Solstice by Brenda Whiteside

Years ago, when my son was in what I like to call his adult rebellious stage, we started a new tradition. He’d decided Christmas was a commercialized holiday that had little resemblance to what the occasion was supposed to represent. We had just moved to a small farm with him and his soon-to-be wife. Knowing that her family was very traditional when it came to Christmas, and that I’d have to share them on the day, I decided to embrace the idea of returning to the root of the winter holiday…Solstice.

After doing my research, I proposed we celebrate the winter solstice in the manner of farmers and native Americans, before the holiday took the form it has now. On my mother’s side, we have both Choctaw and Chickasaw blood. We’re all card-carrying Indians. My idea was applauded and the tradition lives on, although the farm doesn’t. Our celebration is a mish-mash of European and native influences.

Solstice is about decorating the house in greens to lift the deadness of winter. It is about putting up an evergreen tree to lift our spirits (and maybe protect some wood nymphs who come in from the cold). The winter solstice is about exchanging gifts and opening them in the morning. In bygone days of the holiday, a shaman would visit at night and leave gifts. The shaman wore red and was very wise. It is about a big meal on the eve of Solstice. When we had the farm, we tried to cook everything we grew. And after dinner, we build a fire. We sit around the fire and we have a ceremony, adopted from American Indian tradition, that speaks to the past year and the future.

I now have a granddaughter. As I predicted way back when, they spend Christmas Day evening with my DIL’s side of the family. But we have Solstice. Two wonderful, warm, festive days with them.

Brenda Whiteside

www..brendawhiteside.com 

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Author of romantic suspense.

Discover adventure and love, suspense and

empowerment, sensual pleasures and

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Celebrating Chanukah with Jennifer Wilck

In our house, we celebrate Chanukah. Through the years, many things about our celebration have changed. When the kids were young, we of course made a big deal about the holiday. We’d play music, serve latkes (potato pancakes), play dreidel and on a few of the eight nights, give presents. As the kids have gotten older, our traditions have changed.

The entire family gets together one night to exchange gifts with the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We all bring our menorahs—candelabras with room for nine candles—and we take big group photos of everyone lighting the candles.

We get together with friends one night and our photos over the years show how much the kids have grown (and how willing or unwilling they are now to smile).

One of the eight nights is dedicated to giving back. Instead of presents for ourselves, we donate to a charity. Some years we’ve made blankets and quilts for our local animal shelter. Other years we’ve sent money to a charity we all agree on—a small miracle in and of itself, since we rarely all can agree on anything. Once when the kids were little, we went to the toy store, bought toys and games for kids who didn’t have any, and brought them to a local preschool.

My specialty for Chanukah is making fried Oreos. The holiday celebrates the miracle of the oil lasting for eight nights, so our traditional foods are those made with lots of oil, like donuts. Several years ago, my husband and I went to a county fair and had fried Oreos. We loved them, and since they are deep fried, they fit the holiday perfectly. I found a recipe online to make them and ever since then, family and friends have demanded them every year.

Now that one of my daughters is away at college, I mail her gifts early, trying to figure out the exact right time so that everything arrives on time and we can celebrate with her over FaceTime. Technology is terrific for that, but I confess to missing having her home and celebrating in person. Luckily for me, you younger daughter, who has this last year at home before she leaves for college as well, still likes the traditions we have, even playing with some of her baby Chanukah toys that I find and put out along with the decorations.

So whatever you celebrate, and however you do so, I wish you and your family happy and healthy times together!

Jennifer Wilck
https://www.jenniferwilck.com/

The Smile of an Angel by Janet Fogg

I have never, ever, been a good sleeper. Even when young I slept very lightly and would awaken in the silent, early morning hours, my mind busy with my own version of instant replay. Sometimes I’d tiptoe out of the bedroom I shared with my sister to curl up on the couch and enjoy a few rare hours of privacy and quiet. If it was close to Christmas I would plug in the tree lights and that gentle, multi-colored glow illuminated my thoughts.

