Memorial Day

Memorial Day is observed in the U.S. on the last Monday in May to honor those who have died in military service. It was established in 1868, after the Civil War, but was called "Decoration Day" at first, because the day was used to decorate the graves of Union soldiers. 

Those honoring Confederate soldiers held their own day, which began in 1866. When the North started doing a similar thing, Southerners changed theirs to "Confederate Memorial Day." Eventually these two days were combined into "Memorial Day," which we still celebrate today.

National cemeteries, like Arlington, decorate each grave with an American flag. Memorial Day is also often seen as the start of the summer season, and people who can do so might flock to the shores and beaches over the long weekend. Barbeques are also a common Memorial Day activity. A variety of other celebrations take place across the country.

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Running from God

Read Jonah 1 - 2:1-7

When God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, he ran in the other direction. You'd think a prophet of God would know better, but we've all done the same thing in one way or another at some point in our lives. In doing so, Jonah became disobedient and broke the special bond he'd had with the Lord. All of a sudden he thought he knew what was best more so than God. He couldn't understand why God would give the cruel Assyrians a chance to repent. Why didn't he just destroy them for their evil ways?

Instead, Jonah hurried to Joppa where he boarded a ship bound for Tarshish.  Nineveh would have been about 400 miles to the northeast from Israel. Tarshish (the area we now know as Spain) was 2,000 miles  to the southwest. In fact, Tarshish was pretty much at end of the known world of Jonah's day. The prophet was running as far as he could.

But notice that even though Jonah had abandoned God, God had not abandoned him. He'll never leave any of us, His children, either. Jonah must have breathed a sigh of relief when he boarded the ship. Now he could leave the travel to the sailors. He must have also been exhausted after his long, hurried journey to Joppa, so he went below and fell asleep. How many Christians have fallen asleep to God's plans for their lives? Is today's Church doing the same thing?

While Jonah slept a great storm came up - one so much worse than these seasoned sailors had ever seen before. The wind and waves crashed around them, tearing apart the ship. They prayed to their gods, threw as much as they could overboard, and tried to battle to control the ship, but nothing worked. Finally, the ship's captain went below to wake the prophet and decide what to do. We'll pick up here next week.

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A Writing Marathon 

When I was much younger and in school, before my knees became weak, I used to run. However, I was a long-distance, endurance runner and didn't have the speed to sprint. Maybe that's due to a stubborn streak that can persevere and sometimes refuses to give up.

I find a similar thing true in my writing. More than any other genre, I am a book writer, mainly historical fiction but also contemporary and a little non-fiction. Even as a reader, I don't want anything less than 100 pages, because I'm never happy with how the short novellas develop (or under-develop) the character, plot, or story. 

Surprisingly, I've found this true with how I write too. I'm not good with short periods to write with a lot of starts and stops. I do much better when I can find a block of time. After I've written for over an hour, the words began to flow much easier and faster, and time whizzes by without me realizing it.

Take this last week for example. I wrote 20,000 words on my new book, In from the Storm, set in Wyoming in 1875. But I found some good hunks of time to lose myself in the writing. With my busy schedule, that's not always possible anymore.  It's not my best record by far, however. When I stayed at home to be my mother's caregiver, I once wrote 18,000 words in one day and completed an 89,000-word rough draft in three weeks. I don't even think about doing that in my present situation, but 20,000 words in a week is still good.

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Splitting the Appalachians in the Civil War

When Luke, my main character in Uprooted by War, realizes he's not going to be able to stay out of the Civil War, he chooses to travel into Eastern Tennessee to join the Union army. Many men from Western North Carolina did this - about 5,000 of them before the fighting was over. Many more were quietly Union sympathizers. Historians who study the era often cite the low rate of slavery there as the main reason for this. However, the independent attitude of the mountain people and the fact that they valued liberty, freedom, and rights likely figured in as well.

 At the same time, about 20,000 men from the region would end up fighting for the Confederacy, but the huge majority of these would be conscripted. Only about 8,000 would volunteer for the Confederate army, and most of these came around the beginning of the war. The total population of Western North Carolina was about 68,000 at the time. An example of the lackluster support for the Confederacy can be seen in Wilkes County, who had the largest white population of any county in Western North Carolina but had the lowest enlistment rate at 2.7%.

General Samuel P. Carter was sent to Tennessee on special duty from the War Department by request of then Senator Andrew Johnson (who would become the Vice President in Lincoln's second term) to organize and train Union troops. He was a native son who had been born in Elizabethton, Tennessee.  Luke became part of his brigade for training after he'd gone to Tennessee to enlist. What would follow was a long, hard war that left very few feeling truly victorious.

