What does “proving a claim” mean?
Recently someone asked me about the origins of the term “proving a claim.” It’s a good question, and not a term that we use much today. History geek activatedThe Homestead Act in 1862 opened up 270 million acres of land to homesteaders. It specified that American citizens who were 21 and the head of a household could […]
The congressmen laughed
The Homestead Act of 1862 was, no pun intended, landmark legislation that changed the course of our nation. Professor Hannah Haksgaard, a Property and Family Law professor at the University of South Dakota, has researched and written about the impact of the Homestead Act. One of her white papers, Including Unmarried Women in the Homestead Act of 1862, […]
Little soddy on the prairie
In her letter to her mother, Anna describes her new home: My home is what they call a “soddy.” It is small, about the same size as your dining room and kitchen, Mamma. Most of the homesteaders live in sod homes like mine. There are few trees on the prairie, so we make do. The sod […]
Letters home tell the story
One of my beta readers commented that it appeared I’d done a lot of research while writing Proving Her Claim. She was right. I wanted to learn about the lives of real women homesteaders, and there was no better resource than reading their accounts in letters sent “back home.” These letters documented the challenges and triumphs […]
The path to publishing
When I began this project I really didn’t give much thought to the whole “publishing a book” part of the path to publishing. Boy, did I have a lot to learn! Since starting down this road, I’ve read countless (really, I stopped counting) “how to” articles. I’ve attended even more webinars on everything from “do […]
AP Stylebook vs Chicago Manual of Style
It was the Bible for my copyediting class at South Dakota State University: the Associated Press Stylebook. As journalists, we lived and died by the AP Stylebook: spelling out numbers up to (and including) nine, ignoring the Oxford comma and putting quotation marks around titles rather than using italics. Through the years, the AP Stylebook was my “go to” arbiter for any […]
It’s a Festival! The South Dakota Festival of Books
The South Dakota Festival of Books is the event that readers, writers and book lovers in general look forward to all year. This year, the Festival’s 20th anniversary, the event will be held in Brookings. The SD Festival of Books has grown in scope and prominence over the years. The 2022 event will be held in multiple […]
It’s National Read a Book Day!
True confession: every day should be “Read a Book Day.“ It’s never too late to grab a book and start reading. And no one’s judging if it’s an e-book such as Kindle, an audio book, or a good old-fashioned paperback. And here’s a challenge: if you prefer non-fiction books, pick up a science fiction book instead. If […]