Welcome to My Blog: "Where They Once Stood"

Welcome to my blog, "Where They Once Stood"

In this space, I'll discuss my series, The Atchison County Chronicles, the research that inspired each novel, stories about cemeteries and biographies from within their walls, history about communities that have been forgotten or are on the verge of disappearing, the people who lived there, recipes from the late nineteenth century, and my travels.

If we haven't met, I'll tell you a little about myself. I live in Atchison County, Kansas with Marlin, my husband of almost 45 years, where we farm land once owned by my paternal great-grandparents (both sides) and my husband's paternal great-grandparents. I'm not as active in the day-to-day operations anymore, but it might interest you to know that I learned to drive a tractor while we were dating, worked my way up from driving a small grain truck to a Peterbilt, operated the combine (hated it), and—until my granddaughter replaced me—ran the grain cart during harvest. Now? I run errands, take meals and snacks to the field, and accompany my husband on farm-related road trips.

My passion for writing started early, with reading. My favorite book from early childhood was "Pitidoe, the Colormaker" by Glen Dines. By fifth grade, I was reading every Nancy Drew book I could get my hands on and enduring the same warning from the librarian each week. (I'll tell that story another time.)

In grade school, when my classmates were writing the standard book report, I wrote a monologue from the main character's point of view. In high school, I was sent to the school counselor after writing a poem about my grandfather and how I perceived his grief after my grandmother's death. My teacher thought I was contemplating suicide. She doubted me, and that doubt did what encouragement never quite had: it made me determined to keep writing.

Still, writing was never something I thought of as a career. I loved it—I loved acting, too—but neither felt like something a person actually did for a living. It wasn't until I was married with children and back in college that I enrolled in a creative writing course. My plan was to earn my degree and teach high school English, but somewhere along the way a quieter ambition took root: I wanted to be published. Nothing grand. Not a novel—a short story would do.

My maternal grandmother read everything I wrote and urged me to submit my stories. I never did. In my thirties, I started a young adult novel, hoping to be published before my fortieth birthday. Then my fiftieth. (I'm now in my mid-sixties.)

I don't remember when I switched my focus to writing about my great-grandmother, Bessie, but at this point it's fair to say I've been working on the idea for twenty years.

Why so long without a finished novel, you ask? I didn't know what I was doing! I may have a bachelor's degree in English, but I only knew the basics of story structure—not enough to see an idea through to completion. I had ideas. Notebooks full of ideas and incomplete stories. But with each one I hit a roadblock and gave up. It wasn't until two years ago, when I attended WriterCon in Oklahoma, that I began to understand what I needed to do. A retreat and two conferences with the WriterCon crew, and I was ready to go.

"Finding Her Way: Bessie's Story" has taken years to complete, and I hope you'll pick up a copy when it's released later this summer. While I was writing Bessie's story, I found an article with information so disturbing I couldn't forget it. It took two years before I knew how I wanted to frame that story. "A Place of Her Own: Anna's Story" will be available in late fall 2026.

And because my ADD brain never rests, I discovered another article during my research that stayed with me, and then another, until I had an idea for a series: The Atchison County Chronicles.

Each book features a young woman living an ordinary life who is forced into a circumstance not of her choosing—one that requires her to draw on an inner strength she didn't know she had to protect herself or someone she cares about. The locations are real. I'm passionate about recording the histories of small communities within my county and the people who lived in them.

With the exception of Bessie and Anna, both based on real people, my main characters are invented. I use the names of people who actually lived and worked in these communities as secondary characters.

The books share these commonalities:

1. The main character is a woman struggling in a situation not of her own making
2. The locations are forgotten and fading communities in Atchison County
3. The circumstances are inspired by news articles from Atchison County newspapers
4. The circumstances are real, the characters are not—with a couple of exceptions
5. Sheriff Fred Hartman, who appears in each book, was the real sheriff of Atchison County

I welcome questions and conversation, so don't be afraid to reach out!

Next time, I'll tell you about running to the edge of my yard to wave at the woman with the red bandana, seeing a picture of my great-grandmother, and learning of a generational connection.