Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays. As a kid, I suppose I enjoyed the candy. But even then, it was trouble to find a costume, and the weather generally did not cooperate. The one good thing, as I’ve written before, is that Catholic school kids got the […]
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Haunting Book: The Orchardist, by Amanda Coplin
Not everyone will be haunted by The Orchardist, by Amanda Coplin, but I was. I was first haunted by the setting. This novel takes place on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, in the fruit-growing region of the state around Wenatchee. I’ve driven through the Wenatchee […]
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Researching Historical Fiction: Making a Living in 1850s Oregon
Making a living was important to pioneers on the frontier, just as it has been at all periods of American history. I wrote last month about farming in the 1850s. Land was free for white males in Oregon to claim, so if a man was willing to clear the land […]
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Visit to the Strategic Air Command Museum
Late last month, my husband, another couple, and I went to the Strategic Air Command Museum in Ashland, Nebraska, outside of Omaha. The four of us stayed at Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, where my husband and I have stayed before. Lied Lodge and Conference Center is an oasis of peace […]
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To Russia, at Long Last
One of the prime selling points of the Baltic Sea cruise for me was the scheduled stop at St. Petersburg. I had studied Russian in high school and college. I’d lived in the Russian dorm at Middlebury College for one year and eaten countless meals at the Russian table in […]
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Farming in Oregon in the 1850s
I wrote in February of this year that I didn’t know which issues in Oregon’s history in 1850-1852 might impact my current work-in-progress. I’m slowly answering my own question as I move through the first draft. The land laws are a major factor. The discovery of gold in the Rogue […]
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Reflections on Past and Present (and Future) After a Visit to the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
One of the places that my husband, mother-in-law, and I visited in California in June was the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, where Nixon was born. None of us had been there before, and we spent a pleasant half-day going through the exhibits. The topics covered […]
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Early Roads and Railroads in Oregon in the 1850s
As I write my fourth historical novel about the West, I’m finding more and more things I need to research. Researching travel along the Oregon Trail itself was easy by comparison—all I needed to do was to decide on a route, describe the landmarks and the difficulties of daily life, […]
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The Santa Fe Trail at Stanhope, Missouri: Historical and Family Significance
A few weeks ago, my husband and I were driving through Saline County in the farmland around Marshall, Missouri. His family owns land in the county, and although they have lived in town for a couple of generations now, they still speak of “going to the country” when they drive […]
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Oregon History: On Cattle Men and Government
I’ve written before (see here and here) about Jesse Applegate, who was part of the Great Migration of 1843. Jesse Applegate had the distinction of leading the “Cow Column” on the first large wagon train to Oregon. Several thousand head of cattle accompanied the wagons and emigrants of the Cow […]
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