     When I was nine or ten years old I was awake but warm in bed when I heard a scrape and muffled thud. I slipped out from beneath the blanket and met my mom in the hallway. Together, we peeked into the living room. The Christmas tree had tipped over and ornaments now decorated the carpet. The two of us quietly pushed the tree straight, tightened the screws that pressed into the tree trunk to hold it upright, and used a couple of dishtowels to sop up the water that had spilled from the stand. My dad, three brothers, and sister slept on.

     The silver angel atop the tree tilted drunkenly to one side as she supervised our efforts. She’d been pulled sideways by the fall and the weight of her power cord. Mom carefully straightened our cherished tree topper as I scampered behind the tree to plug in the cord. Haloed now by faint blue, the angel smiled down at us, her heart glowing.

     That angel is with us still though a hole now pierces her bodice, the heat from the bulb having melted through the old plastic decades ago. So the angel has retired. Each year she briefly supervises my sister’s Christmas decorating efforts when fragile old ornaments are unwrapped and admired, reminding us of our youth and of our mother taken from us, too young. The angel’s smile is as sweet as I remember, yet it was long ago that she plummeted to the carpet and long ago that my mom died. My tears, though, are as fresh as the day we lost her and the hole in my heart is as real as the angel’s. It shall never mend.

     And now, with the holiday season upon us, I thought I would share that long-ago adventure I shared with my mom. In a few days I’ll visit my darling sister. We’ll hug and weep a little and our love will take flight as we cherish the memory of our mother’s gentle smile, now the smile of an angel.

Published by The Wild Rose Press

A Serenade to Die For by Janet Fogg and David Jackson

Soliloquy, a 2010 Holt Medallion Award Winner

http://www.janetfogg.com

Mistletoe and KyAnn Waters

How did Mistletoe come to mean a kiss?

Although many sources say that kissing under the mistletoe is an English custom, there's another explanation for its origin. In Norse mythology there is a story of a loving, if overprotective, mother.

Frigga was mother to the Norse god Balder, the best loved of all the gods. Frigga was the goddess of love and beauty and she loved her son. To ensure no harm would come to him, she went through the world securing promises from everything that sprang from the four elements--fire, water, air, and earth--that they would not harm her beloved Balder.

Leave it to Loki, a mischievous spirit, to find the loophole. Mistletoe and an arrow made from its wood. To make the prank even nastier, he took the arrow to Hoder, Balder's brother, who was blind. Guiding Holder's hand, Loki directed the arrow at Balder's heart and Balder fell dead.
Frigga's tears became the mistletoe's white berries. In the version of the story with a happy ending, Balder is restored to life and Frigga is so grateful that she reverses the murderous reputation of Mistletoe, making it a symbol of love and promising to bestow a kiss upon anyone who passes under it.

So hang some mistletoe and pucker up!

Information gleaned from numerous online searches for mistletoe lore.

*previously posted on other blogs

http://kyannwaters.com/

Pearls ‘n Chocolate Cookies by Jana Richards

A Holiday Treat

560 ml. (2 ¼ cups) all-purpose flour

150 ml. (2/3 cup) cocoa

5 ml. (1 tsp.) baking soda

2 ml. (1/2 tsp.) salt

228 grams (1 cup) butter, softened

175 ml. (¾ cup) granulated sugar

150 ml. (2/3 cup) brown sugar, firmly packed

5 ml. (1 tsp.) vanilla

2 eggs

375 ml. (1 ½ cups) white chocolate baking pieces or chips

Preheat oven to 175 C. (350 F). In small bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside. In large bowl, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla; beat until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add flour mixture and stir until combined. Stir in white chocolate pieces. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cooking sheets and bake for 9-10 minutes. Allow to stand 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets and cooling completely. 

Makes about 2 ½ to 3 dozen cookies.

Baker’s note: Makes a very stiff batter that’s hard to mix, but it all turns out okay in the end. I pulled the cookies from the oven when the tops were still slightly unset, which made a nice soft cookie. Gorgeously chocolatey!

