Mary Edwards Walker, M.D.

Doctor, Civil War Veteran, Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient

In my book, SALVATION BRIDE, I write about a heroine who's ahead of her times. Laura Ashton Slade is trained doctor in 1873 Texas. But a woman who truly was ahead of her times is Mary Edwards Walker, M.D.

Mary was the fifth daughter of Dr. Alvah and Vesta Walker, born on November 26, 1832 in Oswego, New York. Both her parents had unconventional views on female education....they believed women should receive a formal education. Mary started her employment as a school teacher, just as her sisters did before her. However, she soon broke tradition and attended the Syracuse Medical School, the country's first medical school and the only one to accept both men and women as equals. She graduated in 1855 at the age of 21 after three 13-week semester, which cost her $55 each.

She married fellow doctor Albert Miller not long after graduation and the two of them set up practice in Rome, NY. But both the practice and the marriage floundered (she accused her husband of infidelity). After only a few years, she separated from her husband, but it took a decade for them to divorce, due to the divorce laws at the time. Mary remained in Rome, practicing medicine, advocating social causes and writing the magazine SYBIL. She was friends with Amelia Bloomer, who the under garment is named after and one of her causes was dress reform for women.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1860, she attempted to join the Union Army. When denied a commission, she volunteered as a nurse instead. While working at a hospital in Washington, D.C., she discovered mothers and wives of soldiers living in parks and sleeping on benches. Spurred into action, she helped found the Women's Relief Association.

In September 1863, she was awarded a contract as an Active Assistant Surgeon for the Army of the Cumberland. When she was finally commissioned into the military in 1864, she became the first woman Doctor to service in Army Medical Corp. She modified her officer's uniform in response to the demands of traveling with the army and working in field hospitals near the front lines . She was later transferred to the 52nd Ohio Infantry.

During this time in the army she was also a spy for the Union.

In 1864 she was taken as a prisoner of war, the first American woman POW, and spent four months in a Richmond POW camp. She and two dozen other Union doctors were exchanged for seventeen Confederate surgeons.

She left the army in 1865 and was paid $8.50 a month in a pension. Even when it was raised to $20 a month, it was less than what a widow received as a pension.

On November 11, 1865, President Johnson signed a bill awarding Mary Edwards Walker with the Congressional Medal of Honor for her Meritorious Service. She is the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest award.

Her medal was revoked, along with 910 others, by an act of congress in 1917 when the Medal of Honor standards were revised to include “actual combat with the enemy”. Mary refused to return her medal and wore it daily until her death. In 1977, an army board restored her medal, citing her “distinguished, gallantry, self-sacrifice, patriotism, dedication and unflinching loyalty to her country, despite the apparent discrimination because of her sex.”

After the war, Mary's activities became more political. She fought for women's rights (including changes in marriage and divorce laws), dress reform, and health and temperance issues. She traveled across America and abroad lecturing on her beliefs. During this time she also wrote two books, HIT, an autobiography and UNMASKED OR THE SCIENCE OF IMMORALITY, a book on the infidelity of men.

For most of her life, Mary was a strong proponent of dress reform, stating that women's clothing was immodest and inconvenient. She herself wore full male dress for the latter part of her life and was proud of her multiple arrests for wearing men's clothing. In 1866, she was elected president of the National Dress Reform Association. Her eccentricities, however, often alienated her from fellow reformists, especially suffragists. Noticeably, she was against a constitutional amendment for women's right to vote because she felt the constitution already gave women the right to vote.

She spent her last years on her family's Bunker Hill farm in Oswego. She died at her home on February 21, 1919 and is buried at the Rural Cemetery in the Town of Oswego.

For additional information on Mary, check out:

http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/walk-mar.htm

(this is a really good site, one I didn't read before I wrote this, so it's worth looking over for additional information.)

