Silent Harmony book two of the Lockets and Lace Collection

The sisters of SILENT HARMONY, book 2 in the Lockets and Lace Collection, won my heart as I wrote. I always have wonderful heroes because I write with my beloved husband and he makes sure they are manly. We both attended the DFW Writers Workshop every Wednesday night for fifteen years, barely missing a handful of read-and-critique meetings. There, we learned our craft from published mentors we came to love like John McCord and Jack Ballas and Don Whittington.

The baby sister, Melody became my heroine, though the eldest Lucinda, a widow and single parent of the four-year-old deaf Harmony, proved herself strong and kept her little family afloat in the days following the Civil War. Poor neglected, and no-reason-to-be-important-or-loved, middle sister Servilia, kept a sharp tongue and wielded it on a regular basis. Sibling rivalry proved common in the manless household, no matter how hard Lucy tried.

They all loved Ezekiel though----the new preacher-teacher come to town to establish a school for the deaf just outside of DeKalb, Texas, at his mother's old home place. Handsome, he was. And eligible, too, but the first day, he set his cap for the Parker sister who'd smitten him, and the other two had no chance.

Here's an excerpt from an early chapter.

“Uhhhn!” The baby stuck her hand out toward the bowl.

Her mother cocked her head, lifted one brow, and shot the little girl what Melody called 'the look.' A warning, but of love and disdain mixed with a tinge of mirth.

The four-year-old rocked her head side to side, lifted her chin a smidgen, and crossed her arms over her chest with a mischievous grin. Oh, how she loved that sparkle in Harmony's sky blue eyes.

The baby moved one hand enough to pat over her heart.

“That's better.” Her mother spooned on honey, stirred it in, then poured a little cream over the porridge. “And now you may have your breakfast.” Lucy slid the steaming bowl of oatmeal across the table then glanced toward Melody. “So, you really think sending her to that school might be worth the money?”

“Oh, yes. Absolutely. Of course I do.”

“Well, I don't see how in the world you could ever justify it.” The sourpuss at the far end of the table always had to put her two negative cents in. 

And that's Servilia for you. But I so enjoyed her correspondence with Zeke's cousin in Pennsylvania, Rupert. What great fun it was! 

 

   My jacket copy--did you know authors write the jacket copy? I try hard to write what the story is about, not what happens in it. All the while praying my story gives God glory! That's all important to me.
    "God uses all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.
    Orphaned by the Civil War, three sisters struggle to keep the family farm solvent. Eldest, Lucinda must mother her deaf daughter, Harmony and mediate between her dueling siblings, Servilia and Melody. The sisters’ fragile truce is shattered by the arrival of the handsome Ezekiel Sheffield, coming to establish a school for the deaf. Miracles, mayhem, and marriage ensue, but nothing ever comes easy."

     How'd I do? Did I whet your appetite?

I believe my strongest writing skill lies in my characters and developing them to be real people to me . . . and therefore, real to my readers, too. I love these sisters. I do. And I hope you'll find them real and worthy of your love, too. I'm always blessed when reviews come in! Running seventy-percent five-star reviews and another twenty-percent four-star . . . leaves me humbled.

I'm blessed that the Lord led me to be a  part of this collection, with eight other sweet authors who wrote their historical romances with a locket from a Bavarian jeweler in St. Joseph, Missouri, Wilhelm and his wife Bridget. That's who connects our stories, and we all have an important piece of lace as well.
I pray you'll enjoy SILENT HARMONY and that you'll help it rise to #1 if only for today by getting yourself a copy and maybe one for a friend. That'd be excellent!

GIVEAWAY: Thank you and be blessed! I'll offer an ARC copy to a commenter here who tells me a story of YOUR siblings!

BIO: Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory, and a quick scroll through her novels’ rankings by Christian readers attests to the Father’s faithfulness. She loves writing almost as much as singing the new songs He gives her—look her up on YouTube to hear a few. Her high school sweetheart husband won her heart fifty-one years ago, and now they share four children and seventeen grandsugars. Ron and Caryl live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County in far Northeast Texas, waiting expectantly for God to open the next door.

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Oregon Dreams ~ Book One of Lockets and Lace Series

Oregon Dreams


**** Come to our Author Celebration as we introduce our series: Lockets and Lace. One book every day) PRIZES, FUN, and MORE
Two Week Launch Celebration

Darren and Hope must decide which is stronger ~ their love or their dreams.

