The diverse history of the Great Westward Migration is illustrated in the life of James Pierson Beckwourth. Born in 1798 to slavery, Beckwourth was of mixed race. His larger-than-life story reached from the Crow Nation in Wyoming to the town named for him in California.
The Beautiful Hills, Chapter 27 of The Black Alabaster Box is a chapter my granddaughter insisted on. She’d been my junior editor all along, listening to various iterations and offering suggestions. Sometimes I followed her suggestions faithfully. Other times I had to follow my own light. This was especially true when it came to death
Esther Suh’s guest blog reminds us that there are edible flowers that we can enjoy, provided that we learn about them and make knowledgeable choices. She points out that as Mr. Payne mentors protagonist, Grace Willis, in The Black Alabaster Box he teaches her to identify edible wild plants. I like Mr. Payne a lot. When he
The expression is, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” It is one I’ve heard all my life. But where did it come from? That isn’t at all clear. Its all a part of the The Game of Life–played at our house over the holidays. For example, I found this at https://www.dictionary.com/browse/time-flies: Time passes quickly, as in It’s midnight already? Time flies when you’re having fun, or I guess it’s ten years since I last saw you—how time flies. This idiom was first recorded about 1800 but Shakespeare used a similar phrase, “the swiftest hours, as they flew,” as did AlexanderPope, “swift fly the years.” Others sources trace
This past weekend my daughter, granddaughter and I made what has become an annual fall visit to Weber Cider Mill Farm to buy pumpkins and to enjoy some of the activities. Amelia and I did the maze together. Looking at it now, the picture feels like a metaphor for life as a writer! I wish I
Mexican Free-Tailed Bats By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (Mexican free-tailed batsUploaded by Dolovis) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons I made the decision to illustrate my trilogy for very selfish reasons. As a child, I hated it when there were pictures of the people in fiction. The illustrator almost always
The Mad Artist at Work isn’t about being angry, but about how doing chapter illustrations for The Last Crystal helped with the history behind the books. Author, Frances Schoonmaker, talks about her writing, illustrating, and research process. 4 minute read. Kid friendly.
Writers write. Right? Wrong. Maybe wrong is too strong. Writers do write. But that isn’t all they do. They also work on their craft. They meet with other writers and talk about their work. They share ideas about writing. They take workshops and go to conferences to help them learn more about writing. When you study
“Where did you get the idea for the book?” This is one of the questions Mrs. Schmidt’s class wanted to know when I visited her 5th grade class. It’s a good question. Where do ideas come from? Writing is different for every writer. Many writers say you should write from experience. You write from who
I have better things to do than fill your inbox, but I will update you on news, such as Sid Johnson and the Phantom Slave Stealer’s nomination for an Agatha Award. It was one of five finalists–an incredible honor.
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