It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” so goes the Christmas song popularized by singer Andy Williams in 1963. According to Wikipedia, the music has continued to make the top 10 list of most favorite Christmas songs every year since Andy Williams crooned it. Christmas is my most favorite time of the year for many reasons. I’m one of …
If you’ve read my History and Travel Adventure blogs over the last several years, you know I’m fascinated by world history and relish opportunities to travel. Both have been a part of my DNA since I was a child and became even more pronounced when I attended an international college for my last two years of high school, the United …
Our family decorates the house for Christmas each year on the day after Thanksgiving. It’s become a tradition. Carols play in the background while a fury of activity ensues. Everyday household décor is removed and replaced by candles, garlands, snow globes, and poinsettias. We rearrange the furniture in the family room to set up the Christmas tree in front of …
In the first of a two-part series, What Was Life Really Like on the Oregon Trail?, we considered how the pioneers really fared on the Overland Trails and the hard facts of life for those who emigrated west by wagon train. As a historical writer of Gilded Age fiction, I want to dive deeper into my novelette, The Sojourner’s Quest–a …
In September/October 2022, I took a road trip with my husband in a 300 hp Jeep Grand Cherokee to visit friends and family and sightsee the Midwest, Blue Ridge Mountains, and Eastern Seaboard. With autumn upon us, we packed the SUV with clothes and extra gear for inclement weather. A small ice chest and picnic basket held a stash of …
On a recent trip through the upper Midwest and eastern parts of the United States, my husband and I visited many fascinating historical sites. We toured some with self-guided audio devices, others by reading the informational placards, and others by following and listening to knowledgeable docents. Each place had a unique and compelling story to tell that illuminated the history …
In 2007, our family visited New York City during Spring Break to enjoy the sights and attend a few Broadway shows. The trip held many fun and fascinating moments, but the most moving for me was touring Ellis Island. The former immigration station had received and processed my Hungarian grandparents in the early 1920s, and as I walked the same …
Have you ever visited a place where you had that sensation of having stepped into a picture postcard of a bygone era? Did your body seem to relax, as if you’d been transported into a time long ago when life seemed much simpler and the stresses and strains of daily routine melted away? Christmas 2019 in Georgetown, Colorado was that …
Today, I’m switching up my content a little bit because it’s Veteran’s Day, and since my father was a Veteran of World II, it seems only fitting for me to say thank you to everyone who has served and is still serving today in the armed forces of the United States. Your contributions to help secure the freedoms we hold …
In my last blog, I talked about the nineteenth-century, narrow-gauge Georgetown Loop Rail Road in Colorado. This week, I want to expand on a theme that connects Swiss technology with another Colorado icon—the Manitou and Pikes Peak Colorado Cog Railway west of Colorado Springs. Long before the Territory of Colorado was formed in 1861 in response to the Colorado gold …
Long before my Singing Silver Mine historical fiction series came to pass, our family became fans of the Georgetown Loop Railroad, a living museum attraction in Georgetown, Colorado. The three-foot, narrow-gauge railroad through the Rocky Mountains provided a delightful summer excursion only forty-five minutes west from Denver. Little did I know its importance in the history of Colorado would take …
If you’ve read my blogs, you know one of the more enjoyable aspects of being a writer of historical fiction for me is research, especially if I have the chance to go to the place that I’m researching. In the case of Muckross House, the historical mansion and environs became a flashback scene for my protagonist, Anna, in A Song …