Columbus Metropolitan Library Book Festival The Columbus Metropolitan Library Festival was the library’s first Book Festival, planned to celebrate its 150th anniversary. They estimate over 30,000 folks came out to check out the festivities. It was 18 months in the making and involved dozens and dozens of staff and volunteers. Over and over again I heard people saying they hoped this was the first annual event. Columbus Metropolitan Library has many good reasons to be […]
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Fourth of July 2023
Fourth of July 2023 has me thinking about frogs. Perhaps you’re aware of the frog-in-the-pot theory of change. Apparently, you can boil a live frog easily if you put the frog in an open pot filled with cold water. Gradually increase the temperature over a long period of time, and the frog will not jump out, even as the water temperature rises to lethal levels. Heather Cox Richardson has written a succinct and helpful summary […]
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Historical Stories Inspire Change
This week’s article “Historical Stories Inspire Change” is a guest column by Arlene Westcott who offered to provide it as I was packing to head to the 2023 Historical Novel Society conference. It was a huge help to have it waiting for me when I returned from several days of discussing the power of historical stories to inspire change. That was my hope when I wrote Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures and Mary […]
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Van Velzer Press
I was fortunate to learn about Van Velzer Press before I was ready to publish my most recent book. In my experience writing is about equal parts actually cranking out words and thinking about what to write while staring into space, waiting for the light to turn green, or trying to go to sleep. Most writers hope to share their work with readers, which requires a team of editors and advance readers who give honest, but […]
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For Goodness Sake
Do you believe goodness matters? Or that goodness is a virtue? Or that goodness is more prevalent than ugliness, rudeness, and violence? How we see the world boils down to where we look and our sources of information about the world. If we only tune into mass media information, it’s easy to fall into despair; for evil and cruelty are real and reported ad nauseum in media outlets. Yet, if we turn off the flow […]
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