Jana Richards

Laugh. Cry. Love. Feel the Romance

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C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S GIFT GAME! By Cj Fosdick

C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S GIFT GAME!   By Cj Fosdick

          When the number of adults exchanging gifts in your family grows faster than your Christmas budget, or you exchange with co-workers, or a group of friends, you may find this annual gift-game delivers a “creative fun quotient” that is also easy on the budget.

          After you establish an affordable price by consensus, start with finding a gift that begins with the letter “C” the first year. Move to “H” the following year, and continue each subsequent year until you have used up the word, Christmas. With friends, we did this for nine years, choosing mostly gag gifts under $5. With family, we budgeted not more than $25. Each participant bought just one gift or made one gift that didn’t exceed the price limit and began with the sequential letter in the word, CHRISTMAS.  It doesn’t matter how many adults participate or if the number varies, but nobody ever got left with their own present when there were at least 6 to 8 players.   

Number blank Christmas tags-or just blank strips of paper-from 1 to whatever the number of participants. Place all wrapped, tag less gifts under the tree and then draw a number from Santa’s hat or a bowl the host passes around. Whoever holds number 1 gets to choose the first gift from the pile. Number 2 chooses either a gift from the pile…or steals the gift from number 1.

If there is a steal, the “victim” gets to choose another gift to replace the one stolen from him. And so on down the number line, one by one. Choose or steal. Nobody can “re-steal” his original gift, but he could persuade his spouse to do so when their turn is up. To reward the most inspired or in-demand gift, the hostess has the option of awarding a bonus gift of wine or a white elephant of her choosing at the end. Variations on the game can be exchanging gifts using letters from other words, like Holidays, Snowman, Noel, etc. 

Children were exempt from this game in our family. They opened their stash of gifts first and while they were playing with them, the adults played the Christmas letter game. Once these children graduated from school, they were anxious to join in the letter game that produced such gifts as frozen steaks for “S,” and Twenty bow ties made from dollar bills for the letter “T”.

Cj    Happy Holidays!

                       

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November Punctuation Workshops

https://workshop.thewildrosepress.com/

Authors do you love to write and create amazing stories but struggle with punctuation rules?  When do you use a colon?  Where does the comma go?  You are not alone.  Many writers have forgotten the punctuation rules.  We are here to help.  This month, you can attend 3 online classes from the comfort of your couch. All 3 classes for 30.00. You can register ahead or the day of the event.  If you can not attend the day of the event, by registering and paying you are guaranteed the transcript of the workshop. 
So come join us for the first one on Thursday November 1 at 8:00 p.m. eastern at https://workshop.thewildrosepress.com/  and settle in to learn all you need to know about commas in our first class “Comma Chameleon”.  Long time TWRP editor Eilidh MacKenzie, as she takes your hand and walks you through the mystery of where does the comma go.  Any questions, please email us at exec@thewildrosepress.com.
Put the following dates on your calendar so you don’t miss a single one of our workshops this month: 
Thursday, November 1 – 8:00 p.m. eastern  Comma Chameleon. The ins and outs of comma usage.   
Thursday, November 15 -  8:00 p.m. eastern – Dashing off Willy – Nilly (when to use emdashes: or ellipsis in dialogue. 
Thursday, November 29 -  8:00 p.m. eastern – Gut Instincts: Semi-colons and colon usage. 
the link again is https://workshop.thewildrosepress.com/
See you there!

Hello From Sandra Masters

*Originally Posted to Sandra Master's Blog.*

Hope this finds you in the best of health and that we all have a good year ahead of us.  Sandra Masters

For me, it has been a year of awakenings and for that reason, I am thrilled to announce the November 5th release of Book Six in the Duke Series – THE BLUE-EYED BLACK-HEARTED DUKE.  This novel idea came to me in a dream of a red wolf aside Radolf, The Duke of Wolferton. In the background were images of a stained glass piece in a chapel featuring said red wolf and an archangel wielding a blazing lightning bolt sword. This book also represented a departure from my more traditional Regency stories in that the characters led me into the FANTASY  world of Regency Paranormal.  There are no vampires, werewolves, or shape shifters, but these are spiritual guardians of my beloved duke according to a Legend and the Prophecy in the prologue. 

