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There's so much for which to be thankful for this holiday season. For me it's all about friends and family. However, I've also experienced the pain of recently losing my mother, Sheila Cardon. (Winter Pond - 12 X 16 oil on panel by Michael Lindstrom)
Therefore, I'll be away from my blog for the next few weeks. I'll be back on Writ of Whimsy in January.
Click here to read my recent quarterly newsletter.
Wishing you and yours the love, joy, and peace of the season!
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Just this week, I completed the first draft of Nimbus Over Normandy, the second novel in The Time Travel Tales of Livvi Biddle. After the holidays, I'll begin the arduous task of revising and editing. Then, sometime in February or March, I'll send my transcript to my editor. By the time he's completed his edits, it will be spring. While he's got my transcript, I'll begin outlining the third novel in the series. Right now, it feels good to take a break, do some reading, and enjoy the holidays. Cocoa anyone?
Below is the flap copy description of Nimbus Over Normandy:
Livvi, Caden, and Mia have barely returned to Chilcott's Academy of Creativity for a new year before the magical and the mysterious again confront them. Lord Abaddon gas assigned the demise of Livvi Biddle to a new antagonist: the shrewd agent, Lilith. In addition to the threat posed by that dark angel, the three friends encounter an enigmatic neighbor in the form of Mrs. Dinwiddie, who bestows a peculiar prophecy on Livvi. However, it is the girls' unexpected trip back in time where they meet an iconic artist in his French country home that presents a truly colossal problem to their survival. Livvi and her pals desperately search for a path back to the present, while dealing with the customs of the past, all as time is slipping away!
After the war of 1812 the British-owned Hudson Bay Company controlled the Oregon Country which includes my hometown of Vancouver, WA.
Two hundred years ago, in 1824, the HBC headquarters was moved from Astoria, Oregon, to the north bank of the Columbia River, in what is now Vancouver, WA, USA. Fort Vancouver was a bustling hub of commerce during the early 1800's. The British plan was that south of the river would be United States territory and north would be British territory. However, the Treaty of 1846 made that area part of what is now Washington and Oregon. The ties to the British, the military, and the diverse culture that was prevalent during the time of the Hudson Bay Company is still felt in many ways in this area, both big and small.
One way is in the paranormal phenomena that permeates this community. After the Treaty of 1846 it didn't take long for the United States Army to establish a major garrison near Fort Vancouver. Ghosts from that time linger in the Vancouver Barracks, as well as Officers Row in the Vancouver National Historic Reserve District. The oldest house on Officers Row is the Grant House - with its numerous ghosts!
