Blog

By 1790, there is no federal census record of buying and selling of slaves in Massachusetts. But, if someone came to the state with a...

When Charles Sumner addressed the Boston Mercantile Library Association in February, 1847, he gave an oration on the chattel slavery of...

My story forced me to understand Irish immigration in 1849, into Boston specifically. Here’s what I learned. The first wave of Irish...

As a woman of the western United States, the concept of servants and slaves has no specific ancestral significance to me. But, in 1849,...

As a twentieth-century girl, seeing a woman astraddle on horseback is a common sight. But, in 1849, when horseback travel was reserved...

It is hard to imagine in our world today, that there was actually such a thing as The Cult of True Womanhood . This article, by Barbara...

In our modern time, coverture isn’t an everyday word. Its implications do still affect us but not nearly like they did in the 17th,...

In most of our lifetimes, we have had the benefit of the Federal Reserve System, created in 1913, to provide the United States with a...

Keeping in the theme of the mid-1800s western migration, there’s another migration that gets little attention now, although it was, at...

As a land steward, I understand the feeling that comes with knowing that the land you derive your living from is personally owned. No one...

As we all know, our world is driven, many times, by reaction. Today we find ourselves reacting to Tweets and the 24-hour news cycle, our...

My husband and I have moved six times in our married lives. Save one corporate paid move, the rest were done by ourselves where we...

Growing up in the San Juan Mountains, where rivers and streams start their journeys, it wasn’t until I started my story’s research that I...

One of the reasons I was excited to start this blog was to help give context for the time and place of my story to my readers. Prologues,...

Growing up on a ranch in southwestern Colorado in the mid-to-late-20th century has given me a unique perspective from which to write....

When not on actual trips of discovery, I’m in my mountain cabin, laptop, books and papers scattered all around the arcs of my rocking...

Whenever possible, I have tried to do the thing that I ask my characters to do so I know it is possible. For instance, I had never fired...

History makes me curious, I can’t help it. Why did people do the things they did? What drove them or inhibited them? What about all those...

I started writing in 2009. Granted, it had been a very long time since Freshman English in college but I started nonetheless. I took a...

I do. I remember it very clearly. The echoes of clapping hands, the warm glow of sincere satisfaction filling my heart and an inner voice...