If you go to my website: https://www.authorsandramasters.com, and subscribe to it, you will receive a free download of the entire First Chapter. To entice you further, below is the blurb.

How do you tempt a sinner?—Offer him a saint!

Sizzling, spicy page turner Regency romance

with an element of fantasy supernatural.

Dark, dangerous, brooding and in his eyes unredeemable, Radolf Wolferton, Duke of Wolferton, doesn’t fear death but welcomes it. Guilt-ridden because of his sinful past, the tormented hero of the Waterloo wars, honor-bound, believes he is undeserving of love and closely guards his black heart against love though the family prophecy predicts otherwise.

            Powerfully drawn to him, Jaclyn Moreux, his ward, cannot deny his allure and the sizzling attraction that grows. Lured by his seductive pull, there are danger and passion in his embrace.

            Can Jaclyn help Radolf conquer the internal demon who threatens their future and recognize that a higher supernatural power destines their love?

            Can Radolf surrender to the supernatural power that speaks through the stained glass portrait of his red wolf persona and the archangel to fight for the woman he loves despite the pitfalls?

One night he met with temptation and it bested him. Radolf, Duke of Wolferton, had a reputation as a rake which he never wanted to uphold. Yet a glistening thread of goodness was tattooed on his heart.

https://amzn.to/2QqJPug          Amazon U.S.     

http://bit.ly/2ybd4ts                  The Wild Rose Press    

https://amzn.to/2Rnb9e4          Amazon U.K.      

https://amzn.to/2NmHRsW      Amazon Australia    

Available for pre-order now. Official world-wide release is on November 5th.

A  unique fact about this character is that Radolf discovered in his ten years traveling the Ottoman Empire a unique flower. With a love of all things Turkish, he cultivated…

The Turkish Halfeti Black Rose

Halfeti Rose appeared to verify that Halfeti, Turkey was the only place in the world where these unusual roses prospered. The pitch-black rose appeals to women because of its rarity and also its association with darkness. It depends on whether you seek the dark side of the rose in its morbidity or the light side in its magic.

 We are told these roses appear black to the naked eye, and are grown only in small quantities in the village of Halfeti, Turkey, which our hero, Radolf, Duke of Tremayne, visited on occasion.  Water seeps in from the Euphrates River which has a unique pH level. On a first viewing, the rose is black unless one takes a magnifying glass to inspect it.

Black roses aren’t a natural variation that you can purchase from your local nursery; they’re much more elusive and EXPENSIVE than that.  Sometimes called Black roses, they are also known as the Turkish Halfeti Rose, Arab Bride or Arab Beauty, and bloom in small numbers. 

Visit www.authorsandramasters.com and click on the dashboard BLOG, and you can scroll down to learn everything about this mysterious rose.

Here’s an excerpt for your enjoyment, entitled THE KISS

 Before he could think, fingertips skimmed each other. A smile opened slowly, her upper lips a single breath away, her tongue a slither of invitation one moment, stilled the next, only to venture closer again. Slippery, dazzling the senses, forbidden, but desirable in its implication, the thrill spiraled higher and higher into a mad vortex of lust, pure, and—simple. A sin so delightful, it spun around to make one unable to resist, to give everything for her touch—the infinite pleasure. She moved her mouth closer until there was no space left to hide—only to join in a kiss of blissful ecstasy. Ahh, he never believed it possible for him to feel such sensations again.

            Hope you enjoyed this reading.

