Dear Friends, I have completed another smartphone fast! I wrote this article after last year’s fast. I’ll update you on this year’s discoveries at the end. February I tell myself I “don’t spend much time online,” and that I’m “not influenced by online advertising.” But tonight, I’m huddled on a damp, dark hill, standing byContinueContinue reading “Silence, or Six Weeks without a Smartphone”
Author Archives: katehornstein
The Quaker Woman’s Cookbook, or so it begins…with a pound cake
The pound cake: a simple egg, butter, and flour cake (one pound each), but here’s the thing about it: it can absorb all sorts of ingredients: lemon, vanilla, nutmeg, rose water, oranges. While the blandness of the pound cake suggests the blandness of mid-20th Century American food with all traces of “ethnicity” pounded out ofContinueContinue reading “The Quaker Woman’s Cookbook, or so it begins…with a pound cake”
Do you ever wish you lived in a cave with Friends?
“Well, here we are,” Charity says. Ibbie and Ezra stand outside what appears to be a cave. Our home? Are we to live in a cave? Ibbie quickly puts a friendly face back on, but her mind is racing. “How does everything seem to thee?” Charity asks, smiling at Ezra. More white hair falls fromContinueContinue reading “Do you ever wish you lived in a cave with Friends?”
What not to wear (Historical Novel Society Edition)
I live in t-shirts and athletic pants and the fanny pack I swore I’d never wear is now a permanent feature. What would I wear to a historical writing conference in Texas?
A Revolution for the Rest of Us: 15 Books about the American Revolution with a Quaker, Black, LGBTQIA+ or Kid-focus you may not have read (but I’ve read them for you!)
Dear Friends, When I was growing up, books about the American Revolution were mostly like this: I am sorry if this one was your favorite! Apart from the occasional (and excellent) My Brother Sam is Dead, I didn’t read many books where I saw myself as a person affected, disaffected, participating, or even by-standing duringContinueContinue reading “A Revolution for the Rest of Us: 15 Books about the American Revolution with a Quaker, Black, LGBTQIA+ or Kid-focus you may not have read (but I’ve read them for you!)”
Off to Historical Novel Society North America with a sample book cover!
Dear Friends, I’m excited to be planning my trip to Historical Novel Society North America’s (HNSNA) 2023 Conference in San Antonio next month! I’m planning to pitch my finished novel to a couple of smaller publishers while I’m at the conference and learned I need something called a “pitch sheet.” This sheet will have aContinueContinue reading “Off to Historical Novel Society North America with a sample book cover!”
Who Wore it Best? 8 “Girls” who dressed as Boys in the American Revolution
Dear Friends, Happy March! What happened to January? And February? It seems like just yesterday, I was celebrating New Year’s Eve, and now March and Women’s History Month is upon us. The publicity surrounding the revival of the musical 1776 this past year made me think about women wearing men’s clothes in the American Revolution.ContinueContinue reading “Who Wore it Best? 8 “Girls” who dressed as Boys in the American Revolution”
My goyishe potato pancakes: A Jewish-Christian/Quaker Tale
Dear Friends, Happy holidays! At our last Book Club of the year, I was chatting with one of my friends. She was talking about the Italian Christmas she grew up with. Christmas Eve for her was a bigger holiday than Christmas itself, with numerous relatives, and the Feast of the Seven Fishes, a multi-course mealContinueContinue reading “My goyishe potato pancakes: A Jewish-Christian/Quaker Tale”
“Welcome”: a short story
Dear Friends, Last year, Friends Journal decided to do a fiction issue for the first time. This year they decided to do it again, and I’m excited that my story, “Welcome,” is in it. If you have a few moments, please check out my very short, short story. My story is a fictional account ofContinueContinue reading ““Welcome”: a short story”
Deconstructing the Bonnet
https://www.amazon.com.br/American-Quaker-Romances-Building-Christian/dp/8491349081 This book caught my eye when I saw it go by on Twitter It’s the end of September and I’m back at my desk reading and writing about all sorts of things. Reader, I am no longer in the habit of reading literary essays. It has been years! But I stumbled upon this bookContinueContinue reading “Deconstructing the Bonnet”