Butter in the Well

I spent most of yesterday on ebook marketing- posting my book information on some of the hundreds (of thousands) of discussions and websites that I could find on the internet. It’s something that has to be done for people to learn about them, and the best way is to start the wave of “word of mouth” advertising- via the internet.

Marketing is so different now compared to when Butter in the Well, my first book, came out in 1992. Then it was all mailed press releases to reviewers, phone calls to newspapers, and personal appearances at stores and book fairs.

Now I can reach thousands of computer screens with a minimum amount of work, but it has to compete with so much content that’s also being flung into cyberspace. Which is better, marketing now or in the past?

It doesn’t matter… It’s still one person saying (or emailing or tweeting) to another, “Hey, this was a good book and I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. You’ll enjoy it too.”

So please enjoy a good book, be it mine or other author’s, and pass on your recommendation. We authors put lots of hours into research, thought and writing in a book- and the main thing we want out of our time is for someone to read and enjoy (or learn) the words we put down on paper.

Have you read a good book recently? Please spread the word about it!

Many of my book readers may not realize we’ve raised American buffalo since 1999. Since 1999 to last year, my blog was about our bison herd and our farm attractions – with only a little information about my books.

Our bison farm developed into a big tourist attraction over the years to the point it was more work involved that we (and the herd) wanted to deal with, so we drastically changed directions over a year ago to a simpler life without tourists. (And that’s why I now have time to devote to my writing again…)

 I get google alerts on my name to track my author marketing, and last night, low and behold, there as a five minute video from about six years ago when America’s Heartland did a TV segment on me and our tourist attraction.  Because of the internet, that video will live on forever.

I watched it again, (and thinking about the filming behind it which was a hoot when the camera man realized how fast a buffalo could move) and so glad that now we enjoy quiet time with the buffalo instead.

I took this picture of Darcy and her little 10-month old bull calf yesterday in the pasture. (It’s he just a cutie with his growing horns?) Life is much calmer now for both us and them compared to the video of my past. Sorry tourists, but I’ll only share my buffalo by photos now…

One of the major questions I’m trying to answer for the Kansas Quilter series, is when Kizzie and her family were living in the Oklahoma Territory.

Great Uncle Ralph’s version is that three of the Pieratt brothers decided to go on the Oklahoma Land Rush and stayed down there for a while before moving back to Kansas. But of course, I’m trying to decide which one of the territory openings, and was it during for land rush, or later for a land lottery.

Kizzie had her first four children in the first five years of their marriage, between 1894 and 1899. Then it was another five years before, Mildred, her fifth child was born on March 11, 1904—107 years ago today.  No other children were born until daughter Birdine in 1909, when the family was already back in Kansas. (I haven’t had much luck finding school records in either place, but I’m guessing Kizzie’s family was there between 1903 and 1907.)

Another fun thing to find is a few photos when Mildred was a baby. (She is in Ira’s arms on the right side of the photo.) I can identify everyone. Some we know lived in Oklahoma and some in Kansas, so apparently the Kansas relation came down for a visit.

If only photos can talk— or if this was a video instead. I’d love to hear the conversations of the parents getting all those boys sitting still long enough for a photo on that porch.

Anyway, I’m having fun looking a photos and thinking of great aunt Mildred today on her birthday.

Finally getting some good sunny weather today after two days of clouds and rain. Now it feels like spring in on its way. Gray Cat is enjoying the sun too- moving to a new spot every time the sun changes its angle coming through the window.

Today’s project is setting up a Goodreads account to showcase my books and to list some other authors that I have read. (And of course it connects up to Facebook too.) I also plan to finish submitting my ebooks to Kobobooks and check in with the marketing on other site too.

Marketing takes more time than writing a book in the first place- but is needed so readers can find and enjoy my books. (I’d appreciate it if you’d pass on my blog along with links to my books to your friends too.)

I wonder what my great grandmother Kizzie had planned for today in 1911? I’m sure she had a standard routine with feeding her large family and taking care of her farm. But I hope she had a little time to enjoy reading today too.

I actually started my Kansas Quilter book series back in 2002, but finally shelved it in 2005 when agri-tourism took over our Bison Farm.  I didn’t have the dedicated blocks of time to work on it anymore.