            Sandra Masters, Unapologetic Storyteller

                                    

The release date is November 5, 2018 for this Regency Fantasy Romance, is available for pre-order for a limited time at:   Buy Link HERE

Email Address: sandramastersauthor@gmail.com

Website: www.authorsandramasters.com

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Cordwainers and Cobblers by Sandra Masters

Originally posts on Sandra Master's blog.

Cordwainers and Cobblers

A Brief History

Research by Sandra Masters, Regency Novelist, September 2018

Fabulous Shoes and Dancing Slippers

 On the Left:    Silk Shoes with Buckles,French, c. 1760's. @Bata Shoe Museum.

On the Right: Silk and Cordovan leather dancing slippers@Bata Shoe Museum

My Book Six, The Blue-Eyed Black-Hearted Duke, Book Six, Regency Fantasy Romance,

has a secondary character whose father is a Cordwainer Guild Merchant with factories/shops in England and France. My research into the fabulous dancing shoes for women and boots for both men and women became an epic project.

                                       How do you tempt a sinner?—Offer him a saint!

The release date is November 5, 2018 for this Regency Fantasy Romance, is available for pre-order for a limited time at:   Buy Link

Dark, dangerous, brooding and, in his opinion, unredeemable, Radolf, Duke of Wolferton, doesn’t fear death but welcomes it. Guilt-ridden because of his sinful past, the tormented hero of the Waterloo wars, honor-bound, believes he is undeserving of any woman’s love and closely guards his black heart.

            Powerfully drawn to him, Jaclyn Moreux, his ward, cannot deny his allure and the sizzling attraction that grows. She is lured by his seductive charm and the danger and passion in his embrace. But a treacherous villain sets about disparaging the duke to Jaclyn with lies and half-truths.

            Jaclyn vows to help Radolf conquer his demons and accept the supernatural powers that predestines their love.

 

            Back to the fabulous shoe wear, historically, there was a distinction between a cordwainer, who made luxury soft shoes and boots out of the finest leathers, and a cobbler, who repaired them. The word "cordwain," or "cordovan," represents the leather produced in Córdoba, Spain. The term cordwainer (also "Corviser") has origins as early as 1100 AC in England.  Medieval cordovan leather not only was used for the highest quality shoes, but cordwainers also used domestically produced leathers and were not solely producers of luxury footwear.

            A cordwainer's trade contrasts with the cobbler's trade, according to a tradition in Britain that restricted cobblers to repairing shoes. The usage distinction is not universally observed, as the word cobbler is widely used for tradespersons who make or repair shoes. A major British dictionary says that the word cordwainer is archaic, "still used in the names of guilds, for example, the Cordwainers' Company," but its definition of cobbler mentions only mending reflecting the older distinction.

                               The above are examples of specialty shoes and slippers.

In the historic London guild system, the cobblers and cordwainers were separate guilds, and the cobblers were forbidden from working in new leather. Historically, cobblers also made shoes but only used old leather recovered from discarded or repaired shoes. 

                                          A cordwainer’s workstation in Capri, Italy

Today, many makers of bespoken shoes will also repair their work, but shoe repairers are not normally in a position to manufacture new footwear. In London, the historically controlled occupation of cordwainer became monitored by the Guild of the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers. They were granted a royal charter of incorporation in 1439 but had received their first ordinance in 1272. The ward of the City of London named Cordwainer is where most cordwainers lived and worked in England.

            The shoe industry, cordwainers and cobblers, have a rich history, and a great deal of information is available via the internet. This snippet of research is to acquaint readers with this fascinating occupation.

Posted By: Sandra Masters

Email Address: sandramastersauthor@gmail.com

Website: www.authorsandramasters.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sandra.mMasters

Newsletter sign up www.authorsandramasters.com

Amazon Author Page:

Resources: Cordwainer, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://janeaustenslondon.com/2016/11/23/GeorgeHoby

BAKING With KEYWORDS by Cj Fosdick

Every published  book, like every other marketed product, has keywords that identify its genre and basic content—kind of like ingredients in a recipe. They affect ranking, sales and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Keywords for my Accidental Series are Time Travel, Romance, Suspense, and sometimes, even Western. I like to think my books offer even more ingredients: a good pinch of humor, a cup of comparative culture, a pint of history, a box of animal crackers, folded into settings well creamed with a mixed-nut addition of characters beyond those who reflect red hair and green eyes.