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The City of Nineveh

In Jonah's time, Nineveh was a stronghold of the terrorist of that day. The Assyrians were a cruel people who tried to cultivate a reputation that would intimidate all their enemies. They were bent on conquest and terrorism. Yes, the story of Jonah definitely has application to modern times.

The Assyrians were obsessed with waging wars and invading the nations around them. They were known to cut out the tongues of prisoners, skin men alive, split open torsos, and I won't mention what they did to the women. They executed people at will and stacked their skulls into pyramids outside the city gates. In fact, they often made close relatives carry the severed heads of their loved ones in parades through the city. As part of their worship to pagan gods, they burned children alive. The list of atrocities go on and on.

The Assyrians had also built a large capital city. It took three days to walk across Nineveh. Yet, as spread out as it was, a 200-foot high wall so thick that three chariots with horses could drive side by side on top of it encompassed the city. This wall also had 1,500 towers on it, and Nineveh had about 120,000 inhabitants. All this would be impressive in our day, much less in Old Testament times.

These things contributed to why Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh and give them a chance to repent. First of all, he feared for his life. He felt they were very likely to skin him alive too. And these were his enemies, the enemies of Israel. He didn't think this cruel, barbaric people deserved forgiveness. When you get down to it, Jonah was prejudiced and thought he knew better than God. He hadn't understood the message that God wants all people to come to Him. God didn't treat Jonah like he deserved either, and He's ready to give grace to anyone who repents and turns to Him. Are we following God or following what we think about the world around us?

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Series or Standalone

The question came up about how I decide when a book will be a standalone or part of a series. If you asked five different authors this question, you'd probably get five very different answers. The first seven manuscripts I wrote made up two series. I didn't decide this ahead of time. When I finished the first book, I knew the complete story had not been told, because I still had other characters, situations, and scenes rolling around in my mind. I write until the characters quit speaking to me with additional information and the new scenes stop playing in my mind. Each book in one of my series will still have a definite ending and not require the reader to purchase more to get a complete story. I want them to buy others in the series because they enjoyed the first one so much, not because I left them hanging. In my opinion, a book's ending should never have a cliffhanger.

The Appalachian Roots series contains four books. I had thought there might be a fifth book about the Moretz twins, but they never brought me their stories beyond the first skeleton bit of information, and I had no scenes that kept coming to me. You see, my characters drive my stories, and I write what comes to me and won't go away. I've also been asked where I get my ideas. I don't know, because they seem to find me. But all this makes writing as exciting for me as reading is.

After those first two series (one is a contemporary trilogy that has yet to be published), I wrote three standalones. I self-published When Winter Is Past, set in colonial Pennsylvania, while I waited for Uprooted by War to get through the publishing process with my publisher. The second one, Through the Wilderness, set on the Oregon Trail, may be the next one I publish. The third one is a contemporary that I want to polish some more before I seek to publish it.

Wyoming

In the meantime, I've been working on a five-book series set in early New Mexico, and I have three of the rough drafts finished. However, a new standalone set in Wyoming in 1875, In from the Storm, has become so clear that I'm going to write it before I go back to finish the last two books in the New Mexico series. I like to have the complete series finished before I start to release the books. Then I can make any changes without being locked into what has already been published. I can't wait to see if In from the Storm might become part of a series on double rescues or not. There's also a series on betrayals that is not quite clear enough to write yet. But the writing life remains exciting as I get to time travel all over the place.

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Bushwackers, Raiders, and Scavengers

During the Civil War, bushwackers, raiders, and scavengers became a real threat to citizens, especially in the Appalachian Mountains. Raiders came in all forms. Bushwackers were a lawless group, mainly made up of deserters. They preyed on the small, remote farms that dotted the Appalachians, and they enjoyed terrorizing others. Scavengers usually did so to find food and basic needs, and, as the war progressed and supplies dwindled, the armies became scavengers. 

The first guerrilla raids in the North Carolina mountains spilled over from Tennessee in 1862. Then, beginning in 1863, Kirk's raids became notorious. Since so many of the records from his activities come from Confederate sources, it's hard to determine how true they are, but the reputation that preceded him certainly brought terror to citizens. However, George Kirk was a Union soldier and had been commissioned to do what he did. Many others had not.

