Inspired by Place: The Heart of Happy Camper
Finding beauty and inspiration can be hard in the bleak month of January. For a writer, however, inspiration is important. John Keats once said, “If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.” I’m no poet, but I do believe there is truth in his…
Read MoreShakespeare: Literature’s Great Mystery
When I wrote Coming Up Murder, I knew I wanted to involve Shakespeare, so I created a Shakespeare Festival on campus. Shakespeare’s First Folio is on tour, and Copper Bluff is one of its lucky stops. Or not so lucky for one presenter. The presenter claims, in a room full of Shakespeare scholars, that Shakespeare…
Read MorePrairie Heart: the Passion of Laura Ingalls Wilder
“But there was something else here that was not anywhere else. It was an enormous stillness that made you feel still. And when you were still, you could feel great stillness coming closer.” This is the description Laura Ingalls Wilder gives as her family crosses Dakota Territory, driving toward Silver Lake in De Smet, South…
Read MoreGreenway: “The Loveliest Place in the World”
If I’m not reading a mystery or romance, I’m reading a biography. I like biographies because they’re a lot like mysteries. Questions—and sometimes secrets—drive the story. When it comes to Agatha Christie, I’ve read various accounts. I’ve read her autobiography and two or three biographies. My favorite work is Come, Tell Me How You Live.…
Read MoreMalice Domestic, Chick-fil-A, and Other Mysterious Places
I learn a lot about myself when I go to conferences. At Malice Domestic, I learned I might be the only person in the United States who hasn’t had Chick-fil-A. I admit, I sort of cringed when my wide-eyed lunch partner asked, “You’ve never had Chick-fil-A?” (which I spelled Chick Fillet until a couple of seconds…
Read MoreIn Celebration of the Irish
So many stories surround the Irish: luck, gold, rainbows. My grandma was Irish, and for years, her story has fascinated me. As a young woman, she went to the University of South Dakota. It was rare for a woman from a farming family to attend college in the early twentieth century, yet she received her…
Read MoreBeating on: the Heart of the Love Story of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
This month, I’m revisiting one of my favorite collections Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald edited by Jackson R. Bryer and Cathy W. Barks. It’s impossible to summarize the breadth of this excellent compilation, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to fans of letters or the Fitzgeralds.…
Read MoreGitchie Girl Uncovered: An Interview
On November 17, 1973, five teenagers went to Gitchie Manitou State Park, which is located on the South Dakota/Iowa border. Ranging in ages 13-18, they were looking forward to a night of conversation, music, and fun. Three men with guns soon appeared, posing as police officers. But they weren’t the police. They were brothers, and…
Read MoreWell, it’s time for a blog about Christmas letters. Ha!
Do you like Christmas letters? I do. But I know a lot of people don’t. They see them as permission slips to brag about … well, everything. Family, jobs, pets, vacations—if something great happened, chances are it will be covered in the Christmas letter. The past couple years, I’ve seen fewer Christmas letters, and some…
Read MoreGrateful for Readers Giveaway
Writing is a solitary act. What happens between a writer and the page is personal. My kids tease me about going down the rabbit’s hole when I go downstairs to write, but it’s a pretty accurate description. With each step, the real world recedes. The laundry disappears, the grading disappears, the grocery list disappears. Copper…
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