How does one begin to pigeon-hole a multi-genre book?  Compare it to shopping for a mild salsa, only to find it burns like wasabi and raw cayenne. This became clear to me when some reviewers confessed PLEASANT surprise, admitting the Accidentals were not what they expected, or even what they were used to reading.  Here is a example of how my 45^th (recent Amazon reviewer) was surprised by reading “The Accidental Wife”:

 This is an amazing book! I am still reeling from it! Normally, I do not read westerns, or fantasy, just stick to romance for the most part. Reading the description to this book, I was intrigued by the unique plotline, so I decided to read it. It surpassed all my expectations!  This book is well written, full of the introspection and definition of unforgettable characters. It is a love story and at the same time, it is a glimpse at what life was like for the settlers of Wyoming. There is an interracial marriage of a part Sioux Indian and our protagonist. He is the most adorable, simple and intense man I have read in a long time. He is cultured and yet in recognition of his roots, he is in tune with the Earth, willing to live off the land in peace with his family.  5 stars—An Amazing Story you will not want to put down!  (BOTH Accidentals on sale.)  https://amzn.to/2IdLXFh                                  

Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series must have encountered similar problems with genre description, maybe because DG used her scientific background and love of research to show how Claire—a contemporary doctor—could outsource her medical knowledge 200 years into the past. For me, it was fascinating to see how resourceful and creative a strong, intelligent woman could be in an era that killed witches and honored the superiority of brawny warriors and flawed Kings. The history/culture element in her series was enlightening. The romance and character conflict was hot; the battles were exciting.

Her books were promoted as Time Travel, Fantasy or Romantic, but more in the Mainstream vein.  A multi-genre book is like a good recipe with numerous ingredients. Until you taste the final product, you may not know the end product is a treat to repeat. By virtue of nine best sellers and a TV series on Starz, DG baked a feast that has a over 33,000 Amazon reviews, a million fans…and the bucks to prove it.  Color me green!

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Character Names that Sing! by Cj Fosdick

Uriah Heep, Pippi Longstocking, Ichabod Crane, Ebenezer Scrooge, Holly Golightly, Huckleberry Finn, and Katniss and Primrose Everdeen. Who can ever forget character names that sing in the classic stories and films we all love?  No doubt the authors who created them set out to tweak memorable impressions of the characters they named, as well as the titles of their books. Would their novels be less memorable…or less successful with more pedestrian names and titles? Is there a psychology involved in these choices?  Do supporting characters need pedestrian names to make the main characters more memorable? Villain names can swing either way.

I spend an inordinate amount of time choosing character names and book titles. My character list was long for book three in my Accidental Series--The Accidental Heiress. The process is more disciplined than accidental, however. Because the book was set in Ireland, it took several days to research, google and compile a master list of Irish first names and surnames with brief meanings. Did the names trip on the tongue and fit character profiles?  Were they true to the era, country and culture?  Too modern?  Too American?  Too close to other character names? Did the syllables vary in both names?  Did both first and last name end in the same letter or syllable?  Sometimes that works, sometimes not: (Mary McGary or Galen Moran).  

After pairing favorite combinations, I tweaked the profiles and slept on the decisions and alternates before making final choices.  Since this book involved an ancestral mystery, I also created an O’Brien family tree with birth and death dates for easy reference, particularly for the family graveyard chapter that finds my honeymooners looking for a specific grave.  For quick reference, I pinned the family tree, along with Irish words and phrases and miscellaneous notes to a portable bulletin board and propped it at arms length from my laptop. Before I hit chapter ten in the new book, a few names had to be changed. Naming one character Treasa just didn’t work when her fictional daughter introduced her as her mother, Treasa.

