washington Prairie. And a lot of my congregation was like, why'd you put their church in there? Why didn't you? I said, well, Ruford did fly that far on his first journey. But in the third book, Stavanger Lutheran will be put in there. And where I'm gonna put the Eagle's Nest in the third book is out in a little old cabin that was built out in some, like a 40 acre little area.

And that's a [00:50:00] great idea. Maybe I should go out there and sit when I do my writing. Just 

Penny Fitzgerald: let it come to you. Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: Mm-hmm. I bet, I bet that will work really good. I, that's a, I 

Penny Fitzgerald: think it will. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. Because, uh, it just, I don't know that there's just something about being outside in mm-hmm. Nature and, you know, I'm a firm believer that you need to still put your feet in the dirt, your bare 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.

Susan Lienau: Dirt and, and pull some of mother nature's powers and, you know, like mm-hmm. Years ago. And nobody goes barefoot anymore. And so I, sometimes I'll sit outside here on my, uh, retaining wall and take my shoes off. Mm-hmm. Heat on the grass, you know? Yeah. Because it's just, it just takes you back. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Iowa grass is so yummy.

It's, it is. Yeah. Wiggle your toes in that stuff. [00:51:00] Okay. So we've been sha Oh, I'm sorry. What? I 

Susan Lienau: like to find anything that's got some bare ground around it too, you know? Yes. Where you can actually put your feet in in, in the soil. 

Penny Fitzgerald: In the soil. Yeah. Yeah. Got a lot of good soil in Iowa too. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: All right. Well, we, we've been chatting a while and this has been just absolutely a joy for me.

Well, thank you so much too. I'm, I'm 

Susan Lienau: not chatting on a, a Zoom camera, but, uh, I enjoyed it a lot and it's 

Penny Fitzgerald: been great. Yeah. Well, I usually bring every, I bring it around at the end to cocktails, because Yeah. I love cocktails, so, and owning a bar, you have access to try some things. What's your favorite. 

Susan Lienau: My personal favorite, Uhhuh probably drink vodka and water.

Mm-hmm. But it's gotta be a good vodka. I, I, yes. Just a, a shelf vodka. I mm-hmm. Like a [00:52:00] good vodka and I just put it on the rocks with water and maybe a twist of lemon in there mm-hmm. To go. Um, I have a lot of allergies, so I'm, I'm allergic to, uh, hops or, or Oh. In, in a lot of your craft beers. And I love mm-hmm.

I've never been a beer drinker, but I like craft beer because they flavor that beer so it doesn't taste like beer. Yeah. Fortunately, it gives me asthma a lot, so I always have to have my inhale right. Close by, just 

Penny Fitzgerald: like, oh gosh. 

Susan Lienau: I love wine too. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. So, 

Susan Lienau: uh, I know one of the things you wondered was what was my favorite wine?

I'm gonna plug this little bottle right here. So, yes, it's, uh, called Bird Song, and I don't like dry wine. I'm a little bit more okay side, not real sweet. Mm-hmm. Not wine, but, um, this is from Madigan Winery and it's over by Harper's Ferry. And it's, it's a neat little winery out in the country. I've, [00:53:00] I've gone to a lot of wineries.

I go to a lot of breweries, stop in with girlfriends or something like that. Mm-hmm. But winery is, uh, like a mom and pop winery and, uh, it, you have to take gravel road to get to it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh, 

Susan Lienau: it's by Harper's Fair. I highly recommend it. They only have about. Six kinds of wine. Okay. They're all really good, but they'll have like a little bit drier wine.

They got a sweet wine, they got a, they got like a table wine. Mm-hmm. Sisters and I, uh, in all the times we have gone out around to wineries, we always come back to this one and every one of us leave with a case when we buy. You're 

Penny Fitzgerald: my people, 

Susan Lienau: we buy whole case, each one of them. Mm-hmm. We it out with like three cases because we don't get there that often.

It's not that far away, but we just don't get there. But it's a bird song. This is a, a sweet white and it's, it's my favorite Uhhuh. I actually a glass already this [00:54:00] morning at Oh, nice. Breakfast at 

Penny Fitzgerald: Champions. 

Susan Lienau: Never, never started my morning off like that, but today I'm gonna have a half a glass for breakfast.

