LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR by Marisa Masterson

 It started with a name and then a title. Sookie's Silence. I wanted to use that unusual nickname for my next heroine. I needed a word to go with it, so I chose silence. But why was this heroine silent?

Had she been assaulted? Threatened? I considered all of these and dismissed them. It came to me that Sookie was silent because she could not talk. How would I write a novel where the key female had no dialogue?

Sign language! I had to create a language for her.

I started by researching whether sign language was even invented at that time. Through this research, I discovered the sweet story of a minister who lived out Christ's command to love our neighbors.

It was in Connecticut and the year was 1814. Minister Dr. Thomas Gallaudet had a neighbor whose daughter was deaf. Despite her handicap, Alice appeared to be extremely intelligent. Gallaudet tried to teach the girl to read and write. Quickly, he realized he didn't have the skills to educate her. 

Instead of giving up, the minister raised money to go to Europe. There, he studied at the National Institute for Deaf-Mutes. When Gallaudet needed to return to America, he convinced one of the leading teachers from that school to move to Connecticut. The man agreed, knowing he would help set up a school for the deaf in the United States.

The two men established the American School for the Deaf. This school was free for its students. Over the next forty-five years, many more schools came into existence because of Gallaudet's efforts.

American School for the Deaf

And why? Because one many loved his neighbor enough to make a difference in her life and others in desperate need. I've never read Gallaudet's personal writings, but I am guessing he felt the Lord's calling to do this. And his efforts were certainly blessed.

Back to Sookie. My heroine doesn't have the benefit of learning in a school for the deaf. And, she isn't deaf after all, only mute. She and her sister create a language between themselves and even record it in a dictionary of sorts. This language appears throughout my book as well as a page from their dictionary.

Intrigued? Sookie's Silence releases April 13. Pre-order today if you want to be sure it's on your reading device right away.

WHAT COFFEE REALLY WON THE WEST by Marisa Masterson

Last month, I wrote about tea. As I researched for that blog article, I ran into information about an unusual sort of Texas conflict. A war over coffee--

Coffee was so important to soldiers and frontiersmen
that some guns had coffee mills built into the stock.

Pioneers and frontiersmen depended on coffee. They craved the beverage and drank it at every meal. Julie Bier, one of the first pioneers to cross Death Valley, is quoted as saying, "Our coffee was a wonderful help and had that given out, I know we should have died."  (https://truewestmagazine.com/cowboy-coffee/) This was before our modern roasted and ground coffee that had a long shelf life.

Chuck Wagon Buffet

Cowboys also relied on coffee, preferring it barefooted (black). It was a standard item served from by chuck wagon, kept available constantly for the wrangles. One chuck wagon cook wrote that he used 175 pounds of beans every month. Ground beans were added to the previous pot's grounds until the pot. Something that was repeated until the pot couldn't hold anymore. 

At this time, the roasted coffee beans weren't available. The beans were sold green and then toasted in a skillet. One burned bean ruined the entire batch. But a new invention made possible this  battle to be the cowboy's favorite brand of the brew . A way to roast the beans and turn them during the process was invented. Then a man named John Arbuckle patented a recipe to coat the beans so they had a longer shelf life. (He used moss as one of the ingredients, believe it or not!)

In Texas, Arbuckles Ariosa coffee was known as the coffee that tamed the west. Coupons attached to each package were saved so that housewives could earn free items. (Twenty coupons earned a free apron.) Texans were devoted to their Arbuckles.

A coffee maker in San Francisco by the name of Folgers decided to win the hearts of Texans away from the Ariosa coffee. Folgers sent Frank Atha to Texas to set up an outlet there. Folgers was a much more expensive coffee than Arbuckles and Atha focused on that in his advertising campaign. Folgers' expensive Golden Gate Coffee was the one sold in Texas. Atha would travel around Texas in a wagon, giving away free samples to housewives. He limited the number of grocers who could carry the brand also, making it seem like a harder to buy item. That in itself made the popular Arbuckles seem more common and less desirable.

Atha did one more thing. He tried to convince Texans that Arbuckles was all about gimmicks. Folgers Coffee in Texas came with a slogan--No prize--no coupons--no crockery. All that came with Folgers was satisfaction.

So did it work? Folgers is the leading brand of ground coffee in the United states. Even so, to this day many older cowboys still think of Arbuckle's Ariosa blend as the original cowboy coffee. (https://www.arbucklecoffee.com/pages/history)  Folgers has won over everyone but the cowboys it seems.

https://www.amazon.com/Rubys-Westward-Hearts-Mail-Order-Brides-ebook/dp/B07YBK98P8