There’s nothing quite like reading your own book aloud to gain a fresh perspective. As I’ve recorded the audiobook version these last few months, I’m hearing my story with new ears.

Turns out that narrating my tale uncovered slight tweaks for the next print edition and shone a spotlight on insights that evaded me during the writing process. Bringing my book to podcast form has taken this to another level - sparking ideas for new stories waiting to be told.

Confession: I've lived in Minnesota for 30+ years but previously lived in various cities "out east." Minnesota Speak 101: "Out east" sometimes means any state to the east of the MN border.

My Mom's side is all about German Lutheranism, so that's the origin of my childhood religious traditions. Yet, our family is extremely multicultural and has a lot of religious traditions. Still, this one stuck because of my Mom's upbringing.

Moving to Minnesota, attending Luther Seminary, and working for the American Lutheran Church headquarters in Minneapolis introduced me to a new flavor of Lutheranism: the Minnesota Lutheran. While this is sometimes known as the Scandinavian Lutheran, you don't have to be Lutheran or Scandinavian. Just live in Minnesota for a while, and you too may find yourself asking for a "rubber binder" and closing each sentence as if you were asking a question (this is an actual thing called "Minnesota Rising Intonation.") It seeps in naturally after a while.

As I've learned via my book and podcast, my multi-faith, multi-ethnic family heritage confuses people. A lot!

That prompted me to start writing the religious biographies of some of my ancestors. Religion, place, and time factor heavily into any family history. And I'm talking more about the cultural influence of various religions, not one's personal faith.

So, I'm doing a visual mashup and a bit of writing for each ancestor's religion to see what happens.

I never knew my grandfather, Andy Zett (Andreas Zid), but I sometimes wonder what life would have been like had I been raised in his Greek Catholic/Byzantine Catholic faith. Maybe I would have gone to Byzantine High School in Parma, Ohio, instead of the public school I attended. (BTW: my best friend and I always attended Byzantine's dances because she thought the boys were cuter!)

Born in Olsavica in eastern Slovakia, Andy Zett was a Carpatho-Rusyn, speaking the Rusyn language (along with Slovak and most likely Hungarian). The Rusyn language is often written in the Cyrillic alphabet, which you can see in the photo of his church's cornerstone.

I’m a writer first, and designer second, and I wondered what would happen if I combined the two to share the stories from my family tree? Let’s see what happens…

"Sisters who were Sisters x2" - A tale of two sisterly duos. From Slovakia, my great-aunts journeyed to new lives as nuns. But wait, there's more! They crossed paths with two more immigrant sisters from Luxembourg - one of whom played a star role in launching the Mayo Clinic. Talk about a double dose of sister power!