WHEN HEART SHALL FAIL Is Published!
It’s finally published! When Heart Shall Fail is now available on Amazon (paperback and ebook) and Barnes & Noble (ebook only). This novel seemed to take forever to edit, but I am really happy about the final product. I hope readers are as well. I am grateful to all my critique partners and beta readers, […]
Weston Bend State Park: A Short Hike and a Small Summer Adventure
My husband and I have done very little traveling since the pandemic hit. Health issues (non-Covid-related) and shut-downs have kept us close to home. This past Memorial Day weekend, the weather was perfect, and we didn’t want to be cooped up in the house. We were determined to find something to do outside, so we […]
The New Northwest: A Platform Advocating for Women’s Suffrage
As readers of this blog know, I have included Abigail Scott Duniway, a historical Oregon pioneer, as a character in my last two novels, and I intend to include her in my next novel. She moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1871, in order to start a newspaper, The New Northwest, which she published until 1887. […]
Swapping Kids in Madras, Oregon
In response to my last email newsletter, one reader wrote me about how her family regularly switched children from parents to grandparents for visits. That reminded me of how my family did the same when I was growing up. The childhood swaps I remember best were in Madras, Oregon. Madras, Oregon, is pronounced MAD-ras. I […]
Granddaughter Trumps Blog
My granddaughter paid me a visit this past weekend (with her parents), so I haven’t had much chance to write a blog post. And, while I took enough pictures to post a photo blog, her parents have forbidden me to upload any pictures to the internet. So all you get is a shot of me […]
Update on My Novel (post-beta readers)
The last time I wrote about my work-in-progress, I was just sending it out to beta readers. That was about three months ago. Most of the readers were prompt in their responses, and their feedback was very helpful. I solicited beta readers for this book earlier than I have most of my other books. There […]
Etymology in Historical Fiction: Suffragists v. Suffragettes
My first exposure to the term “suffragette” was in the song “Sister Suffragette” in the Mary Poppins movie, which I saw when I was eight or nine. I can still see Glynis Johns strutting through her front hall as she sang “Cast off the shackles of yesterday!Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!Our daughters’ daughters will […]
Random Photo: A Kitten in Corvallis
As I looked through the photographs my father digitized, I came across this picture of my brother and me. I’ve seen it many times before, but this time I noticed my brother is holding a kitten. I’m pretty sure this is the cat we owned in Corvallis, Oregon. We don’t have many pictures of her, […]
Easter 2009—Playing Tourist in New Orleans
Last weekend was Easter, and I reminisced about past Easter vacations. We took many vacations when our children were in school and their spring break coincided with Easter. But as I reminisced, one adult Easter vacation came to mind—in 2009, my husband and I went to New Orleans to visit our daughter who was at […]
Thursday’s Child Has Far to Go
There’s an old nursery rhyme that attributes character traits (or fortunes—the interpretation varies) to children born on each day of the week: Monday’s child is fair of face,Tuesday’s child is full of grace,Wednesday’s child is full of woe,Thursday’s child has far to go,Friday’s child is loving and giving,Saturday’s child works hard for a living,And the […]