Category: Historical Fiction
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Making your writing real
What’s your strategy? Call me old school. I have gray hair. I can accept that tag without too much fuss. I never fell into the rabbit hole of video games or TikToking that sucks and slurps the gray matter right out of some folks’ heads and dissolves hours from their lives. So visual learning or…
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Where to Even Begin?
A runaway mule team that nearly mows down two women? A quarrel between two sisters who claim to be pacifists? A public argument between a female Northerner and a male Confederate sympathizer? For several months, I debated about the best narrative hook for my novel based on the true diary of my Quaker ancestor who…
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We were on a quest
The single-lane gravel drive through the line of trees gave a shady respite to the heat of the June day. We snaked the car up the hill. According to the ochre-colored map, we had turned off old US 40 in the right place, but there wasn’t a tombstone in sight. In fact, as our tires…
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Things Just Fell Into Place
It was nothing remarkable that I did. Nothing that I especially deserved. It just happened. That’s how my 3xs great aunt’s diary has become a novel.
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Phrases Mary Jane uses and I love
Reviving my Quaker roots “What’s all that dead time during your church service?” my soon-to-be-husband wanted to know. He had managed to slip out after his early morning Methodist service to sit with me during my Quaker meeting for worship. As a birthright member of The Religious Society of Friends, I knew we had some…
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Engaging student writers with local history
A pandemic accomplishment to be proud of The school year always ends on a hectic, almost frantic note for me as I rush around with last-minute tasks. By the time the first day of summer vacation arrives, I revert to being a kid: I want to toss my spelling book into the campfire, stay up…
