The Ancestral Pen

  You know those Instagram posts where writers are perfectly framed in a sunbeam, cradling a latte in an aesthetically pleasing mug, hair cascading in beach waves, gazing pensefully at their laptop like they're about to birth the next Great American Novel? Yeah. Today is not that day. It's 5 AM. I've been up since 2:30, doing the grandbaby shuffle so mom can get a few precious hours of sleep. You know the shuffle, right? That squat-bounce-sway combo that would make a CrossFit instructor weep with pride? My quads are screaming . I'm basically doing lunges every forty-seven seconds because the binky has become a tiny rubber projectile with a personal vendetta against my sanity. Spit. Fuss. Squat. Retrieve. Insert. Stand. Repeat. I'm pretty sure I've done more reps this morning than I did in all of 2024. And my hair? My hair has achieved what can only be described as "sentient cotton candy that lost a fight with an electrical socket at 2:30 in the morning....

  With the new year, there is so much that I need to get done. I've been at this for a year now, and though I'm not rolling in the dough, the future is looking promising. I've been working on my advertising on Facebook, so if some of you are in my Facebook group, you've seen some of the beautiful black and white ads I've been working on. If you are not a part of  The Ancestral Pen  Facebook group, please come join us.  I'm in the process of making this journey official by setting up an LLC today. I've been more invested in the advertising, which is exhausting. I need to grow my newsletter readership, so I've joined two other platforms. I'm working on the outline of my patriot book right now, and I'll share more about that book as I progress further into the writing process. I had to set aside the book I was writing for my husband's family about his grandmother to make sure I have plenty of time to finish up my patriot book before the Idaho DA...

From Amy's Pen I can't believe that this week marks one year since I published my first book. I spent about six months seriously writing  The Last Wagon , though it was built on many years of compiling information that contributed to it. I've been researching my ancestry and my husband's ancestry for more than 20 years, and the one thing I noticed about genealogists is we are hoarders of information, but few share that information outside other genealogy hoarding circles. I set out to change that. I wanted to find a way to share all those stories I've been hoarding for 20 years with the rest of the world and make them interesting enough that others will enjoy reading them. From Genealogy to Storytelling I've done that with  The Last Wagon , which is non-fiction (though parts are creatively written), and then my novels based on ancestors:  A Mother's Last Gift ,  His Greatest Regret , and  Where the Compass Points . These are all my Woolsey ancestors' sto...

Christmas Through the Eyes of My Ancestors Christmas has always been a time of reflection for me—not just about the present, but about the past. As a historical fiction author who writes about real people from my own family tree and the communities I call home, I can't help but wonder: what did Christmas look like for them? This year, as I've been writing and researching, I've been transported to three very different Christmases—each one a world away from our modern celebrations, yet each one filled with the same human longing for warmth, connection, and hope. Christmas with My Romani Ancestors For my English Romanichal ancestors—families like the Joles, Masons, and Rineharts who traveled through Michigan down to Oklahoma in the mid-1800s through early 1900s—Christmas was celebrated in a distinctly Romani way. Winter was when traveling families slowed their circuits, clustering wagons together on the outskirts of towns or hiring winter quarters on farm edges. Christmas gath...

  The house has settled back into its comfortable silence, and with it, so has my focus. Last week felt like finding my footing again — Book Two is officially released, and the cover and full outline for Book Three are finished. That means I get to share a small treat with you: an early sneak peek at the Book Three cover. Now the real work begins. I’m deep into writing Book Three, back in the rhythm of early mornings, quiet rooms, and stories that refuse to be rushed. Here is a brief blurb about book three: When the land takes a man, the world comes for what he leaves behind. Laura Clark has survived widowhood, hard winters, and the quiet grief of raising two children alone in the North Idaho mountains. But when a county investigator knocks on her door, she learns that kindness can hide sharper intentions — and that being a woman without a husband makes her household fair game. Jeffrey McAllister has buried too many people he loved and learned to keep his distance from family and p...