On a lovely October day in 1999 my mother and I wound our way south on I-95 from Boston. We maneuvered our rental car to the ramp of the New London to Orient Point ferry and landed on Long Island. We were there to see the Horton Point Lighthouse in Southold, but what I found in that very special place …
Ever Wonder What Goes On at a Writer’s Conference?
I just returned from the Mount Hermon Writer’s Conference and it was the best one ever! Do you ever wonder what goes on a writer’s conference? Writing? A lot of musing? Well, perhaps, but not necessarily. It can be a place to hone your writing skills, meet others who write in your genre or out, meet industry professionals and even …
THE TRIBAL KNOT, by Rebecca McClanahan
I just finished reading The Tribal Knot, A Memoir of Family, Community, and a Century of Change, by Rebecca McClanahan and enjoyed it so very much that I had to share it with you! I was fortunate to come into contact with a distant cousin (we share the same 9th GGF, Barnabas Horton!) through one of my writing groups, Faith …
Women’s History Month: Alice Bradford
March is Women’s History Month, and in my last entry I introduced you to my 9th great-grandmother, Mary Horton, my favorite fearless female in history, and the heroine in my first novel, A PLACE IN HIS HEART. It releases in June! Today I’d like to tell you about another fearless female who kept popping up whenever I did research for …
In Honor of Women’s History Month: Mary Horton
Reading Randy Seaver’s blog, Genea-Musings, I just discovered that March is Women’s History Month! Saturday his blog featured another genea blogger, Lisa Alzo’s post Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month. Lisa offer’s thirty-one ideas to honor our female ancestors and I absolutely love this idea. Thank you, Randy and Lisa! In 1999 I took my mother, Helen Jean …
ROBERT FROST: STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
On this day in history, March 7, 1923, Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, was published. My mother taught it to me when I was in the fifth grade – I needed something for school – and it was the first poem, I believe, I ever memorized after nursery rhymes. Though Robert Frost spent much of …
BEACHSIDE WRITERS WORKSHOP in YACHATS
This writer was out and about over the weekend, sharpening the pencil at the 2014 Beachside Writers Workshop in Yachats, Oregon. I initially experienced this “mini-conference meets writer retreat” in 2009. With my first manuscript barely begun, I was blessed to meet author Jane Kirkpatrick at a book signing in Hood River, Oregon. At the end of the signing she …
MISSING LINK: WHEN NAMES MAKE GENEALOGY A PUZZLE
When researching the family genealogy line, names can often become the missing link and a source of frustration. The best place to start with any family tree is with yourself, working back through your parents and grandparents. Beyond your grandparents, you might want to choose to work with each family name, one at a time. For instance, my father is a …
THE MISSING LINK: Stonehenge and the Bluestone Rocks
NBC reported today that the source of the smaller bluestone rocks at Stonehenge, England, has been discovered. For years the existence of the fascinating rocks have spurred speculation as to how the rocks, some over thirty feet tall and weighing 25 tons got to their present location. Scientist have determined the “smaller” Stonehenge rocks–some more than thirteen feet tall and up to four …
THE MISSING LINK: A Rose by Any Other Name
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” She spoke of Romeo, of course, but what is true of a rose may not be true when you try to apply it to a person. Of course, if she meant what lies within each of us is what matters, I’d have to agree. …