Mid-Continent Public Library ReadLOCAL Initiative
I wrote last week about National Library Week, and I announced that the Mid-Continent Public Library was now offering my books, Lead Me Home, and Now I’m Found. This week I want to tell you about the library’s new ReadLOCAL initiative, which MCPL announced last week. As I’ve written before, I’m a big proponent of […]
Falling In—Two Tales from Chesapeake Bay (or thereabouts)
I’ve written before about spring vacations our family took when our kids were small—how I struggled to find a church in which to celebrate Easter and how I had to hide the Easter candy from my children. One memorable trip over Easter was a week in Virginia when the children were in grade school. We […]
Libraries Transform—Celebrate National Library Week, April 9-15, 2017
This week, April 9-15, 2017, is National Library Week. It’s a time to celebrate libraries and library workers and to promote library use and support. According to the American Library Association website, the theme for National Library Week this year is “Libraries Transform.” I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for public libraries. […]
A Tale of Two New Computers
I wrote in January 2013 about having to replace two computers and an e-reader within a few short months. Four-and-a-half years later, I’m in a similar situation. After replacing my husband’s and my cell phones last December and our printer in February, I am now in the middle of upgrading our two computers. The keyboard and […]
On Birthdays and Memory
Sixty years ago today was my first birthday. I was too young to remember it, but there is a fuzzy photograph of me in a high chair with a cake bearing one candle in front of me. I was the oldest grandchild on my mother’s side of the family, so I’m certain my first birthday […]
Recipe — Lemon Bread
Unlike me, my father liked to cook. In fact, he paid part of his way through college as a short-order cook for his fraternity. When my father traveled and found a food item he liked, he cajoled the cook into giving him the recipe so he could make it himself. Several years ago, my father […]
Writing Milestones: Journaling and Blogging
I don’t want March to get away from me before I write about two milestones that occurred this month—the fifteenth anniversary of when I began keeping a journal, and the fifth anniversary of this blog. I’ve written before about starting my journal. One of my early posts on this blog was titled “Take the Plunge—Start […]
Guest Post on Wayne Turmel’s Blog
Last Friday, March 24, I was a guest on Wayne Turmel’s blog. He introduced his interview of me with the following comment: “The opening of the American West is great fodder for writers of historical fiction. Huge vistas, dramatic action, and characters who lived just long enough ago that they don’t feel foreign to us.” […]
Elizabeth Markham: One Woman’s Perspective on the Oregon Trail and on Matrimony
I am surprised that in five years of writing this blog I have never written a post focused on women’s perspectives on leaving their homes and journeying west on the Oregon Trail. I’ve written about specific women—Narcissa Whitman, Jessie Benton Fremont, Elizabeth Dixon Smith, Keturah Belknap, and others—and quoted some of their words, but I’ve […]
Treasures & Trash: Or Why I Hate to Clean and Why I Hate to Throw Things Out
I could have titled this post “Tidying Up, Part 2.” But I decided on “Treasures and Trash” because that is what I found. It started as a simple project. I have a chest in which I have stored items for many years. It’s a small chest, the height of a short dresser, and it has […]