http://www.townofoswego.com/dr.html

http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/walker.htm

http://www.mishalov.com/Dr._Mary_Walker.html (Medal of Honor Citation)

http://www.medalofhonor.com/TheOnlyWoman.htm

http://tekzones.com/Dev/SAMC/MaryWalker.htm

Anna Kathryn Lanier

SALVATION BRIDE

http://www.thewildrosepress.com/salvation-bride-p-1126.html

http://www.aklanier.com/

Guest Blogger - Skhye Moncrief: Books of Magic for Research

President of Hearts Through History Melinda Porter invited me over to share a few resources that might be helpful to those authors wanting to put what I consider an authentic slant to their historical wips without going over the top and creating a new world that has nothing to do with what readers consider historical. I'm known on my blog, SKHYE'S RAMBLINGS, for posting my personal collection of reference books. My library spans many topics. "Many" may not be the best word. For example, I'm formally educated in geology (paleontology) and anthropology (bioarchaeology). A person acquires a lot of books studying those two subjects. I've also taken quite a bit of ceramics and art history on the side. Then, I write about time travelers who are alchemists from the future who use magic and a force only the fairies control to travel along the timeline. Take alchemy as an outgrowth of scientific study, add Druid and Freemason beliefs, and shake... You can see how I had to do some research to devise logical cultural evolution for my time travelers in the future.

My personal library tripled in size as the geo-archaeologist pushed up her sleeves and went in to descry what in the heck Druids were in prehistory, history, and today. We literally know nothing other than what Romans reported in documents or what has been historically recorded in the past few centuries as the revival of a belief system. The same holds true for witchcraft. But what we do have to play with when researching fairies are a few wonderful collections of information that were written by people we hold in high esteem--academia. I'm going to share some of the books with you just in case you're writing a historical with a speck of magic. Okay, maybe you just need to know which deity a person might have known about or secretly revered...

SPIRITS, FAIRIES, LEPRECHAUNS, AND GOBLINS: An Encyclopedia by Carol Rose. If you want to find a vague legend to weave into your historical wip, buy this book.

GIANTS, MONSTERS, AND DRAGONS: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth by Carol Rose. Rose's other collection of factual tidbits is certain to become a springboard for your creativity.

Turner, Coulter, and Coulter's DICTIONARY OF ANCIENT DIETIES has it all. Flip to any page and find tons of information from cultures through time spanning the globe.

Lindahl, McNamara, and Lindow's MEDIEVAL FOLKLORE is a book I refer to often. It's extensive entries can often be overwhelming when you go in to search for an answer. But I'd rather be inundated with information than operate on a line or two.

Search for a copy of Christian mythology if you want to find really good new twists for the same old story. I'd give you the title of mine but it's buried in the garage. We're still renovating (carpet/tile/countertops/shelves). I have no idea which box contains the coffeetable-sized tome.

A book's introduction I found incredibly useful for creating a knight was in the SONG OF ROLAND. The version I used is at
http://blog.skhyemoncrief.com/2008/09/04/the-song-of-roland.aspx filed away at my blog among my Reference Books blog posts.

If you're interested in even more paranormal, fantasy, or historical references, visit http://blog.skhyemoncrief.com. My ever-growing reference-book blog-post list currently has approximately 150 titles.

~Skhye

The Historical Voice

Like many romance authors I considered trying another genre. I read historical romance, I wrote historical romance, but I gave considerable thought to writing a contemporary romance, which I did. It wasn’t easy. A friend told me, “You don’t have a contemporary voice, you have a historical voice.”

That gave me pause. What did she mean I had a historical voice as opposed to a contemporary voice? I thought about it a lot. What made my voice so different from the voices of contemporary authors? In fact, what makes a historical voice?

I decided to compare some of the contemporary authors to well known historical novelists. Sharing my findings may be no surprise to you, but they were to me and led to other questions.

What did I find? The most noticeable difference is the dialogue between contemporary characters. That I expected. But I noticed other discernable changes in the use of words describing a scene, a character, a place. There is an ease to the modern novel quite removed from the historical tale. For one, contemporary romances contain clichés, and modern turns of phrase not even known a hundred years ago. But I also noticed something else. There is a more formal approached to the historical story, not something you can reach out and touch, but it’s a real. Words are used in a certain pattern, fewer contractions, more formal address. The age of the words used now counts. The heroine of a historical romance set in the west a hundred years ago would never use the expression, ‘over and out!”

The characters have a tendency, even if it’s a humorous historical romance, to be more formal in their conversations. The heroine of an eighteen century adventure would never tell the hero, “Don’t go there,” if she didn’t want to discuss something.

