WWII in the American South: Ruth Francisco’s Camp Sunshine
Ruth Francisco’s WWII novel, Camp Sunshine, entertains and informs with clear, specific storytelling. Already a fan of WWII history and fiction, I greatly enjoyed this novel. Francisco animates a rather unattended war detail, an amphibious…
Mystery, History and Love: You’ll Find Them in the Details
My grandmother, Laura, died in 1997 and yet, she remains clear in my mind. From decades earlier, I feel her cool hands on my feverish forehead. When I was four years old and abruptly relieved…
Tragedy on the Great Plains: The 1888 Children’s Blizzard
Weather humbles us and we’ve bowed to it frequently during the last several years. Hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, wind-whipped wildfires, blizzards and floods demolish our attempts to humanize our landscapes and keep ourselves safe. We can’t…
A Skunk, Google Earth and an Anvil Salesman
Scene One: Goodhusband is making toast in the kitchen. “What’s that smell?” “A smell?” I concentrate and sniff. Nothing but toast. Gilda the white WunderSchnauzer paces at our glass patio door, sliding her nose along…
More on Flannery O’Connor
As mentioned in the previous post, Flannery O’Connor didn’t coddle her readers. She emphasized the origin of fiction and identified a potential risk for writers who wish to press the reader toward spiritual mysteries. I…
In a Grotesque, Yet Spiritual Place
Today, while bloghopping, I found a site where a Christian author, a year or so ago, had invited his readers to consider why Flannery O’Connor is so often disliked by Christian readers and writers. He…
At Home in the Wild, Wild West
One of my all-time favorite novels is Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. I’ve watched this author with great interest since I trekked to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to attend the Western Literature Association Conference in 1989. Having grown…
An Authentic Place in History: More Thoughts on Writing it Then
Writing (historical) fiction–any fiction that isn’t in the “now” — complicates the attempt to connect with the cultures, land and languages of specific locations. As I currently write about European cities and villages in the…
She Says it Well…
Today I will be uncharacteristically brief. On Beyond the Margins’ web site, Sarah McCoy eloquently testifies to “The Significance of Settings”in writing. (Not place settings, of course, but this is cheesecake, after all.)I hope you…
The Gift of Belonging
Great Plains and Western literature (and I) lost a wonderful friend last March. Dr. Arthur Huseboe contributed to so much in the lives of so many that I can’t begin to detail his life. I…
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