Judging a book by its cover
In 1860 George Eliot wrote “You can’t judge a book by its cover” in her book The Mill on the Floss. (And yes, George Eliot was the pen name of Miss Mary Ann Evans.) But in the publishing world, people do judge books by their cover. In fact, book covers are one of the most important factors in […]
Fur trappers and traders made their mark
Proving Her Claim is set in Rendezvous, Dakota Territory. According to the story, the town was founded during those halcyon days when French Canadian and Scots fur trappers were the only white men in this new wilderness. The town was named for the rendezvous — the annual gatherings where fur trappers and traders would meet to celebrate […]
What motivates you?
I volunteer on several boards, and at a recent meeting the organizer asked a “warm up” question to get the group ready for work. She asked: “Tell us about a meaningful extra curricular activity you did as a child or teen.” Not being athletic or musical, my extra curriculars were mostly academic — like the […]
Women’s Suffrage on the frontier
The Women’s Suffrage Movement — the right to vote — took nearly 100 years before it was the law of the nation. In the 1820s and 1830s, men in most states could vote, regardless of whether they had property. For many historians, the Seneca Falls Convention was the turning point for Women’s Suffrage. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a […]
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 […]