May 26th, 2009

So many of the visitors to this site over the last few months have been teachers, school librarians, and home school educators. School officials from Manchester, Massachusetts to Everett, Washington and points in between have dropped by to check out the books and ultimately added a few to their collection. I’ve had a lot of parents purchase the “Go West” series of books for their daughters and granddaughters and the feedback has been encouraging. My goal was to write material that would appeal to younger readers as well as the mature history buff. I had a wonderful high school history teacher and she made learning fun. Hope the “Go West” series is entertaining as well as educational. In the not too distant future a special section will be added to the site specifically for teachers and the like. It will provide more information about the titles and the great women who made their mark on the west. I’m heading to the plains tomorrow to launch Thunder Over the Prairie. I think it’s going to be a wonderful experience. As usual, no matter what good thing is on the horizon, I see my brother in my side view mirror. The situation that occurred to the male lead in the movie Doubt is reminiscent of what happened to Rick. In spite of Flynn’s insistence that he had not raped a child Sister Aloysius vigorously claimed he did. “You haven’t the slightest proof of anything,” Flynn tells her. “But I have my certainty?,” Sister Aloysius sneered. That’s all it took for Flynn to go down – all it took for me to lose my brother. Like Sister Aloysius I pray the mother and daughter who caused this tragedy are haunted daily by doubt. I miss my brother. I’ll be thinking of him when I’m at the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge. I’ll be thinking of Bat, Charlie, Bill, and Wyatt too. I’ll be back next month.