70th Birthday on Easter: Reminiscences and Anticipation
Eleven years ago, I wrote about my birthday falling on Easter for the first time ever. This past weekend, it happened again—only the second time in my life that the two have coincided. And this time, it marked a milestone—I turned seventy. The week of my sixtieth birthday, I wrote this about being in my […]
A Visit to the Burke Museum
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus for the first time. A trip to this natural history museum has been on my list ever since we moved to Seattle, but the museum’s current special exhibit on Coast Salish weaving finally got me there. I thought the […]
Cascades Rapids on the Columbia River: Then and Now
My current work-in-progress is another historical novel set along the Oregon Trail, this one in 1851. A few weeks ago, I submitted a chapter to my critique group in which my characters were traveling down the Columbia River and nearly went over the Cascades Rapids. One of my critique partners asked me why I described […]
Spring? Winter? Who knows? It’s March
Spring is supposed to be the season when the weather turns milder—when the frigid temperatures of winter ease and the heat of summer hasn’t yet arrived. Instead, we sometimes get the worst of everything. The past week or two has been a good example of the tumultuous nature of spring weather. Across the Midwest and […]
Springing Forward
Last week I wrote about marching forth, and today I’m writing about springing forward. Daylight Saving Time began last Sunday, so we all turned our clocks ahead an hour. This annual change in the time inspired the usual round of complaints about lost sleep and groggy mornings. And in the autumn, we’ll complain again about […]
March Forth . . . Because What Other Choice Is There?
I’ve written before about my first date with my husband. Today, March 4, is the 49th anniversary of that first date. The event itself wasn’t very auspicious. In fact, it was downright awkward. And yet, here we are. We survived that first date—and a great many other things—and we’ve now been married more than 48 […]
Black History Month: A White Author Reflects on Crafting African American Characters
I do not have many African American characters in my books, but I do include some—notably a Black couple and their children who were part of the 1847 wagon train in Lead Me Home. This family also appeared in Now I’m Found. I spent a great deal of time thinking about how to portray these […]
Ashes and Faith: Personal Choices on Ash Wednesday
Today is Ash Wednesday, but although I am Catholic, I will not be getting ashes on my forehead. I have received ashes many years in the past, and I have even been one of the lay ministers helping the priest distribute ashes, but it is not a ritual that appeals to me. I recently read […]
Adapting to a New Normal
As I’ve written before, my husband recently spent 30 days in the hospital. This was followed by three weeks in a rehab facility—a total of more than seven weeks away from home. He has only recently returned to our apartment. Those weeks felt long in every sense. Long days for him in bed and for […]
A Third Birthday!
Several weeks ago, my older granddaughter announced to me, with grammatical precision if not ideal diction, “I like pizza very much.” It wasn’t offered as an opinion so much as a statement of fact. So, for her third birthday earlier this week, her parents invited me to join them for a pizza dinner. I, too, […]