Hanford Reach: History Preserved by Accident
In January 1943, the U.S. Army selected the town of Hanford, Washington, as the site for plutonium production on the Manhattan Project. Beginning in February 1943, the Army acquired vast amounts of land around Hanford pursuant to the Second War Powers Act. The three hundred residents of Hanford were evacuated and relocated. The land condemned […]
Writing Historical Fiction: The Research Is Never Done
A month or two ago I was working on the cover for my novel about the Oregon Trail. I found a wonderful painting by Albert Bierstadt, called “The Oregon Trail.” It is in the public domain and the beautiful image evokes the era of my novel. It works well cropped for the front cover for […]
KLWN Radio Interview and Cooking on the Oregon Trail
Those of you who follow me on Facebook might know that on June 20 I was interviewed by Jeremy Taylor on his program “About The House” on KLWN AM-1320 in Lawrence, Kansas. It was great fun! Jeremy had prepared well for our discussion of the Oregon Trail and my forthcoming novel. We had an excellent […]
Distraction: Magnolia Blossoms in July
For the past week or two, the magnolia tree in our front yard has been blooming again. Not as many blossoms as in the spring, and not as noticeable because the leaves are fully formed. But still a treat. I don’t know what has caused the profusion of blooms. Is it all the rain we […]
A Year of Firsts: On Losing and On Finding Again
My mother died on July 4 last year, so I am completing a year of firsts—the first Thanksgiving without her, the first Christmas, her birthday in early March, St. Patrick’s Day (a big holiday for her), Easter, Mother’s Day, and now the anniversary of her death. In many ways, I lost her several years ago, […]
Dad’s Buttermilk Pancake Recipe
My husband and I are creatures of habit when it comes to breakfast. I usually have Carnation Instant Breakfast and a Diet Coke; he eats hot cereal—oatmeal or Malt-o-Meal or something similar. When I’m in a hurry, I’ll eat granola bars, and sometimes he will have Shredded Wheat or another cold cereal. But occasionally on […]
An Almost Sixty-Year Love Story, or Sixty-Six, If You Start at the Beginning
Shortly after Christmas last year, my father commented to me that it was the first Christmas in sixty-six years he had not spent with my mother. “Ever since I took her to the Snow Ball when we were sophomores in high school,” he said. They started dating as fifteen-year-olds, “went together” through the remainder of […]
Banking in the American West in the 1840s—Before and After the Gold Rush
I’ve blogged about some boring topics related to my research for my Oregon Trail and Gold Rush novels, but this post may discuss the most boring—banking. Yet one of the biggest problems I had in plotting my novel was how my protagonist could move money from the East Coast to Oregon, and then between California […]
Share a Diet Coke (or Pepsi) with Dad
The Coca-Cola Company has an advertising campaign underway using the slogan “Share a Coke with . . . .” Their bottles and cans are labeled with such suggestions as “Share a Coke with a VIP,” or “Share a Diet Coke with your Soulmate.” A few days ago, I picked up a can labeled “Share a […]
Sounds of Cicadas
Many memories are triggered by milestone anniversaries—things that happened five or ten or twenty-five years ago. But this memory of mine returned because of a seventeen-year anniversary. The seventeen-year cicadas are back this summer. It’s been so rainy that I haven’t been outside to hear them much, but the news reports bring to mind memories of […]