Last month I went to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City to see the special exhibit of Laura McPhee’s photographs of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. I don’t like a lot of modern art, but I do like photography, and the exhibit of McPhee’s work was outstanding. The […]
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Along the Way Home, by Christi Corbett – A Novel About the Oregon Trail
Today I am hosting Christi Corbett, author of the new novel, Along the Way Home, about travelers on the Oregon Trail in 1843 (the year of Jesse Applegate’s migration). Here is my interview with Christi about her book: Theresa: Can you give us a brief synopsis of Along the Way […]
Continue readingSightseeing Along the Oregon Trail: Ayers Natural Bridge
The emigrants to Oregon found many scenic wonders along the way. One of those wonders was (and is) a natural bridge over LaPrele Creek, near what is now Douglas, Wyoming, not far past Fort Laramie. The bridge is 100 feet long and 50 feet above the water, and is one of […]
Continue readingWhat Books Don’t (or Won’t) You Read?
It just so happened that last Wednesday, I read two articles about when and why readers quit reading a book before they finish it. One was Guilt Complex: Why Leaving a Book Half-Read Is So Hard, by Heidi Mitchell, in the Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2013; the other was […]
Continue readingJesse Applegate and the Great Migration of 1843
In May 1843 – 170 years ago this month – Jesse Applegate and his brothers and their families left Missouri for Oregon. They were among the early pioneers to Oregon, four years earlier than the emigrants of 1847 in my novel about the Oregon Trail. In fact, 1843 was the […]
Continue readingA Novel Blog Hop: Lead Me Home
J.G. Burdette, who blogs at Map of Time: A Trip into the Past, tagged me to participate in a Blog Hop for authors. What’s a blog hop? This one is an interview with ten questions posed to a writer about the novel he or she is writing. The author answers […]
Continue readingWeaving Threads of History into Story
In February 1847, while the Donner party struggled to survive in the snows of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and Elizabeth Dixon Smith and her family prepared to leave Indiana for Oregon, a baby was born in Denmark – my paternal great-great-grandfather Charles N. Claudson. (I’m told his last name in […]
Continue readingTop Ten Lessons Learned about Blogging
I’ve been posting regularly (at least weekly) on this blog for a year now, and since May 2012 I’ve posted twice a week (on Mondays and Wednesdays). I’ve had some successes, but I also know I can improve. Here are the top ten lessons I’ve learned in the past year […]
Continue readingPreparing for the Trip to Oregon: Keturah Belknap
Last year I posted several times about travel along the Oregon Trail in 1847, the year in which the novel I am working on takes place. (Click here and here for samples, or search this blog for “Oregon Trail.”) Several readers have asked what I’m going to do in 2013. My […]
Continue readingChristmas Traditions in the Late 1840s
Because the emigrants in my first Oregon Trail novel traveled between April and October, I didn’t have to write about their Christmas celebrations in that book. But the sequel covers a three-year time span, so as I work on this draft, I am learning about Christmas traditions in the late […]
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