As a writer of historical fiction, one of the issues I struggle with is how to portray interactions between characters of different races. I could ignore the topic by not having characters of different races in my novels, but I think part of the purpose of writing historical fiction is […]
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Good News of Great Joy
I wrote last December of a muddled Christmas story about Super-Jesus that was told in my family one year, a story that confused my mother. Here is the version of Super-Jesus my mother would have remembered from her childhood: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustusthat the […]
Continue readingHaunting Book: Still Alice, by Lisa Genova
My posts last October about the “haunting books” I had read are among some of my most viewed posts, so I have decided to review more haunting books this year. (See here for the last haunting book of 2012, a book similar to today’s choice.) My first haunting book for October […]
Continue readingMemories Prompted by an Amethyst Pin
My maternal grandmother gave me an amethyst pin many years ago. I don’t remember exactly when, but I wore it frequently with a purple plaid dress I had in 1985, so I probably received the pin about that time. I enjoyed wearing it with a navy or grey blazer over […]
Continue readingWriting: The Consistency of Voice
I mentioned several months ago that I had resurrected a short story I wrote in college and was editing it. I shared a draft of the revised story recently with my critique group. One of my partners commented after our meeting, “You know, Theresa, it’s amazing how much your voice at […]
Continue readingYou Can Go Home Again, Sometimes
My father recently made a huge road trip through the Western United States. One of his stops was Pratt, Kansas, where he was born. He had last been in Pratt about fifteen years ago. On that visit, he tried to find the house where he was born and lived until […]
Continue readingAlong 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 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 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 […]
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