Writing, Published Works & Blog
Inevitable Questions at Book-Signings…Changing Careers
Common Questions at Book Signings…Career Change: Physician/Educator to Historical Fiction Author With the publication of Isthmus today, Christmas 2014, I am now scheduled to tour the book and present it at a number of gatherings. Likely, as I have in the past with Widow Walk, I will discuss the creation of the cover art as a…
Isthmus now available!
Just released! The second book in the Widow Walk Saga: Isthmus >> Get it now on Amazon! It is 1860 and revolution is erupting throughout the world over universal emancipation. Civil war looms in the Unites States. In the midst of it all, a young woman is moving back to Boston with what is left…
Working the Next Sculpture
These two pieces will be bronze with a black patina – wall mounts as a backdrop for an outdoor courtyard fountain. The smaller of the two pieces is 4′ x 6′, the larger piece is 13′ x 6′. I decided to do this in bronze because it will weather better than granite or basalt…
On 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…
Tattoos: 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…
Port Townsend: History and Role in Widow Walk
Port Townsend, was named in 1792 by explorer George Vancouver after his friend the Marquis of Townsend. Located on the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula, it was inhabited solely by Native Americans throughout the 1700’s and early 1800’s. The Chimakum people were the predominant group. The Klallam Indians controlled the land that encompassed the area…
Trappers: Life as a Northwest Fur Trapper
The Widow Walk characters Rene Marte and Ebin Cull, as well as the denizens in the Red Pelican Inn, are Northwest trappers. Marte is a “Métis” the term that is used for people of First-Nation and European mixed race descent. Cull is a former African slave who has migrated north. These characters are typical of the men…
The 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…
The Geography and Climate of Widow Walk and Isthmus
I anticipate that Isthmus, the first sequel to Widow Walk, will be ready for readers by this Christmas. The geography and climate of the two regions in which Emmy Evers and her family traveled were distinctly different. Widow Walk is set in the Pacific Northwest region, including parts of present day Washington state, the San Juan Islands,…
Garibaldi 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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