All this analysis leads to another question. How do you develop a historical voice, and can you accomplish such a task? I don’t have the answer to that, but I have a feeling that the author of a historical novel is someone who thinks of and might even admire the simpler, less complicated life of days ago. Someone who perhaps likes a bit of formality, an individual who enjoys hearing historical tidbits, admires the style and beauty of historical dress and the grandness of some time periods. Someone who instinctively would be attracted to books by Jane Austin, Charles Dickens to name just two.

That doesn’t mean a historical author doesn’t enjoy the here and now. Where would we be without computers, printing presses, POD, microwaves, and the automobile? We’d be nowhere, and I doubt any historical romance author would willing trade a today with yesteryear. But true to the nature of the historical romance writer – we can pretend for awhile and go back in time.

So, how would you describe a historical voice?

Allison Knight
www.AllisonKnight.com
"A Treasure For Sara"
available now from Champagne Books

National Women’s History Month – a salute to the American frontier woman.

Welcome to the Seduced by History blog. I was seduced by history as a young child. I was lucky enough to grow up in a Midwest extended family with a rich oral tradition. As a child I heard stories of my ancestors’ life and times as they settled in what was at one time a wilderness along with their adventures with wild animals, weather and each other. These stories of who we are and where we come from have always fascinated me. So naturally I gravitated to the study of history, eventually earning a BA in History, a MA in History and a BA in European Studies (Yeah, over educated!), and taught at the college level.

Now a good history teacher is nothing if not a good story teller, and as I taught everyone said you know all these ‘stories’, you should write a book. Which is a lot of fun (doing the research) and a lot of work (actually writing the book). Even though my history degrees mostly focus on British and European history, when it came time to write, I went back to my roots. The American frontier – the place where men and women work together to make a home and a civilization.

Since this is National Women’s History month, I was trying to think of a specific woman to blog about. But I think I’ll go with the ‘every woman’ who left the home she grew up in and went with the man she loved and set out to make a new home. These are the women I write about, the women who were our grandmothers, and great grandmothers, and beyond. The women who made us what we are today.

Before the 20th Century and the gaining of legal rights, women had to get along in a narrower world, and they did by courage and pride and commitment to their ideals. These are the women (and men) whose story I want to tell. The fictional people who might have lived down the road from my ancestors.

I set my first story in Kentucky in 1794. April Williamson was born in the frontier in Boonesboro, but with the death of her father her mother took her back to Philadelphia. Now a widow, April wants to return home to Kentucky where she can make her living as a seamstress.

Because she’s a widow, she has control over her life.
An excerpt from the text: "I seem to have started in the middle. Let me explain. My name is April Williamson and I need transportation to Oak Point."
Mr. Murray looked intrigued. April chanced a glance at Mr. McKenzie. If anything, his frown had deepened. With a prickle of annoyance, she turned to him and asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Where are your menfolk?" His voice held a tone of manufactured civility.
Meaning of course, April thought tartly, where is the man who takes care of you? He would, of course, expect a young woman to be attached to some man. A measure of her self-confidence returned. She had the perfect, irrefutable answer. "I have no menfolk. My husband died last November."
With satisfaction she noted Mr. McKenzie's surprise and discomfort. "I've inherited property near Oak Point. I appreciate it's unusual for your company to take passengers, but there's no other means of getting to Kentucky."

An excerpt from a review: April is presented as sensible and intelligent. Her character tone was set early on with her reaction to Dan's initial refusal to take her along. She doesn't whine, cry, or beg prettily. Instead, she acts with dignity, simply asking Dan (McKenzie) and his partner, Scotty (Murray), to please think about it and reconsider. The letter to General Wayne is no female machination to force Dan's hand; it's a move made before she met him. And her actions on the trail are just as adult. The result of this was that by the time they reached Kentucky, I really did believe that April would make it on her own, an idea I didn't entirely embrace at the beginning of the story. (see http://www.theromancereader.com/blain-kentucky.html review)

Because the time frame of 1794 is not exactly main stream, I blogged about this story on Unusual Historicals http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/2008/10/guest-author-terry-blain.html

Of course, because KENTUCKY GREEN is a romance the hero and heroine have obstacles to overcome. April refuses to let her fear of Indians or the disapproval of Dan McKenzie, the civilian army scout she coerces into escorting her, to deter her. Despite her resolve to keep the independence of widowhood, and Dan's belief the frontier is no place for a woman, they fall in love amid the dangers and hazards of the journey. But Dan knows April cannot be his. He was present at the Indian massacre that killed April’s father – not as a settler, but as one of the Indians.


