SASKATOON — Monica Goertzen Hertlein newest fiction novel, Hideaway, takes place on another planet in the far future, but Saskatchewanians will recognize a few of the places named by nostalgic settlers from Earth: New Vancouver Spaceport, the Town of Langenburg and a town called Speedy Creek.
Originally, this story was set in the mythical Old West but when Goertzen Hertlein pulled it from her head to create a novel, she felt it needed a science fiction setting. Many parts of the romance have lived in her imagination for decades, but she got to know the main character, Mary, her life on the spaceport streets, and her reaction to rural life (including horses) during the writing process. The story also pulls from a historical rabbit plague that ravaged Australia.
Goertzen Hertlein is an accountant, sociologist and author. She says she always wanted to write, but never thought it was a real job. After career and family, she returned to her passion of fiction writing and released her first novel “Star-Crossed Alliance” in 2025.
Her second novel “A Valley Girl Dilemma” released earlier in 2026.
Her short fiction has been published in Search for the Any Key, Best of CafeLit 14, Impulse, Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8, AnotherRealm, and The Lorelei Signal.
She grew up, resides, and writes in Saskatoon.
