Catalpa: Fine Dining in Arrow Rock, MO
On Monday, I wrote about the Oregon Trail emigrants choosing their leaders on the Kansas and Nebraska prairies. This post back-tracks to Arrow Rock, Missouri, where my first Oregon Trail novel begins. And today’s post is about a superb meal I had in Arrow Rock in 2012 – 165 years after my novel takes place. […]
Order on the Trail: The Governance of Wagon Trains
By mid-May, the emigrants to Oregon in the 1840s had settled into a routine. They were past the frontier towns and out on the open prairie. Greenhorns without experience driving oxen and mules had learned to manage their teams. Wives who had never cooked on an open fire had figured out how to use a […]
How To Write Three-Dimensional Characters — Advice from Steven James
I was fortunate to attend the Oklahoma Writers Federation Inc. conference this past weekend. The keynote speaker was Steven James, author of more than thirty books. He was a funny and engaging keynote speaker, who talked about rejection letters writers receive and the need to write and re-write until your work is the best it […]
Happy Mother’s Day to My Mother, the Writer
I spent the first thirty years of my life trying not to be like my mother. But around my 30th birthday, the realization dawned that, however much I protested, we are in many ways quite similar. My mother was valedictorian of her high school class and a Phi Beta Kappa English Literature major in college. […]
Gold Stories of Today and Yesterday
I read the newspaper differently now because I write historical fiction. Articles that I once would have skipped over intrigue me because of their connection to what I write. On April 30, the Wall Street Journal carried a piece on gold mining in the riverbeds of California. The novel I am currently writing takes place during the California […]
Doing What I Do Best — Procrastinating
In 2003, my work group had just completed the Gallup employee engagement survey. One of the questions on the Gallup survey is “Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?” Well, then, we asked, what does each of us do best? Of course, Gallup had a way to determine the […]
“Family Recipe” — a good Mother’s Day present
If you’re looking for a small Mother’s Day present, try my book “Family Recipe: Sweet and saucy stories, essays, and poems about family life.” Click here for links to where you can buy it. Enjoy! And Happy Mother’s Day.
Take the Plunge! Start a Journal
“The only way to start is just to start – take the plunge.” With these words, I started keeping a journal ten years ago this spring. I’d had a diary when I was a girl, one of those pink books with the gilt edges and cheap metal lock. But I was too afraid of my […]
Jumping Off to the Unknown
Part of my horoscope on my birthday this year read “Develop a way of handling the unexpected, as it will become a regular occurrence for you.” But isn’t this true for everyone? The unexpected becomes expected, because change comes to all of us. Sometimes we seek the change, other times it is foisted upon us. […]
Guest Blogpost on Write Brain Trust: How to Format Your Book for E-Publishing
This week I have a guest post on Write Brain Trust that discusses how I formatted my ebook Family Recipe. Write Brain Trust is a group of writers who help each other with creativity, publishing and marketing issues. We have been exploring the brave new world of e-publishing, and several of us have published digital books […]