For my next story, COLORADO SILVER, COLORADO GOLD, I went further west and forward in time to the 1880s.

Masquerading as a widow, socialite Juliette Lawson flees Philadelphia to ‘visit’ her uncle in Durango, Colorado. At a train stop she literally bumps into a handsome man before continuing on to Durango. For Julie, family is all important and her visit hides a secret to protect her pregnant sister back east. Here is a young woman who determined enough to set out on her own and carry the burden of a secret for what is important to her. Throughout the course of the story, Julie’s independence and self assurance grows stronger.

While family is all important for Julie, it means nothing to Wes Westmoreland. An undercover agent for Wells Fargo, Wes grew up in the saloons and brothels of San Francisco. For Wes, his job is all important as he see it as the only redeeming feature of his life. But as Wes and Julie fall in love, both have secrets to conceal. Secrets that could drive them apart forever.

I’m proud that this story received a 4 Spur review at Love Western Romance. http://www.lovewesternromances.com/coloradosilvercoloradogold.html

Currently, I’ve created a town in central Texas in the 1870s where my hero Texas Rangers are falling in love with more American frontier women. Charity Simmons has run away from a utopian community in the east, and plans to open a restaurant and be independent. Abbie Sinclair (like April Williamson above) returns to Texas from Chicago to claim the ranch she grew up on as a child. Spinster Kate Rocklin is content to run a boarding house until her childhood love returns to town.

As you can tell, I have a real respect for the American women who helped civilize the frontier. And the romance element is the universality of any story. Regardless of time or setting, social customs, economic conditions, politics, wars, crusades or whatever, there is always the relationship between men and women to be explored.

Also, I think knowing the past in important. You know Koko the gorilla who learned sign language? When she signs "the past" she motions in front of her, when she signs "the future" she motions behind her, as we can see what in front (the past) but can't see behind us (the future). So how can we know where we want to go in the future unless we have some idea of our past?

Since I was lucky enough to grow up with a sense of community and history from the stories I heard my family tell writing historical romance gives me the opportunity pass on stories of who we are and where we come from while exploring the relationship between men and women. What could be more fun than that?

Both KENTUCKY GREEN and COLORADO SILVER, COLORADO GOLD are available on Amazon – just search for author ‘Terry Blain’. You can also purchase the books directly from the publisher at Wings http://wings-press.com/ as either a paperback or electronic edition by author.

Terry Irene Blain
Escape to the past with a romantic adventure
www.terryblain.com

Victorian Christmas -- Western Style

When my editor told me that the launch novel for my upcoming trilogy was to be a Christmas themed story, I was equally excited, and stumped. Snagging a holiday slot was fabulous news, even though it meant a total rewrite of the summer set novel I'd nearly written in keeping with my proposal.

I'd published a Christmas themed short story a couple of years ago, so I had a fair idea how the holdiay was celebrated in Victorian America, but I was stumped on how the Old West ranchers truly celebrated Christmas. Face it, it would be nearly impossible or impractical to brave blizzards and go caroling door to door, as your nearest neighbor could be miles away.

Decorating Christmas trees had gotten a foothold in Europe in the early 1800s, and that tradition was brought to America.

Though blown glass ornaments had been used to decorate Christmas trees in late 1870s Germany, they didn't become vogue in America until the 1890s. The glass ornaments were handpainted and decorated with twisted wire and tinsel, reflecting the time. Jockies on horses, sail boats, trumpets, globes, bells and baskets -- just to name a few.

Nuremberg angels, with their spun-glass wings and gold and silver crinkled skirts, were much sought after. Ornaments imported from Dresden, Germany were another hugely popular decoration, being made between 1880 and 1910. These pressed cardboard designs were extremely realistic, and either gilded, silvered, or handpainted.

Electric Christmas lights were invented in the late 1880s, but many people still used tiny candles on trees, either because they lived in isolated regions were electricty hadn't reached, or they were poor.

For those without the financial means to deck the tree in the new Victorian fashion, they relied on what they had at hand. Popcorn and berry garlands, or paper strings were used to drape a tree. Yarn dolls, gingerbread men, and lacy sachets hung from the boughs. Cornhusk angels often perched atop the tree.

The children hung their stocking by the fire, in hopes that St. Nick would leave candy and a toy, and maybe a shiny new penny inside.

