What would drive people from the familiar into the unknown? What would cause men to venture into a harsh wilderness, leaving their families behind? Or uprooting them? For the Israelites, it was captivity in Egypt and the hope of freedom in a Promised Land that drove them from the prison they’d known for generations. In the early 1840s, emigrants …
Prairie Song Campfire Supper
Boney’s turn to cook supper. A fact that has the Boone’s Lick Wagon Train Company captain, Garrett Cowlishaw, and the other four trail hands sticking close to camp. All the wagons are set in their curved line, the livestock graze hobbled in the meadow, and the company’s children haul buckets of water up from the creek. Men are greasing wheels …
Wagon Train Overlanders Speak
Since I write women’s historical fiction, it makes sense that I’d want to hear from women and men from the time and period in which I’m setting my stories. For my Hearts Seeking Home Series, I turned to the diaries and journals of folks who had made the trek west by covered wagon. The grammar, spelling, and punctuation remains authentic, as …
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1920s Pharmacies and Soda Fountains
While researching the 1920s for Mistaken, I was intrigued by the growing importance of the local pharmacy. When the neighborhood bars closed because of Prohibition, many people turned to the corner drugstore/soda fountain as the new gathering place, trading “hard” liquor for “soft” drinks—at least until the speakeasy opened. The corner drugstore seemed like the perfect place for my characters …
19th Century Mercantiles
19TH CENTURY MERCANTILES Some of my earliest memories involve shopping trips with my mother, back in the . . . well, let’s just say it was a few decades ago. She’d make a list of all the places we had to go—the hardware store for the screws and bolts my dad needed for a project; the paint store for pink …
Sinclair Sisters Fun and Yum for Book Clubs
Do the members of your book club or reading group enjoy reading series and spending time with an ensemble cast? If so, the four Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series might be a great fit. And I’m happy to say the 1890s Colorado mining camp series lends itself well to having fun with Victorian, Old West, Mining Camp flair. Your group might want a …
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The Role of Art in the Westward Expansion
Glorifying the Wilderness Experience So many things drove the westward expansion of the 1800s. The lure of a better life. Cheap land. Adventure. The railroad. Art. Art? Wait a minute. How did art drive the westward expansion? In the mid-1800s, a new wave hit the artistic community, a desire to show nature in its most glorified state. Known as the …
A Cripple Creek Tribute
Research trips for my historical fiction takes me to museums, libraries, historical societies, archives . . . and old cemeteries. Like the Mt. Pisgah Cemetery in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Established in 1892, the Mt. Pisgah Cemetery is one of Cripple Creek’s oldest sites. Mt. Pisgah remains a natural setting with native plants and wildflowers. Depending upon the time of year, you might find wild …
In the Case of Sisters . . .
Then God created sisters. And He blessed me with three. I write. So it’s pretty easy to figure how what I’m wheeling around in my brown rolling case. A laptop computer, an AlphaSmart, and a USB cord. For Sis Cindy, it’s either a tea set or painting supplies. For Sis Tammy, it would be an otoscope and an audiometer since …
Donkey Derby Days
During my first research trip to Cripple Creek, Colorado, I met a couple of the town’s beloved residents–two donkeys that are a part of a herd of about a dozen that roam the city’s streets. When miners had to leave the area, often their donkeys were let loose. The several donkeys that roam the streets are believed to be descendants of those used …