Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women’s Day. I was with a group of women fiction writers last week, and someone mentioned the occasion. The authors at this meeting realized we all write about strong women. To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, each of us agreed to post an excerpt […]
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What Happened in Oregon City in 1850-52? Researching My Work-in-Progress
My current work-in-progress takes place mostly in the Oregon City area, beginning in October 1850. I think the novel’s timeline will take me into 1852, but I don’t know for sure yet. When I did the research for Now I’m Found, which was set in Oregon and California between 1848 […]
Continue readingA Chat About Frontier Travel With Gar LaSalle, Author of the WIDOW WALK Saga
Last summer I had the opportunity to chat with Gar LaSalle, who, like me, writes historical fiction about the West. Scott James of Solipsis Publishing moderated our conversation, and the audio and transcript are now available on Gar’s blog. The audio will give you the flavor of our conversation more […]
Continue readingFOREVER MINE is now available!
As I announced last week to subscribers to my newsletter, Forever Mine is now available—just in time for Valentine’s Day! If you have a Valentine who likes to read love stories, family sagas, or American history, I encourage you to send them a copy. You can find Forever Mine at […]
Continue readingSix Years of Blogging: A Measure of Time and an Assessment of Life
I launched my blog “Story & History: One writer’s journey through life and time” in January 2012, publishing only three short posts that month. It took awhile to find my rhythm (stepped up to publishing twice a week) and my voice. For five years, I published on WordPress.com, and last […]
Continue readingUpdates to LEAD ME HOME: The Fremont Expeditions and Pheasants
In addition to putting the finishing touches on Forever Mine this month, I have also made a few updates in Lead Me Home, the first novel I wrote about travel along the Oregon Trail. These two novels both involve characters traveling in the same wagon company in 1847, so part […]
Continue readingSick Days in Retirement: If a Woman Sneezes at Home, Does Anyone Hear?
This is a self-pity post. I’ve had a cold or the flu for the last week, and I’ve been miserable. If the news reports of the flu epidemic are true, then many other people out there are sick also, and many are sicker than I am. But at the moment, […]
Continue readingHappy New Year!
Here’s a link to my January 1, 2018, newsletter. I send this out monthly with updates on my writing. I hope you’ll check it out. If you like it, I hope you’ll subscribe (if you haven’t already). I provide different content in the newsletter than on this blog, so there […]
Continue readingThe Charles Preuss Maps of the Oregon Trail
In Lead Me Home, and again in my about-to-be-published novel Forever Mine, I make frequent mention of what my characters call “the Frémont maps.” In fact, these maps were created by Charles Preuss, a German cartographer who accompanied John Frémont on his explorations of the West in 1842 and 1843. […]
Continue readingThoughts on Writing, from Before I Started Writing
I recently reread my journal from December 2002, trying to find the exact dates we’d traveled to Aruba that month. I came across an entry about writing. In 2002, writing was still a pipe dream of mine. I thought I wanted to write when I retired, but I hadn’t made […]
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