I have researched how and where the emigrants traveled along the Oregon Trail for ten years, and I’m still learning. Recently, I learned from an article in The Wall Street Journal about why the wheel is round. The article contained the sentence: “The difficulty of moving a wheeled object increases […]
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Transporting Gold in 1850
One of the problems I’ve had to deal with in my soon-to-be-published novel, Now I’m Found, is how gold was transported in California in 1848-50. The gold flakes and nuggets had to get from the mines where they were panned from the water or dug from the ground to the […]
Continue readingOutlived Its Usefulness: The Reader’s Encyclopedia
Among the books I found when I cleaned out my bookcase recently was a two-volume set called The Reader’s Encyclopedia. These books had been on my shelf for many years, but they originally belonged to my parents. I remember the volumes from childhood. When I had nothing better to do on […]
Continue readingResearching the Etymology of Words for Historical Fiction
I try to keep the language I use in my historical novels true to the time period I’m writing about. This is particularly important in the dialogue between characters and in the thoughts of my point of view character. The accuracy of the language I use is as important to […]
Continue readingBack to Research: Oregon Land Laws in the 1840s
The reason most settlers went to Oregon was because they could claim free land. In my first Oregon Trail novel, Lead Me Home, all I needed to know about the Oregon land laws was that settlers could file land claims once they got there. But in the sequel I am working […]
Continue readingWriting Historical Fiction: The Research Is Never Done
A month or two ago I was working on the cover for my novel about the Oregon Trail. I found a wonderful painting by Albert Bierstadt, called “The Oregon Trail.” It is in the public domain and the beautiful image evokes the era of my novel. It works well cropped […]
Continue readingA Visit to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, Baker City, Oregon
Ever since I began researching the Oregon Trail route for my novel about travel along the trail, I have wanted to go to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City, Oregon, run by the Bureau of Land Management. I finally had the opportunity to visit it in late April, […]
Continue readingWintering in Oregon: Using Research, Reality, and Imagination
The emigrants who traveled the Oregon Trail arrived in the Willamette Valley in late fall, or even after the first snowfall of winter. What did they do then? They were relieved the long journey was over, I’m sure, but how did they go about building a new life? Beginning with […]
Continue readingStepping Back To See the Big Picture: Exhibits at the National Archives
When I researched the 1840s for my Oregon Trail novels, I started with the big picture—the general route the emigrants took, their modes of transportation, what was going on in the East at the time, etc. Much of this research never made its way into my early drafts, but I […]
Continue readingFamily Lore and Small Town Gossip on an Interfaith Marriage in 1898
I am the latest of a long line of Catholic women who married Protestant men. The stories of our weddings show how interfaith marriages have changed over time. This post is the story of the first such marriage of my ancestresses that I know about. In Sacramento, California, in 1898, […]
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