The Grasshopper Chapel in Cold Spring, MN
One of the most dramatic aspects of the Rocky Mountain Locust Plagues of the 1870s was Governor Pillsbury’s call for a day of prayer on April 26, 1877. Minnesota was in a bad way. Flour mills had closed because there was no wheat. Railroads lost traction because of the slippery grasshoppers on the tracks. Farmers […]
Cold Spring Historical Society and Library Event
On March 8, 2023, I presented a program at Cold Spring, Minnesota, sponsored by the Cold Spring Library and Historical Society. My topic? The Rocky Mountain Locust Plagues of the 1870s. I stumbled upon this most interesting chapter of history while researching ABERCROMBIE TRAIL and POMME DE TERRE. It felt natural to continue this series […]
Writer’s Retreat with Candace Simar
About a dozen writer friends and I spent a delightful three days at the Baymont Inn in Baxter, MN. We accomplished our objective of encouraging each other and breaking up the winter doldrums. Represented were mystery writers, historical novelists, non-fiction writers, travel writers, journalists, poets, and children’s book writers. We each brought 3-5 pages to […]
Blooming Prairie Book: Fort Juleson
I grew up not far from the old Fort Juleson site near Underwood, Minnesota. In 1876, after Custer’s defeat in Montana, the Upper Midwest braced for a Sioux attack. It was only 14 years after the U.S./Dakota War, and it remained fresh in their minds. Rumors were rampant. Newspapers falsely reported Indian raids in other […]
Opening Day at Fort Abercrombie Historical Site
I’m invited to Fort Abercrombie’s opening day for their 2023 season. It’s always fun with Civil War reenactors drilling and firing the cannon. Fort historians offer golf-cart tours for a small fee. The museum is filled with artifacts of the six-week siege in 1862. The history comes alive. Opening day is an excellent time to […]
Fort Abercrombie Historical Site Books
Fort Abercrombie is one of my happy places. The historical site is a North Dakota treasure with its rich history and natural beauty. My great grandfather drove the stage to the fort in the 1860’s, and inspired the Abercrombie Trail Series. It’s hard to believe the peaceful spot was once a battlefield between the U.S. […]
Who writes like Ernie Altbacker?
My final and perhaps most surprising match from my SCORE IT! writing style evaluation is my match with Ernie Altbacker, author of The SHARK WARS SERIES for middle-schoolers, plus a long list of screenwriting credits! EJ Altbacker is an Emmy nominated screenwriter who has written for such shows as Spooksville, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, […]
Who is Tabor Evans?
My Score It! results also matched me with Tabor Evans, a western writer. Tabor Evans’s Longarm series–with its “new slant on the Old West”, remains one of the most popular of all the “adult Westerns” commanding an impressive part of the popular Western marketplace. The series was written by “Tabor Evans”, a house pseudonym used […]
Who writes like David Baldacci?
The Score It! results are in. The literary analysis measured four areas of writing style for comparison: Authorial Vocabulary (voice); Expressive Complexity (choice and distribution of word lengths and expressive style); Grammar (parts of speech chosen including use of prepositional phrases); and Tonal Qualities (use of functional words such as a/an/of). The results are unexpected. […]
Authors similar to Candace Simar: Who writes like me?
Who writes like me? What books in today’s market resemble mine? These questions are crucial to publishing and marketing these days, but leave me stymied. I know I want to write like Kristin Hannah or Anthony Doerr, but my frontier fiction wasn’t exactly in the same category. Sandra Dallas and Jane Kilpatrick write in my […]