The novel I’m writing now takes place in 1864 Oregon. The Civil War was the biggest news of the day, though other issues were also important to Oregonians of the period. I’ve been researching what happened during the Civil War in 1864, and when news of these events reached Oregon. […]
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Steamboat Competition on the Willamette River in the 1860s
I’m trying to find business interests for one of my characters in my next Oregon historical novel. The novel is set in 1864, and Oregon didn’t yet have any railroads, other than a few small portages around falls on the rivers. But there was active steamboat competition along the Columbia […]
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Southern Oregon and Forest Fires: Then and Now
I spent many weeks (and even months) in Klamath Falls, Oregon, during my early childhood, but I don’t know a lot about Southern Oregon in general. I’ve been to Crater Lake several times, and I remember that my grandfather’s machinery company did business with a sawmill in Medford. But otherwise, […]
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History of Smallpox in Oregon
As I research my next historical novel set in 19th Century Oregon, one issue I am looking into is when smallpox epidemics occurred. Some of my characters contracted smallpox in 1849 in Now I’m Found, and these same characters will be seen again in my next book, which will take […]
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Researching Historical Fiction: The Owyhee Expedition
As I’ve written before, I plan to set my next historical novel in Oregon in 1864. I’ve had the idea for this next book since I began writing Lead Me Home, which I first drafted in 2008 (it wasn’t published until 2015). Soon, it will be time to start writing […]
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Celilo Falls: The Columbia River As It Used To Be
As I mentioned in a recent post, the river cruise my husband and I were supposed to take in May was canceled. Periodically, I search “river cruises” and moon over the itineraries, thinking of future trips. Where might we go to escape the current boredom of life at home? So […]
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Lake o’ the Woods
This is another post about lakes. Throughout my life I have vacationed on many lakes, most notably Coeur d’Alene Lake and Priest Lake in Idaho, Lake of the Ozarks and Table Rock Lake in Missouri, the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, and the Door County peninsula on Lake […]
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The Last Edition of THE OREGON SPECTATOR, March 10, 1855
I’ve written before about the importance of old newspapers in my research for my novels about Oregon pioneers. The Oregon Spectator’s issues from 1948 through 1852 provided a lot of background for Now I’m Found and My Hope Secured. So as I began to research my next Oregon novel (I’m […]
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Smallpox Epidemic in Oregon: A Scene from NOW I’M FOUND
Here is a scene from Chapter 44 of my novel Now I’m Found, describing a smallpox epidemic that hit the Oregon City area in October 1849. The following Sunday morning William complained, “Mama, I’m hot.”Jenny felt his forehead—burning. O’Neil brought her a bucket of water, and she removed William’s shirt […]
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Home-Schooling with Historical Fiction
I’ve learned most of my history through historical fiction. Not all, but most of it. Even back in grade-school days, I read a lot of historical fiction—the Little House series, Caddie Woodlawn, What Katy Did, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Anne of Green […]
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