The highlight of my busy summer was walking the Camino de Santiago in June. For 10 days, I walked with a church group from Sarria to Santiago, 110 kilometers or 68 miles. We had beautiful, cool weather, and I met pilgrims from all over the world completing the same walk, or longer ones. The CaminoContinueContinue reading ““In my whole Life, my Patience was never so near being totally exhausted:” John Adams walks a reverse Camino…”
Tag Archives: historic fiction
History Camp and Why it Matters
Not History Camp: Rebels and Redcoats at Old Sturbridge Village a week earlier. I think these are the folks from Lexington! Dear Friends, I recently returned from a weekend at History Camp. History Camp?? My Instagram posts now get posted to Threads (where I’m a very occasional visitor), but right away people had questions: What’sContinueContinue reading “History Camp and Why it Matters”
Texas…has a textbook in it
Dear Friends, If you recall, I began writing a novel set in Maryland this year. I’m enjoying the Quaker Woman’s Cookbook and I’ve been making my way through “The Annals of Sandy Spring.” These original sources are fantastic, but if you’re a person of a certain age, you may recall taking “state history,” most oftenContinueContinue reading “Texas…has a textbook in it”
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?”
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!”
“Membership Discontinued” or the 5 Best Ways to Get Kicked out of Quaker Meeting
Me in front of Darby Meeting House in 2019. My ancestor was kicked out of Darby Monthly Meeting, as were John Bartram, and John James Pearson. Fornication, disbelief in the Holy Trinity, and fighting in the American Revolution were all big Quaker no-nos over the years. Quaker disownment fascinates me. In the genealogical research I’veContinueContinue reading ““Membership Discontinued” or the 5 Best Ways to Get Kicked out of Quaker Meeting”
Is Disaffection a Dirty Word?
Nation Makers by Howard Pyle (public domain image via Brandywine Museum) In Chapter 19 of my WIP novel, A Little Rebellion, teen BFF’s Elizabeth and Eben have an argument about pacifism. A few days before the Battle of Brandywine. Elizabeth rides into Darby and tells Eben that British soldiers have camped out on his family’sContinueContinue reading “Is Disaffection a Dirty Word?”