History
Who Were “The Northerners” of the Pacific Northwest?
In 1844, a schooner called “Pigeon” was found adrift, empty and burned out, off of Maury Island in the south part of the Oregon Territory’s Puget Sound. The craft’s seven man crew was never found. Natives in the area attributed the disaster to an early morning attack by the “Northerners” who came on longboats. WHO…
Read More“Historical novelist turns NW history into best sellers”
New Day Northwest, a show that airs on King 5 TV, takes a look at the award winning Widow Walk and Isthmus books, which showcase NW history in novel form.
Read MorePostpartum Care in 19th Century America
One of the female characters in Widow Walk, Emmy Evers, receives postpartum care after suffering a miscarriage. Emmy was cared for by a male doctor and some female caretakers, whose greatest concern is her postpartum fever as they had seen so many women perish when this was present. Because she was hemorrhaging, the physician who attended…
Read MoreBook Guide and Discussion Questions for Isthmus
Our publisher has asked that we add study questions for both Widow Walk and its sequel, Isthmus. Ten of the following questions are included in the paper back and e-book versions of Isthmus. Isthmus Book Guide and Discussion Questions: 1. The 1849 discovery of gold in California dramatically increased the travel across the Panamanian isthmus. For several years, the local…
Read MoreOn the Track – Isthmus
In Isthmus, set to premier in December, we will be reintroduced to many of the characters from Widow Walk. This brief introduction from Part One: “Gold and silver, the coveted, malleable metals that glistered the ceilings and gilded the columns of the palaces of the ruling classes of the Western world and lined the chalices elevated over the…
Read MoreTattoos: A Long-Standing Native American Tradition
In Widow Walk many of the First Nation Haida, Tlingit, Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Kwakiutl characters wear prominent tattoos and other body decorations. In one scene, a Makah woman, slaved to a Salish tyee (chieftain), recognizes the distinctive markings of the naked Haida warrior she encounters while retrieving water from a stream. She…
Read MoreThe Pig War
Oregon Country: A Brief History of a Land Shared by the US and Britain Widow Walk is a work of historical fiction based on true events that occurred between the years 1852 to 1859 in the Pacific Northwest, then called the Washington Territory of the “Oregon Country.” One of the central pieces of history in Widow…
Read MoreGaribaldi the Abolitionist
In anticipation of the publication of Isthmus I believe it is important to learn about some of the significant historical figures who influenced the characters in this book and also would have had some impact on Emmy Evers and her family. General Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Italian Risorgimento dominated the headlines of newspapers throughout the western world in…
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