The Ancestral Pen

  Hello, friends! I have been sitting with something that genuinely fills my heart, and I just have to say it out loud: we are almost at  500 subscribers.  Five hundred of you have invited me into your inbox, and I do not take that lightly — not even a little. Thank you. Truly. Whether you have been here from the very beginning or found your way here recently, I am so glad you’re along for this journey. Reminder: The Fading Light Is Available for Preorder! In case you missed it last week —  The Fading Light  is now available for preorder on Amazon, with an official release date of  May 25th.  I’ll be sharing more about the book, the history behind it, and the characters who kept me up at night in the weeks ahead. You’ll be the first to know everything. And yes, I updated the cover from what I previously shared.  Button And if you really want to get to know the characters before May 25th, I’d love for you to join them for a single day —  July ...

  Dear readers, I hope you’ve got a good book in hand and something warm to drink  because I’ve got some exciting news this week. The Fading Light Is Available for Preorder! The Fading Light  is now available for preorder on Amazon, and it officially releases on  May 25th. I’ll be sharing more about the book in the weeks leading up to launch; behind-the-scenes research, the history that inspired it, the characters I fell a little in love with while writing it. You’ll be the first to know everything. If you’ve been with me for a while, preordering means the world. It genuinely helps get the book into more hands. And if you know someone who loves a sweeping historical story, well… it would make a pretty great gift. Preorder The Fading Light on Amazon: Button This Week’s Reader Question Over the past year, I’ve shared so much about myself from my writing life, my obsessions, and the history that keeps me up at night. Now I’d like to turn the tables. I want to get to kno...

  The Man Behind the Story And I want to hear about your Patriot ancestor. Hello friends, I've been eyeballs deep in the research on my Patriot ancestor, so I'd like to take a moment and share the backstory behind the book I'm currently writing. This ancestor is the very one I entered into the Daughters of the American Revolution with. I'll be spending a significant amount of time now feverishly writing to get the book done before our Idaho DAR annual meeting in April—I want to feature it there. I've already donated some of my other books to raise funds for the DAR, but I want to feature this one specifically. Anyway, I got a little sidetracked there. Let me introduce you to the man behind the story. Meet Captain Edward Beeson Edward Beeson was born on January 1, 1757, in Guilford County, North Carolina, to Benjamin and Elizabeth Hunter Beeson. He was 21 years old when the Revolution began, living in what would become Randolph County—a young man in a region that wou...

New Release The Outlaw's Second Chance Finally, the second book has been released. I was a little behind on my schedule and I greatly appreciate all of your patience over the last few weeks as I dealt with family.  Button What a whirlwind these past two weeks have been! I wanted to pop in with a quick update, especially for those waiting on the other versions of the new book. So far, only the ebook is live. I’m working as quickly (and sanely!) as possible to get the print and audio versions ready. As I mentioned in my last newsletter, family came to visit for the holiday—wonderful, but completely unplanned. I thought they’d be heading home right after Thanksgiving, but life had other ideas. It all started on a Monday morning. My husband was at a doctor’s appointment when his parents called: they were stranded on the side of the road near his work. That turned into a full-day ordeal—towing the car, diagnosing  multiple  issues, deciding what to do—and by that evening, they...

  How Gary McAllister saved Pack Saddle by returning to his father’s “obsolete” pack trains There’s an irony at the heart of 1920s Idaho: the world kept telling people the pack train was dead while the mountains kept needing one. Trucks, rail, and roadbuilding pushed progress into valley towns, but steep passes, dense timber, and snow-choked trails didn’t read the newspapers. Where roads failed, pack strings still worked.  Idaho State Historical Society+1 The practical truth By the mid-1920s, the headlines hailed motor freight and paved highways. In practice, however, steep canyons, high ridges, and foot trails left whole pockets of North Idaho beyond the reach of wheels. Mines, logging camps, isolated lodges, and Forest Service lookouts still relied on packers to move everything from flour and nails to stoves and radios. The pack train wasn’t nostalgia — it was logistics.  NPS History+1 Why pack trains still mattered • Terrain: Some trails climbed where trucks couldn’t g...