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 aContinue 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.Continue 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 mealContinue reading “My goyishe potato pancakes: A Jewish-Christian/Quaker Tale”
Anthony Benezet’s Revolutionary Academy for Children
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, the leaves just beginning to fall). Or it feels like I’m walking home from second grade, or my kids’ “CurriculumContinue reading “Anthony Benezet’s Revolutionary Academy for Children”
Flag
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 pretty awful, you’d still get a decent grade.Continue reading “Flag”
Sex and the City: Philadelphia 1777
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 dipped into Miranda, Carrie, Samantha, and Charlotte’sContinue 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 “FictionContinue 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 andContinue reading “Betsy Ross was a Badass”