During our recent vacation to the coast of Washington State, we visited Cape Disappointment Light (the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast) and North Head Light. The scenery is breathtaking, the mouth of the Columbia River steeped in maritime history, and the lights, themselves, a memorable visit…especially for history buffs. And I found a novel set in this location!
I share a full scene that didn’t make it into the finished novel: The Bride Lottery. I’ll explain why this scene was cut from the final version during editing.
This article celebrates the origins of the United States’ Independence Day, including 10 little known Top Ten facts regarding historical celebrations of July 4th.
Fans of Mail Order Bride historical romances know that many of these marriages of convenience involved letter-writing for a couple to become acquainted and perhaps eventually marry. The curious thing is that writing and love letters between a courting couple wasn’t a phenomenon for those separated by distance. Couples in the Victorian-Era United States often sent love letters to one another as part of their courtship, even when the other party resided nearby.
Twenty-first century people have it easy. In fact, most of us don’t know how to make soap–much less the ingredients (found on the Old West homestead) that should be saved in the process of living so that soap could be made. Soap did become readily available through catalog orders, but it cost money, and the more remove a settler, or the earlier a man or family found themselves on a frontier, the dirty, hot job of soap making was a necessary one. This article sheds light on the process, basic ingredients, methodology, as well as the rise of commercially prepared soap products.
