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!”
Tag Archives: betsy ross
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”
Anthony Benezet’s Revolutionary Academy for Children
Benezet set up a school for free Black children in his home on Chestnut Street between 3rd and 4th Streets Dear Friends, Happy August! Are you already thinking about back-to-school? I am––when I walk through a pile of dried brown leaves, and their smell brings me back to college orientation (when it was still summer,ContinueContinue reading “Anthony Benezet’s Revolutionary Academy for Children”
Flag
Flag above White with Collage, Jasper Johns, I was never a great painting student but I tried. My senior year at Oberlin I took Color Theory with Forbes Whiteside. Mostly I took painting because it was easy. And relaxing. You did have to put time in at the studio. But even if you were prettyContinueContinue reading “Flag”
Sex and the City: Philadelphia 1777
Bedroom, Cedar Grove, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia A confluence of events: the reboot of Sex and the City (SATC) i.e. And Just Like That (AJLT) and a family emergency led me to watch both the reboot and the original SATC this past month. With the attention span of a flea the past few weeks, I dippedContinueContinue reading “Sex and the City: Philadelphia 1777”
10 popular novels that taught me how to write about Quakers
Hi all and Happy November! When I started writing my first Quaker novel three years ago, I decided to take a look at other fiction featuring Friends. I didn’t want to look at the classics (nope, Moby Dick, don’t think I can write that!), but at popular books. I started by working through the “FictionContinueContinue reading “10 popular novels that taught me how to write about Quakers”
Betsy Ross was a Badass
Sorry for the language, friends! I suppose I’m finally over losing the Flag Day Poetry Contest in elementary school. As I recall, it was a beautiful June day and we all sat outside looking at the flag. Our principal read the winning poem over the loudspeaker. The poem was haiku-like, breathtaking in its simplicity andContinueContinue reading “Betsy Ross was a Badass”