In my newest historical novel set in the Appalachians, Uprooted by War, Leah and the others with her at the farm had to contend with all these groups at one time or another. Here's what happened when Kirk's Raiders came:

     The Union soldiers rode in bent on destruction. Leah met them at the side of the house. Some soldiers had already started to uproot plants in the garden, pulling up cornstalks from horseback and trampling other plants.
     “Stop that this instant!” Leah shouted at the top of her voice.
     The colonel looked at her and laughed. He had a wild, reckless look about him. “We support the Union,” she told him quickly. “My husband is off fighting in your army.”
     “Sure he is, like every other farm in North Carolina. Most of them are Union sympathizers when we come.”
     “Stop them, and I can prove it.”
     “Hold it a minute, men. I want to see this.”
     The men rode their horses back to wait behind their colonel. Leah ran to get Luke’s enlistment papers. When she came back out, Patsy stood behind Moses, watching.
     “If you’re Union, what’re you doing with slaves?” the colonel asked.
     “They’re not slaves. Patsy’s free, and here are her papers to prove it. Moses ran away from a plantation. He can’t talk, because some owner cut out his tongue. Here’s my husband’s enlistment papers.” She handed him the papers, and he looked them over.
     He looked up at her with a different expression. “My apology, Mrs. Moretz. I’m Colonel George Kirk. My men were sent to North Carolina to help some mountain boys get out of the grips of the Confederacy and into Tennessee to fight for the Union. My troops have also been destroying some Confederate strongholds to aid in the war effort, but there are enough Rebel places to hit. We don’t need to be making things hard for the families of our Union soldiers.”
     “Thank you, sir,” she said as she took her papers back.
     “The best to you, madam.” He tipped his hat, and they rode away.

(All my profits for my books go to a scholarship fund for missionary children.)

But Kirk's Raiders had not been as bad as the bushwackers would. They would not only threaten material goods but also the family's very lives.

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Jonah - His Background

Many people look at Jonah as just a children's story, but it is so much more. The four chapters in the Book of Jonah has only 48 verses, but they are chocked full of lessons for today's Christians. Some people had rather not look too closely at it, because we can see too much of ourselves in Jonah's failures. But we need to look - closely.

Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amattai, saying" (Jonah 1:1),

Jonah lived in a time of stability in Israel's history. While other prophets had been sent to warn the Israelites of how they'd failed God and encourage them to do better, Jonah had been able to prophesy that things would get better for Israel, and they would enlarge their borders. When this happened, Jonah had enjoyed his popularity and the admiration from the people. He was well-liked because he'd told them what they wanted to hear. 

Arise, and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me (Jonah 1:2).

Jonah did not want to go to Ninevah; he didn't even like those people. He couldn't conceive that God wanted him to go to this cruel, pagan nation and offer them a chance to repent. Jonah would have been happier if God had just wiped them off the earth, and then neither Jonah nor Israel would ever have to deal with them again.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:44).

But God doesn't have Jonah's narrow, prejudiced vision. God loves all people and wants everyone to come to Him. He loves the terrorist and commands us to love them too. Do we, like Jonah, want to turn our backs on this? I see way too many hate messages from supposed Christians splashed across social media. They need to study their Bibles and follow God in obedience. And we all need to pray about it.

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Luke Goes to War

Uprooted by War opens in April 1862, and the Civil War has been raging for a full year. Luke Moretz realizes the Confederacy will likely conscript (draft) him soon, and he's been considering what to do. Here is a scene between him and his wife, Leah:

   “Do you think the Confederacy will try to conscript you?” Leah asked Luke when they’d finished reading.
   “They probably will, for I’m in the right age group. It’s the first time I’ve ever wished I were a few years older. Lawrence may hear from them sooner, but I think he’ll be exempt for now. If
the war continues and many more soldiers are lost, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t try to take us all.”
   “What do you plan to do?”
   “I may need to volunteer for the Union army to keep from being conscripted by the Confederates.”
   “Luke! No!” She leaned over into his arms.
   “It’s not what I want, darling. You know it’s not. I can’t stand the thought of leaving you, and I hate to fight against the South, but I don’t think I can fight for slavery.”

They tried to prepare for the separation, but some things couldn't be planned. Leah woke up dreading Luke's departure.

   Leah shifted and put her head on his chest. “I want to be strong for you, Luke, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to. I’m not that strong.”
   He stroked her hair. “You’re a lot stronger than you think. Just because you’re emotional and passionate doesn’t mean you’re weak. Tears are not just a sign of weakness. They can also be a sign of caring. I love you so much. Keep that in your heart and hold on to it. I plan to come back to you, but if something does happen, I’ll be waiting for you in Heaven. Be happy, Leah. Love again if you can. If you can’t, love God and serve Him. He’ll be enough.”
   “You must know how much I love you. It’s so much there’re no words to explain. I’m going to be thankful for these years we’ve had. I’m going to expect to see you riding up again soon. There’s no use to expect the worst.”
   “That’s my girl. God will take care of us. We just need to grow our faith and our trust. We’ll need an ample supply of both to get us through this war and back to our lives with each other.”