Tired of being a secondhand daughter to her aunt and uncle, Hope Castleberry dreams of going west to Oregon to find her father. She desperately wants to truly belong to someone. Unfortunately, the wagon train won't take single women. When a handsome young man bound for Oregon stops at her uncle's blacksmith shop, she believes her prayers have been answered.


Darren Thorsten watched his family get on the boat to return to Norway. He's going to Oregon to homestead a farm in the rich land, but before he arrives, he must have a wife to get enough acreage to make it work. He promised his mother he'd marry a Scandinavian girl with blond hair and blue eyes to keep his heritage pure. He didn’t think that would be a problem, until he met Hope.

She's determined to get him to take her west. He only sees her as trouble. She cleverly convinces him to drive her wagon if she finds him a wife that meets his requirements. He agrees to her terms and adds that he’ll find her a husband.



Hmm, what to do when clever ideas backfire. Add in four little boys that Hope agrees to watch for their ailing mother and enjoy the shenanigans.

Oregon Dreams

The Battle of Fairview and Melly, Unyielding

Authors of western historical fiction spend a great deal of time on research. The ton of research mainly lies beneath the surface, much as an iceberg. Readers see the tip, but perhaps enough to bring a sense of time and place. While researching for Melly, Unyielding, part of the Lockets and Lace book series from Sweetheart Americana blog, I came across an interesting historical event that occurred at Elba, Alabama in Coffee County, the place I now live.

During the height of the Civil War, outlaw raiders and local citizens of Elba clashed. The leader of the raiders was Jim Ward, a deserter from the Confederate army. Ward had established a base on Boynton Island near Ebro, Florida. He and his gangs made excursions into south Alabama, terrorizing the citizens whose able-bodied men were fighting in the Civil War.

The raiders attacked farms, homes, communities, and towns, particularly the town of Elba located on Pea River.

Bridge today over Pea River

In the spring of 1864, Ward’s Raiders burned the courthouse at Elba. Most of the courthouse records were rescued. It’s speculated that the deserters were attempting to destroy the conscription or draft records.

Elba's Courthouse today, on the square

The citizens of Elba had enough when these men returned in September of 1864. The Raiders set fire to several buildings where the records had been stored. Local men extinguished the fires, including the one set to the Pea River Bridge. 

And then several men and boys grabbed their guns and pursued Ward’s Raiders. The group from Elba confronted the Raiders at Fairview, fourteen miles south of their town. Ward’s men attempted to elude their pursuers by retreating into a thick, swampy area. However, the Elba group plunged in after them. They fought along the head of a small stream, today known as Battle Branch.

The men and boys of Elba managed to kill one of the men and captured two. But most of the Raiders that day escaped into Covington County and then slipped back into Florida.

Tragically, three of the Elba men were killed and two wounded.

One of the captured Raiders was hanged by the Pea River Bridge, and the other killed while trying to escape. Ward’s Raiders never targeted Elba again.

On September 4, 2010, the United Daughters of the Confederacy placed a marker at the site. The Battle of Fairview reminds us that the home front was not a haven of safety for its inhabitants.

In Melly, Unyielding, William Thatcher Rainer’s wife was killed by one such raider while Thatcher fought in the Civil War. Several years later, after the war, Thatcher tracks him across the country. A series of events brings him to Carmella Harperson, another of the raider’s victims. Her plight drives Thatcher to attempt to bring the man to justice.

I hope you’ll grab a copy of Melly, Unyielding, partially based on the true event of the Battle of Fairview.

Only 99 cents until 1-25-18

The First Female Lawyer in America--Bent the Rules to Take the Bar

By Heather Frey Blanton
Copyright 2013 Heather Blanton

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Arabella Mansfield. You’ve probably never heard of her unless you’re from Iowa, but Arabella was the first woman in America to become a lawyer. She passed the Iowa bar in 1869, illegally. Still, Arabella’s milestone proves that behind many a good woman there often stands a supportive man.

A lawyer...AND she could get herself into this outfit.
I am impressed by Arabella's tenacity. 