Now that we’ve retired from our farm business, I’m going back over research notes and already written chapters to pick up the series again.

And I’m also looking for information that wasn’t available before online. Like census records. Instead of going to a physical place to actually see the written pages, I can put in the name, state, choose the year of the census I want —and voila— the actual page pops up on the screen in its original handwritten form. It so cool to see who was in the family at the time, and it even lists anyone that is working for them too.

Pieratt family- 1900 Kansas census

Of course some information is easy to find, and other questions I have will never be answered. I guess that’s where the fiction part of my writing fills in the gaps.

I’m also working on the list of family members that will be my main characters, their conflicts, plot, etc. Kizzie will be the “heroine” of sorts, telling the early history of her part of the Kansas prairie along with her family’s dreams. And quilts and quilting will be primary theme for this Kansas pioneer.

I’m sure every quilt Kizzie made had a story behind it…and I want to share it with you, my readers.

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I celebrate my birthday today, I think back to past ones. One of the earliest ones I remember is my 7^th birthday when I marked seven days off the calendar, and it was the same number as years I was old.

I’ve had quiet birthdays with my family (of course with chocolate cake and ice cream) and a few memorable vacations on my special day with my husband.

Today’s quote I received by email reminded me that every day and minute, not just on my birthday, is special and I plan to celebrate them all this year!

We need to enjoy life while we can…

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Gray Cat with Swedish Books

Each morning I look forward to the daily quote I automatically get from www.realsimple.com. Many times it doesn’t pertain to me or my life, but other times it “hits the spot” and makes my day.

Of course one of the reasons I like today’s quote is because I write books, but it is so true when you think of your home and where books are either stacked on shelves because you have read them, or plan to read them in the future.  Or you have a book by your bed or recliner that you pick up to read whenever you get a chance.

Looking around my office I have a collection of very old Swedish books that I’ve used for research when working on immigrant pioneer stories. It makes me wonder- who bought, read, and cherished them in the past century? How much did they cost? Were they a gift for a special occasion? What pioneer woman treasured this book in her homestead dugout?

I have an Engelsk-Svensk Ordbok (English-Swedish Dictionary) that was published in Stockholm in 1899. It measures 6”  x 9” (with a three inch spine)… and weighs four pounds! Who packed this important book with them to use when they arrived in America?

And then I think of my Kindle. It’s so handy and holds so many, many books…but it will never have the “soul” of these antique books on my shelf…

In 1938 my mother’s great aunt Martha Pieratt gave her a quilt. At that time the quilt was over 100 years old and had been handed down through her mother’s Kennedy family.  Doing some research on it while planning my Trail of Thread book series, it turns out to be the Cleveland Tulip pattern and it came with Martha’s mother Maggie Kennedy when she moved from Ohio to Kansas in 1858.

Quilts and quilting seemed like a perfect theme for the stories of my mother’s side of the family, so I wove a quilt theme into this book series and featured twelve quilt patterns in each book.  The titles also went with the quilt theme.

My Trail of Thread book was about Deborah Pieratt’s wagon trail journey to the Kansas Territory in 1854. The second book, Thimble of Soil featured Margaret Ralston Kennedy’s decision to move her family from their safe Ohio home to the unsettling territory in 1855. And the final book in series, Stitch of Courage, followed Maggie Kennedy Pieratt during her young years as she marries James Monroe Pieratt during the Civil War.

 Last Saturday morning we spent time in the pasture watching the herd. The day hadn’t heated up yet so it was nice to sit on the tailgate of the pickup and watch as the cows sniffed through the tall grass looking for the range cubes that had been thrown out for them to find and enjoy.

The calves are starting to lose their baby wool coat and turn brown, a few spots at a time. They look rather unkept and splotchy right now, but by the end of September the calves will have sleek brown hair just like their mammas.

Ever learning from their mother’s, it was fun to watch the calves sniff the cubes, and maybe lick one. They aren’t quite at the stage of picking up and chewing one yet, but they know the older animals do it and get excited when they see them spread out – so they are learning it must be a good thing.

Because range cubes are a treat rather than a daily food, it’s a good way to train the buffalo to come when called. It might be for a roundup, or – if heaven forbid a gate or fence is down – you have a way to bring them back home to the pasture.

Think of it as the buffalo’s chocolate…