Writing Historical Fiction: My Odd Research Topics, Including Murder
Many authors these days have very strange browsing histories. Writers of thrillers have to research espionage, weapons, and clandestine operations. Fantasy writers delve deeply into the legends of wizards and dragons and vampires (not my cup of tea). As for me, in addition to the basic timelines and geography of the Oregon Trail and California […]
Wedding Photographs of Siblings and Spouses
As I wrote recently, I’ve had weddings on my mind. Here’s another post on the subject of weddings. This time, the bride(s) and groom(s) are me and my siblings. Specifically, this post is about framed wedding pictures of me and my spouse and my siblings and their spouses. My mother had this thing about years […]
Haunting Books Read in 2019
Most Octobers I have posted one or more reviews of “haunting books” that I’ve read in the past year. This month, because of other things I’ve had to write about (a novel about to be published, a family wedding), I haven’t posted any book reviews yet. This post remedies that situation. Here are a few […]
Best Wishes to My Son and Daughter-in-Law on Their Wedding
Yesterday my son married his long-time girlfriend in a small and lovely ceremony in New York. So I’ve had weddings on my mind for many weeks. I can’t help but compare their situation to my own. My son and his wife have been together for many years; my husband and I began dating one March […]
Letting Go
I’m in the final steps of preparing my novel, My Hope Secured, for publication. I both love and hate this stage. It is exciting because I can see how close I am. It’s frustrating because I keep seeing things I want to change. I need to let go. Most of the changes I’m making are […]
More Dental Woes . . . And More To Come
I’ve written before about my dentophobia. Unfortunately, I’ve had more dental problems recently. My upper left teeth started hurting sometime before spring began this year. When I mentioned it at my cleaning in May, the dentist thought I had a cracked filling in #14 on the upper left side. It is a mark of how […]
Thoughts of Life and Death on My Husband’s Milestone Birthday
In a couple of days, my husband will celebrate a milestone birthday. One that ends with a big 0. I’ll let you guess which one, though I will say that it’s getting harder to claim he is still middle-aged. Plausible, but harder. We know many people who are older than he is, including his mother, […]
Recipe: Apple Crisp
Now that autumn is officially here, it’s time for apple recipes. I’m very particular about the apples I eat because I grew up in Washington State—the apple capital of the world. Growing up, I thought there was nothing better than Washington State Red Delicious apples picked in late September (or maybe early October). Through the […]
First Methodist Church in Oregon City—A Setting in My Novels
In my about-to-be-published novel, My Hope Secured, several scenes take place in or around the Methodist Church in Oregon City. This church was also a setting in one of my earlier novels, Now I’m Found. I imagine my characters in worship services, hearing marriage banns read (though the reading of banns was not required at the […]
Mrs. Birdsong’s Bell Pull
My husband and I are starting to think about what to hang on the walls in our new house. Before we moved, our daughter told me, “Mother, if you don’t hang your pictures within a week after you move, you’ll never do it.” I disagreed with her then, and I still do. I wanted to […]