Ninety Six was the name of a trading post and then a town, fort and Revolutionary battle site in the back country of South Carolina. Nobody seems to know why it is called by that name. The best guess is that it was 96 miles to a nearby Indian village. All I know is that my ancestor … Continue reading »
The Battle on King’s Mountain
The Battle of King’s Mountain was a pivotal battle of the American Revolution. All of those who fought were American militiamen with the one exception of Colonel Patrick Ferguson, a Scot, who led the Loyalists. This is his monument: I visited the historic site on a sunny day in October, and the play of shadow … Continue reading »
Michael Eisan’s House
“At the end of the workday, Michael paused before his cabin and examined his workmanship: the hand-planed logs with mortared chinks. It was always a marvel to him that he had done it himself. Where there had been nothing but wilderness before, he had crafted a home. The deep pride he felt steeled him for … Continue reading »
Virgin Land
Once the ox was going smoothly and Michael had a good strong hand on the plough, he thought about how things had changed in the decade since he had arrived in the district as a young man of thirty-five. Many of the German families that had settled Log Creek with him had given up and … Continue reading »
On US Tax Withholding
If you’re e-publishing with an American company (Smashwords, Amazon, or whatever) and you don’t live in the US, then you need to know this. The IRS will withhold 30% of the profit of your ebooks. Canada and the UK (and maybe other countries as well) have a special tax treaty with the US. So you can … Continue reading »
Why Write?
Sometimes I go in to a book store, start looking at books and am overwhelmed! Not only do I not know which one to read, I start to wonder why I write. Does the world really need another book? Thank you to my friend Zoe Dickinson who posted this on Facebook today: Periodically I freak … Continue reading »
The Missing Pieces of his Silence
That’s the working title of my new novel, which used to be called Loyal Unto Death. I am running into all kinds of headaches writing the part about the American Revolution. My main character is a Loyalist, thus on the losing side. But he’s a real person and he was really at the Battle of King’s … Continue reading »
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: 600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get … Continue reading »
Choose Joy Before Survival
I’ve been making the wrong choices ever since I was a child. I distinctly remember at the age of about six, when given the choice of dance or swimming lessons, I chose swimming . Not that I liked it more– I didn’t– but I reckoned that if I drowned, it wouldn’t matter how great a dancer I was. … Continue reading »
Back from the Dead
That title of this blog is facetious but there is some truth to it. I have just been on a one-week vacation to Maui. It was another island in the Pacific, but unlike Vancouver Island, it was warm even in November. Unlike my earlier trip to Nova Scotia and South Carolina, this one had nothing … Continue reading »