Did Shakespeare go to such lengths? “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," as Juliet points out to Romeo in one of the bard’s famous quotes—which brings to mind another consideration. Romantic couples need names that sound as compatible as Tristan and Isolde, Claire and Jamie, Nick and Nora. Would Scarlett and Steve be half as memorable as Scarlett and Rhett?

Often, I like to thank friends or favorite relatives for their support by naming minor characters after them. Maria Schmidt, who was the riding instructor of heroine Jessica in The Accidental Wife, was once one of my riding students. Stella Lowry, Jessica’s boss in the same book, was really the late Sandra Lowry, the archivist and librarian of Ft. Laramie for over 35 years. Sandy was my historical “google girl” for years. When I told her I was naming a character for her, changing her first name to Stella, she laughed. “My mother-in-law’s name is Stella Lowry.” (The coincidence wasn’t lost on me; there have been several “Twilight Zone-like” coincidences in the series, but that’s another story.)

Choosing names for my real children, even names for some of our pets didn’t take this much planning.  But the prep and research does work. My fictional characters  (Tallie, Scout and Emery) approve of their unusual names, and readers do remember them. I can’t wait to introduce Caitrin, Cormac and Quinn in the new book!  

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Ghost Busting at Ft. Laramie by Cj Fosdick

Vacations for writers are always rewarding when combined with research. The family vacation in 1977 that ignited my love of the historic west was mapped on poster board that had us following a route from Rochester, Minnesota through several states. Forts and battle sites were dots on our trail, along with wagon ruts, Register Cliff and Chimney Rock, but Ft. Laramie was the starring interest. I didn’t know it then, but the celebrated fort would invade several of my books. Original buildings including the cavalry barracks, Old Bedlam, and the Burt house would become specific sets in my historical fiction and time travel suspense. 

 For much of the 19^th century, the strategically-located garrison was a fueling station and protectorate for pioneers heading west. By mid century alone, over 50,000 emigrants stopped at the oasis. The railroad began to cork the wagon flow in 1869 but the fort flourished for 20 more years until it closed in 1890.  Our 1977 counterpart of a pioneer conestoga was an orange Volkwagen camper with a tiny frige and seat cushions that converted to beds for two adults, two young children and a Schnauzer. Armed with cameras, notebooks and tape recorder, I was a kid in a candy store. A writer with a book in gestation.  A gestation that would last decades. (A long story-involving moves, more children, horses, and a manuscript stored in a freezer.)

Hubby and I returned to Ft. Laramie after our nest…and barn emptied in 2014. The Ft. Laramie National Monument had improved greatly between visits. An 1876 bunkroom re-created in the Cavalry Quarters became a key site in Book two, The Accidental Stranger. Was it also coincidental that our tour guide was a distant cousin of one of my neighbors back home?  By this time I was deep into Ft. Laramie history, intrigued by documentation of a young female ghost that appeared at the post every seven years, riding a black horse. The story is included in The Accidental Wife.

I was also corresponding with the great grandson of one of the post commanders and Sandra Lowry, the long-time fort archivist and librarian. I finally met Sandy in person during my second tour, before she took a medical leave that would end sadly. Happily, I had already dedicated The Accidental Wife to her, providing her a bit of immortality with a minor character in both books named Stella Lowry. She was amused by the coincidence since her mother in law’s name was Stella Lowry.

                Historic locations always make me feel I am walking lockstep with ghostly figures who lived centuries ago. The “coincidences” associated with Old Ft. Laramie weren’t lost on me. After my stepmom died two years ago, I found old photos of her and my late father taken at Ft. Laramie on their 1954 honeymoon. I recognized one of them was taken in front of the old Burt House where the heroine of my novel series slips back in time at a re-created tea party. My stepmom loved The Accidental Wife, but never mentioned that she had actually been to Ft. Laramie as a new bride. Yet another coincidence…or ghostly sanction to finally give birth to a story that had to be told?

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