The war is going to be the hardest time the family has ever had to face. Both Luke and Leah end up being in harms way, and the not knowing what's happening with the other made the situation doubly hard. Here's what happened as Luke rode away:

   Leah packed Luke some food while he got his things together. He came in and they took it all to his horse. He said good-bye and hugged each of the others first. Then, he came to Leah. He took her in his arms and held her a long time before he pulled his head back to kiss her. Neither of them cared the others were watching.
   The kiss turned long and passionate, driven by a hunger born of urgency. In that kiss rested the uncertainty they’d had when Luke was still engaged to Ivy, but she’d run away. It held the passion they’d discovered on their wedding night. It reminded them of the despair they’d had when they were apart so Leah could take care of Ivy when she’d been in danger of losing her baby and herself. It spoke of the grief they’d shared after their babies died and the support they’d been for each other. But more than anything and through everything, it overflowed with love.
   He mounted, turned, and looked at her as if he were memorizing her features. Love as well as tears filled his eyes. Then, he turned and rode away.
   Leah stood watching at the spot where he’d been long after he’d gone. Her face remained drenched in tears, and they wouldn’t stop. Hawk and Dr. Moretz took Granny Em into the house, and Patsy tried to lead her, but she shook her head.
   She didn’t know how long she stood there. She felt frozen in place, unable to move. Hawk finally came to get her. He put his arm around her, and she sobbed on his shoulder. He didn’t say anything for a long time. He just let her cry it out. When she finally stopped, he rubbed her back while he still held her.
   “It’ll be okay,” he said. “You’ll see. Time passes, and it takes care of things. Look at me. I waited fifty-seven years for Emma, but it was worth every minute. In this world there is great happiness
and great sorrow. The lower you go into the valleys, the higher you can rise in joy. Your happy moments aren’t over, Leah. Mark my words. You’ll experience them again.”
   He couldn’t have said anything that would have helped her more. “Thank you,” she whispered and looked at him. He smiled and handed her his handkerchief as he led her inside.

Luke also had misgivings that night as he camped with a small group of men who were also on their way to Tennessee to join the Union Army.

   Luke felt his group had made good progress toward their destination. They’d stopped and camped for the night in a clearing.
   After supper, he took out his Bible. It opened to a place on its own. There tucked between the pages he found the photograph of him and Leah taken at Ivy’s wedding. Leah must have put it there for him to find.
   Oh Leah, how I do love you and miss you already! He looked at the others, but they’d started bedding down for the night and paid him no attention. He felt silent tears slide down his face. He’d somehow managed to hold them back at the farm, although he’d felt them began to pool as he looked at Leah one last time. Here, in the night with no one looking, he silently cried.
   His tears were mainly for his wife, for having to leave her when he wanted to remain by her side, to keep her in his arms, to protect her. But he also cried for himself. The future loomed with uncertainty, and the unknown is always a scary place filled with fear and foreboding. He knew the coming time would probably confirm what Ben Franklin had once said: “There never was a good war or a bad peace.”

   He’d told Leah tears were not a sign of weakness, yet he felt ashamed as he wiped them from his face. He’d also told her faith and trust were the answers. He needed a good measure of his own advice.

Uprooted by War is now available in the e-book versions and the print version online. The bookstores and I should be getting our copies shortly. You'll want to read book one and two (Cleared for Planting and Sown in Dark Soil) first. Each one is a standalone, but there will be spoilers if you read them out of order. All my profits go to a scholarship fund for missionary children.

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Civil War Sentiments in the Appalachians

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the Appalachian region was as divided as the country was. I found the research I did for my historical novel, Uprooted by War, set in the North Carolina mountains during this time, interesting.  For example, Cherokee, Haywood, Jackson, and Macon counties in North Carolina were divided near half and half into those who supported the Confederacy and those who supported the Union. This was true in much of the region.

Just across the state line in Eastern Tennessee, support grew overwhelmingly in favor of the North. The counties of Blount, Cocke, and Sevier had only 20% supporting the Confederacy and 80% who supported the Union. In fact, citizens there were so upset with Tennessee for going with the Confederacy that they started a movement to have Eastern Tennessee break off from the rest of the state and form their own state much the way West Virginia did.

