The landscape and lyrics to the 1872 poem (and later song) struck a chord as we toured Badlands National Park. “Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all day.” Besides its literal meaning, there are lessons buried in the words that ring […]
Monthly Archives: August 2019
Glamping in Keystone, South Dakota
I had wanted to pack a tent, but it wouldn’t fit in the car so Scott surprised me with the next best thing: “Glamping.” I had never heard of it before. The formula apparently is very easy…”Glamorous” + “Camping” = “Glamping”. But don’t get the wrong impression. I had to build my own fire in […]
Arena, North Dakota
As I opened my car door, a hawk screamed from his perch. He had a small rodent in his talons and was none too happy that we had interrupted his lunch. The old granary was in a bad way; the roof on its backside had succumbed to the elements, collapsing into the floor beneath. With […]
Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania
Every summer after the July 4th celebrations, Jack McCarty (the Protagonist in MASQUE OF HONOR) and his wife Lucy would bring their daughter to ‘take in the waters’ at the Bedford Springs Hotel where they would spend the rest of the summer. The McCarty family held this tradition through the 1840’s and into the 1850s. […]
Milestones – High Point University
The birth of your first child rocks your world and we quickly settle into the joy of parenthood. But it’s when your last child fledges the nest that your world truly shakes with seismic change. This weekend I drove my youngest son to North Carolina to begin his freshman year at High Point University. For […]
Musings: A Summer Shower
“A drop fell on the apple tree, Another on the roof; A half a dozen kissed the eaves, And made the gables laugh…” Ah, the words of Emily Dickinson in her poem so often referred to as “Summer Shower”. Yesterday we had summer showers here (although some of our neighbors had outright downpours!). But at […]
Musings: Translating Passive Language of the Past
One of the challenges in writing Masque of Honor was how to make the story imminently “readable.” Have you ever read a book that was written in the 1810 -1820 time period? OMG! It can be a more than just a little laborious! Although I love her, Jane Austen is NOT an easy read. In […]
Musings: On the Road – Literally.
Recently I was asked this question as part of an ice-breaker exercise: “Name one thing you’d like to do or see in your life that you have not yet seen or done.” I mean, how does one answer that!?! There are so many things I have yet to see and do! But then when I […]