For those living on ranches in the West, they did their caroling around the Christmas tree. Their gifts were mainly handmade items that were desperately needed.

Christmas Day dinner was as much a feast as could be had, with the ranch family and the workers gathered together to share the bounty. If they could afford it, they'd order a turkey or ham from the mercantile in town. Some imported fresh fruit, only to have it arrive frozen. Many baked desserts far in advance, from pies to cakes to traditional plum puddings.

One thing remained the same for those living in the city or country. By and large they viewed Christmas as a special day of sharing and reflecting.

I enjoyed doing research on Victorian Christmas traditions for my October '09 release, A Cowboy Christmas. My heroine adored Christmas and all it meant, and my hero had never celebrated the holiday in his life. I hope to have an excerpt up on my website soon.

What's your favorite Christmas tradition? Comment for a chance to win a copy of my Christmas short story, Christmas Showdown.

Mothering Sunday

This year Mothering Sunday is celebrated on March 22 in the UK.

I confess I had never heard of Mothering Sunday until last month. I assumed it had something to do with a day honoring mothers, but when Mills and Boon combined my debut, The Angel and the Outlaw, with Sarah Mallory's More Than a Governess, they entitled the new book ~ On Mothering Sunday.

My curiosity peaked; I delved into the long and rich history of the United Kingdom to find that the origin of Mothering Sunday offered a bit more substance and tradition than the Mother’s Day we celebrate in the U.S.A.

Mothering Sunday is always the fourth Sunday in Lent, a half-way point when the strict fasting would be relaxed for a day. The day dates back to the 1600s when once a year, church-goers would go to their “mother church” or the largest church or cathedral in the area rather than attending their nearby village church. It was the time--once a year--when maids and apprentices were given a day off to visit their mothers. Often children as young as ten years old would leave their homes and go into service. I can imagine that Mothering Sunday must have been quite a day for family reunions and celebrations.

In Victorian times, the maids were allowed to bake a cake to take to their mothers. The Simnel cake became the traditional cake for Mothering Sunday. It is a light, fruity cake decorated with eleven marzipan balls on top that represent the apostles (Judas is absent.) Another tradition was that the children, as they walked home, would gather wild flowers from the fields and roadside along the way to present to their mothers.
I found several recipes online for Simnel cake, but I thought the most traditional one would come from the U.K. It sounds like it would be delicious and I’m determined to make a cake to celebrate Mothering Sunday and the release of my debut book in the United Kingdom. Here’s a link to the recipe I’m using: BBC's
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/simnelcake_792.shtml

Do you have a special Mother's Day tradition you'd like to share? For those who comment, I'll put your name in a drawing for a free, autographed copy of On Mothering Sunday--a two-book prize!

Anna Kathyrn Lanier

Hello. I'm here to introduce myself and my books. I'm a short story published author who first started writing in the early 80's, but quit for a several years to raise my daughters. Now that I'm a grandma, I have more time to write. So, a few years ago I started up again. Right now, I have two historicals out: TEMPT ME TWICE and SALVATION BRIDE. Both are available electronically.

TEMPT ME TWICE

Seven years ago, Meghan Shelton fell in love with Peter Bourne, Duke of Prestwick, only to learn his seduction was a means to win a bet. Ashamed and pregnant, Meghan flees England. On her return, she literally runs into Peter. This time she has more to protect than her heart, she has a daughter, too.

One look at Meghan and Peter knows he was foolish to think he could seduce her and not love her. Now he has to gain her forgiveness and work his way back into her heart. Will Meghan be tempted twice by the man she loves?

Buy it: http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&cPath=53&products_id=1768

SALVATION BRIDE

The hot dusty town of Salvation, Texas has more than its share of secrets in 1873 when Laura Ashton's stage rolls into town. Sheriff David Slade has no idea what baggage his mail-order bride is bringing into his life. Throw in the nightmares from his Civil War days and he's got more than courting to contend with. Laura's a woman ahead of her time, a woman trained in medicine. And she's got a will that could move mountains. Unfortunately, the only mountains in Salvation are in Sheriff Slade's memory. Can the determined doctor heal his pain, or will the dark secret in her past turn up to steal his Salvation Bride?

Buy it: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=prod

Anna Kathryn Lanier

http://www.aklanier.com/