Many of these mountain-dwellers also saw the conflict as a rich man's war that expected the poor man to fight it for them. These people wanted little to do with the war, but of course this soon became impossible. Conscription (the draft), laws like the ones to make citizens give 10% of what they produced to the Confederacy, and the increasing shortage of available goods pulled everyone into the war.

Although Watauga County, North Carolina, where Luke Moretz's farm is located in my book, leaned more heavily toward supporting the Confederacy, Luke decides not to do that. To avoid being conscripted by the Confederates, he travels to East Tennessee to join the Union Army. After some skirmishes in that area, he's sent to Virginia where he's involved in some of the major battles. I tried to show the hardships of the Civil War for the mountain people without the novel becoming too depressing. The readers I've had so far tell me I did.

(All my profits go to scholarship fund for missionary children.)

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God's Journal

To have a relationship with someone, we need to learn about them and get to know them. It's hard to even like someone, much less come to love them, if we know little about them. But what if someone you were interested in gave you their journal to read. Most of us would read it as much as possible.

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope (Romans 15:4).

God has done exactly that for us with the Scriptures. They are one way we can get to know God, they were written specifically for us, and we should turn to them more than we do. It boggles my mind when Christians tell me the only time they read the Bible is from the verses in their Sunday school lessons or when the preacher reads it. 

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it (Deuteronomy 30:11 & 14).

I cannot imagine why anyone would not want to learn more about the awesome God we serve. How can we ever come close to being obedient if we don't know His word? Why would we pass up the opportunity to develop a closer relationship with our Creator and Master? This book holds the wisdom of the ages and the truth of God.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

You don't even have to devote a lot of time reading and studying your Bible. It would be great if you did, but you'll likely be surprised with how much you can cover in just five or ten minutes of reading each day. Couldn't you shave five minutes off some other activity to read God's Word? As you draw closer to God, you'll find you lose yourself in what He has to say, and time will slip by before you realize it. Why not start today?

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Quality More Than Quantity

I think it's natural for writers to want to sell lots of books. I'm hoping my do well for two main reasons. First of all, I hope they will glorify God and inspire, encourage, and touch hearts for Him. Then, since all my profits go to a scholarship fund for missionary children, I want that charity to do well.

However, I'm reminded over and over again that quality is more important than quantity. All my books have five-star ratings on Amazon, and that gives me a broad grin. A new review on When Winter Is Past (which is just 99 cents this week) said, "Warm and so beautiful. I couldn't put the book down. I learned much about trusting in God. Love surely conquers all...." This reviewer certainly warmed my heart, and this is what it's all about.

My books have sold well and continue to do so, but they don't have to become best sellers for me to feel successful. Comments from readers that tell ways the stories touched them and how much they enjoyed the books mean even more than the numbers. This is what keeps me writing.

Books published so far -
Cleared for Planting
Sown in Dark Soil
Uprooted by War
Transplanted to Red Clay (coming)
When Winter Is Past

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Stone Houses

Old Pennsylvania stone house

When colonists first came to America, they used native materials to build their homes. After the initial wave of settlers, they began to built larger homes that could be used for generations. In Pennsylvania this could mean rock structures. German immigrants especially turned to the fieldstone, because it was readily available, they often needed to remove it from the fields to till the land, and they were familiar with building using stone in Germany. These houses were also sturdy and durable with walls often about nine-inches thick.

Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge

There are many examples spread across the state. The Daniel Boone Homestead is built of stone, as are many other older homes that dot the landscape. The rock Henry Antes Home in Pottstown was built in 1736. General Washington used a stone house for his headquarters at Valley Forge, and there's also one at Brandywine. These are still standing as museums, and other examples are in use by organizations, lived in by homeowners, or go up for sale in the real estate market.

Brandywine

Henry Antes House, Pottstown

Hezekiah Alexander House, Charlotte, NC

However, this type of building is not just confined to Pennsylvania. Early examples spread throughout the former colonies and later ones rest across the county. For instance, North Carolina has its own such buildings. The Hezekiah Alexander House in Charlotte is a good example. (See my blog for Oct. 19, 2015.) He was one of the many who moved south into the state from Pennsylvania. The large, rock home he built for his family on Sugar Creek was a mansion in its day. Do you know of a stone house near you?

On a personal note, this is why I chose a stone farmhouse for Stanton Klein in my historical novel set in colonial Pennsylvania. Since I enjoy history so much, writing When Winter Is Past was a labor of love. All my profits from it go to a scholarship fund, and, if you're interested, the kindle version is on sale this week on Amazon for only ninety-nine cents.

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