Penny Fitzgerald: Awesome. But that's well. 

Susan Lienau: That's probably my favorite, favorite drink is probably, um, the vodka and water uhhuh. And I like a good white, 

Penny Fitzgerald: a 

Susan Lienau: little bit sweet wine. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Well that's lovely. I'll, I'll look and, um, put some, put a link to their winery in the show notes too, so people can find them. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. Madigan's Winery and it's Madigan's.

It's just a neat little place. They've done some remodeling out there. You can sit outside, drink your wine. They got some tables and, and like I said, it's, I, I really like, I like the quality of their wine a lot. Yeah. And so I, at least once a year make a Madigan run, pick up my case of wine. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well that sounds fun.

Well, [00:55:00] is there anything I have not asked you that you would love to share? 

Susan Lienau: Um, I took down some notes before our meeting, um, and. I don't, I can't think of anything. Uh, you know, one of the things I started with was what do I love? What I love? Uh, it, and I would say my favorite part of writing the books is the artwork.

Um, oh, I love the drawing. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Susan Lienau: Being my story to life that I wrote on paper. Um, it's fun because I, I take my story and I space it out into about 28 pages, and then each page has its own story. So I'll look, I'll read that little, you know, paragraph that I have on that page, and then I sit and I visualize what I think is happening in that story, and who's in that picture and what's in the background.

And then I put it to [00:56:00] paper. And I would say, you know, the art is definitely my, my most favorite. And then, um, taking it to the schools and seeing kids, like I have a Facebook page, a Ruford visits a farm Facebook page. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, cool. 

Susan Lienau: I had to put, um, a lot of little kids' pictures when they get the book, they'll send me a picture of it.

Um. It's fun to see the smile on their face when they get it and they open it. You know, I always watch for their expression because it, it tells me a lot if they're liking my work, if, and I, I like detail, I like a lot of color because I think when kids are little, even four years old, that age, that's all they know is the pictures.

So I feel like mm-hmm. It's important to have good pictures. Uh, Mercer Meyer always used to put a lot of, he puts a lot of detail in his children's books, and I remember those were some of my favorite books to buy for my children [00:57:00] because of the detail of all the work. So each one of these pages takes me about 10 hours a page to draw.

Mm 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm. I 

Susan Lienau: sit there and I don't care if I don't even eat or anything because I am so engrossed in. Putting that picture on a paper. So I, I, I just, I love that part of it. And, uh, another thing that I love the most about it is that I accomplished it at this stage of my life. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Hmm. 

Susan Lienau: I can say, you know what?

I did it. I no longer Yeah. Telling myself, but you never do it. You don't do it, you know? Mm. It's just the accomplishment of saying, I am an author, you know? Yeah. I'm an illustrator. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: So I love that. I love that. I do 

Penny Fitzgerald: too. I love that For you, that's just so inspiring because so many of us just hold ourselves back.

Yeah. [00:58:00] And wait for a be, you know, when's the perfect time? Well, guess what? It's not. Today's the perfect time right now. 

Susan Lienau: Yeah. Uh, that would be my advice to all the listeners is I don't care how old you are, if you're 70 and you've always wanted to play the guitar. Go get one, pick up a book, start strumming and yeah.

You know, the, or whatever it is, knitting, I don't care, whatever it is. Mm-hmm. Find a hobby that you've always been passionate about and, and go do it. You know, there's, don't, don't hold yourself back because we, we are the only ones that hold ourselves back, 

Penny Fitzgerald: for sure. Mm-hmm. Oh, Susan, this has been so amazing.

Thank you so much 

Susan Lienau: and I'm so glad I met you and Me too. Hope you guys come again someday. Oh, we will. We'll see you next year. Sounds perfect. Maybe by then I'll be upstairs working on that Upper half Museum. When you come, 

Penny Fitzgerald: I'll be anxious to hear what other projects you have on the horizon too. Yeah. [00:59:00] You know, that won't stop.

I know you won't. Yeah. 

Susan Lienau: So, 

Penny Fitzgerald: oh, great. Well go have a wonderful day and enjoy your breakfast cocktail. I will. So thank you. Cheers, my friend. 

Susan Lienau: Yep. Cheers to you.