For fun or matrimony

One of the short stories I’m polishing up is about a mail-order bride in the Old West. Researching this story was a lot of fun. The high number of mail-order brides in the Old West was due to two main factors. The first was that an awful lot of single men had headed west to…

Keep them doggies movin’

My first introduction to the American Old West was when my family briefly lived in Kansas. I don’t know exactly how long we lived there – I was three when we arrived and four when we moved away. The most important things that happened during our time there was I got a baby sister (who,…

Making things up

I spent last weekend in San Francisco and Napa Valley. It was beautiful, fun, and I learned that sharing wine tastings is a good idea if you’re going to visit a lot of wineries in one day. I didn’t come up with any new stories, but I did get some glimmers that might turn into…