As we approach Thanksgiving 2022, it is time to again set the Thanksgiving History record straight. The Pilgrims were not the first Americans to have a period of thanks for an abundant harvest, nor did they invite the Natives to join them. Many Indigenous North American communities had their own traditions of giving thanks for a fall harvest centuries before the Mayflower sailed into Cape Cod Bay. The Natives who gathered with the English settlers in […]
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Behind the Scenes: Virtual Book Launch!
If a behind-the-scenes tour of pulling together a 2020 style virtual book launch does not interest you, close today’s blog and enjoy few extra minutes in your day. Our virtual Book Birth Bash Party Friday, October 16 was held in the house-turned office-studio of Bayou City Press publishing company, which is owned and operated by Julie Gianelloni Connor. Read her summary of the event here. The official publication date was October 12, 2020 – aka […]
Continue readingTwelve Generations After the Mayflower
I met Beth Splaine last summer at the writer’s retreat where I was working on Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures. Each evening we read portions of our work, so she was aware of my efforts to retell this famous story as a historical novel, with special emphasis on the perspective of the Natives and women. As a result of that event, I signed a contract with Green Writers Press to publish the book. […]
Continue readingWho Are the Wampanoag?
The Wampanoag, originally a confederacy of 69 tribes inhabiting what is now southeastern Massachusetts, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Rhode Island, played a crucial role in the earliest days of contact between Native and European cultures on Turtle Island. Today, out of six Wampanoag communities, the Mashpee Wampanoag (People of the First Light), and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), are federally recognized sovereign tribes living in Massachusetts, Eastern Rhode Island, and Martha’s Vineyard, respectively. […]
Continue readingMayflower Chronicles – The Tale of Two Cultures
This month I signed a contract with Green Writers Press in Vermont to publish a book that has taken seven years, three trips to Europe, and multiple trips to New England to write. Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures is a historical fiction account of the very real men, women, children, crew, and two dogs that sailed from Plymouth, England to what became Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. It is also the story of the Natives […]
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