Arabella was actually born Belle Aurelia Babb in in 1846 in Burlington, IA. Only three years later her father left to hunt gold in the west, leaving Mrs. Babb to raise Arabella and her brother Washington on her own. Her father was kind enough, however, to send home some money, enabling both children to attend college. Perhaps since her mother was such a stalwart example of what a woman could do, Arabella never saw a barrier she couldn’t conquer. John Mansfield, her high school sweetheart, was smart enough to realize that and, instead of trying to hold her back, encouraged her to reach for the stars.

After graduating from Iowa Wesleyan College, Arabella taught at Simpson College but returned home only a year later. She married John and studied law in her brother’s office. Two years later, despite the fact that only white men over the age of 21 were allowed to take the bar, Arabella took the exam and passed it with a high score.

This didn’t sit well with some attorneys in the state and so they did what attorneys do: they challenged Arabella’s status. Fairly quickly, the court ruled women and minorities should not be denied the right to practice law in the state, the first ruling of its kind in the USA. Arabella never used the license she fought so hard to acquire—as she preferred teaching—but she involved herself in the fight for women’s rights till she died in 1911. Not a rabid feminist, she did support the suffragette movement. Arabella resented having her intelligence insulted. Clearly, if women were smart enough to become lawyers, she thought it only reasonable they should have the right to vote.

Thank you, Arabella.

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Illiteracy in the Old West

Hi, Kit Morgan here! Today I want to talk about reading and writing. Unfortunately, frontier life did little to promote literacy.
It was hard enough just going west and once there, people struggled to survive. Many were poor and there were few educational opportunities available, not to mention little incentive to gain an education. After all, a formal education wasn't a prerequisite for obtaining food, clothes, shelter, and protection against Indians and lawless neighbors. The immediate needs of life and survival were the most important considerations. Not book learning.

Many believed that a minister of the gospel need not have an education. All that was required of him was convincing evidence that he'd been called to preach. Instead of exalting education, settlers and ministers often denounced it as species of infidelity  -- toward God, and a sinful exaltation of human wisdom against divine power and spiritual guidance in the ministry.

This, of course, led many settlers to believe that the ability to read was some sort of heresy, and many ministers made boisterous assertions of their illiteracy from the pulpit. One even went so far as to say "grammar and dictionary words" were difficult for people to understand. And all because the preachers wanted to be accepted by their congregations.

Thank heaven as more and more people headed west, so did the people's opportunity for education! As towns were built, churches were added along with schools. Though teachers (as well as preachers by this time) were often subjected to ridicule and crude jokes in rough towns, they stayed the course. Thank heaven for that! In some places, a teacher often had little social standing in a community and was sometimes barred from the school building by the students! They would demand a "treat" or vacation or both of the teacher. To execute such a plan the students would supply themselves the night before with enough provision (food, water, corn whiskey and fuel) to last the night. Sometimes a few of their parents would gather with them, bar the windows and the door, and have a night of merriment. Unfortunately the next day, sleepy students began to get nervous. By then the schoolmaster could very well find a way to force his way in. If that happened, the students hope for a vacation would be over and they'd become the butt of public ridicule.

Gee, I wonder what those old frontier teachers and preachers would think about cell phones and texting?

If you'd like to check out my books, you can check out my page on amazon . Until next time!

A Look Back at a Giant -- Sears, Roebuck, and Co.

by Kathryn Albright

There is a lot of hullabaloo now-a-days about Amazon and online shopping. Amazon has been a force ever since it emerged as an online bookseller back in 1995. But before Amazon – 100 years before – there was Sears, Roebuck and Company, who came on the scene in much the same way. It's a story of ingenuity and seizing an opportunity--an American success story. 

Richard Warren Sears

Richard Warren Sears was born in 1863 in Minnesota. In 1886, at the age of twenty-three, he worked as a Station agent for the railroad in North Redwood, Minnesota. When a shipment of watches was refused by a local jeweler, Richard Sears agreed to sell them on consignment for the shipper. The watches sold quickly and the experience proved so lucrative that Sears ordered more to be sold through other station agents. A few months later, he quit his job for the railroad and started his own mail-order business.

From such humble beginnings, this “master salesman” made smart decisions to grow his company—moving to Chicago for better transportation options, diversifying into other items, and taking on a watch repairman, Alvah Roebuck as a partner. For a very short time Roebuck owned the business entirely, but then Sears returned and convinced him to let him buy back half-interest in it.

