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”
Tag Archives: historical fiction
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!”
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”
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”
10 Ways I Consumed Books in 2021
Dear Friends, It’s July! Do you have time off? Are you going to the beach? Are you reading more? I have been thinking more about my reading habits––there are always so many books I want to read. 2021 was a big reading year for me; I read a total of 40 books, including some ofContinueContinue reading “10 Ways I Consumed Books in 2021”
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”