The first catalog for the A.C. Roebuck Company was published in 1891 and was 32 pages of watches, plus a few sewing machines and jewelry. The next year, the catalog was over 100 pages. Aaron Nussbaum and Julius Rosenwald, two Chicago businessmen bought out Roebuck’s half of the business in 1895 and the catalog grew to 532 pages and carried a huge assortment of items--rifles, movie cameras, telescopes, washer-machines, clothing, furniture, stoves, musical instruments, buggies, saddles and tack--even health tonics and tombstones and kits for houses! 

Then, when Henry Ford started selling his automobile to the masses, people didn’t mind driving to nearby towns to get what they wanted. Sears took notice and to counter this move in the 1920s, Sears opened retail stores. The company started making and selling its own brand items such as Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances. In 1933, Sears put out its first Sears Wishbook filled with toys and gifts in anticipation of Christmas. (I remember the thrill of looking through this catalog when I was young!) Later on Sears moved into insurance (Allstate), credit cards and an early version of the internet for online shopping called Prodigy!

Sears Merchandise Building Tower,
Homan Avenue, North Lawndale, Illinois.

Richard Sears passed away in 1908 at the age of forty-five. (Lifespan at that time averaged 50 years.) I just wonder what he would have thought of the amazing growth of his business.   

Like Ben Franklin 5 & dime stores and Woolworth's, it is with a certain sadness I watch the demise of a company that for so many years provided rural America with a choice of items so much larger than what could be obtained at the local variety store. In 1993, Sears stopped distributing its catalog. In  the 1990s, Wal-Mart surpassed it to became the nation’s largest retailer. More competition with Target, Kohl’s and J.C. Penney brought further sharing of the people's resources. In 2016, Amazon left Sears, Roebuck and Co. in the dust, making $136 billion in sales to Sears' $22 billion. 

[Investopedia | Who Killed Sears? 50 Years on the Road to Ruin by David Floyd. Updated January 4, 2018.  https://www.investopedia.com/news/downfall-of-sears/]

Willis Tower -- formerly the
Sears Tower, 2nd tallest building
in the United States

Where do you prefer to shop?  In a store or online?
And what store do you remember from your childhood that is no longer here?

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Ice Skates

by Shanna Hatfield

When I was a little girl, growing up on our family's farm, the winter brought cold, snow, and a whole different set of chores.

It also meant I could sled off the hill behind our house, build snow forts, and, if the pond froze - go skating.

My dad had an old apple crate full of ice skates that looked like they might have been the first to roll off the assembly line back when they started mass manufacturing. But the worked just fine for gliding (or in my case, tripping and falling) across the ice.

As I was thinking about those old skates and the fun we used to have on the pond, it made me wonder about the history of ice skating.

Historians, it seems, generally agree ice skating originated in ancient Europe. The oldest pair of skates currently known were found in the bottom of a Switzerland lake and date back to about 3000 B.C. The skates were made from the leg bones of large animals with holes bored at each end of the bone. Leather straps were used to tie the skates on.

A study from 2008 that looked at northern European geography suggested that ice skates most likely first appeared in Finland. With many lakes in the region, the study said Finns who could skate across the large bodies of water rather than skate around would save both time and energy.

The Dutch started using wooden platform skates with flat, iron runners around the 14th century. Skates were attached to the skater's shoes with leather straps and poles were used to propel the skater forward. Around 1500, the Dutch added a double-edged, narrow blade that made the pole obsolete. These "Dutch Roll" skates made it possible for skaters to push and glide with their feet.

A man from Philadelphia invented the first all-steel clamp for skates in 1848. In 1865, Jackson Haines, a famous skater of his time, developed the two-plate all-metal blade that attached directly to his boots. He added the first toe pick to skates in the 1870s.  By the early 1900s, another U.S. blade maker developed a closed-toe blade made from one piece of steel that resulted in lighter, stronger skates.

If you have a chance to go skating this winter, take a spin around the ice for me.

~*~

USA Today bestselling author Shanna Hatfield is a farm girl who loves to write. Her sweet historical and contemporary romances are filled with sarcasm, humor, hope, and hunky heroes. When Shanna isn’t dreaming up dreamy characters, twisting plots, or covertly hiding decadent chocolate from the other occupants of her home, she hangs out with her beloved husband, Captain Cavedweller.

Shanna loves to hear from readers. 

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