Frost and Flowers

 My chickens spent the better part of March scratching the heavy layers of leaves off my flower beds, which means I spent the better part of March piling the leaves back on, trying desperately to keep my delicate spring flowers covered up until the right time.

Every time I donned my long sleeves and started covering up those pale greenish yellow shoots, this verse came to me.

“Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.” Song of Solomon 2:7

A string of warm days could force the spring flowers up early, and without any cover, a frost could easily damage them. I’ve definitely had years where the blooms died prematurely or the plants never even bloomed at all.

This verse in particular is about love. It’s about letting it “rest” and not forcing it until the right time. But as I was thinking about this verse and protecting my precious flowers, I thought about the things I’m yearning for right now. Fresh veggies straight from the garden, market season, and most of all, for the chance to get published. I’ve spent the winter working hard towards these things, and I’m yearning and dreaming to see the fruit of my labor come to life.

Every time I covered those flowers, it was a reminder to be patient and know there is a time and season for everything.

The New Year and Small Changes

With New Year’s comes resolutions, and often these are big changes we want to accomplish in our lives. It’s easy to want to jump right in, hoping for huge changes with quick results, and then they pitter out before the month of January even comes to an end.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across this photo I took last January. At the beginning of 2020, I had pulled out an old nanowrimo manuscript and decided to start the editing process, hoping to have it ready to send to agents in a few months.

Like any first draft, I slogged through the first edits, wondering how it was possible that I could string so many bad sentences together! I used the bright sticky notes in an attempt to untangle the messy plot, and at times wondered if it would ever turn into something enjoyable to read.

Trying to get the plot figured out!

The next thing I knew, I was adjusting to our crazy lives during covid with the kids at home 24-7, and simultaneously running our busy market garden season while my husband put in a lot of hours at work. Progress on my novel came to an instant halt, but after we settled into our “new normal”, I came back to it a little at a time.

I wasn’t until I saw the picture with the sticky notes that I realized how far that novel has come and how much it has changed! What a difference all the small changes made over the course of a year! It went from a mess to a manuscript, from something painful to read to something fun to read.

Binders with the seven rewrites of the book!

It made me realize that small changes can make a difference, a really big difference. If you can’t do it all at once, try something small, because it might really surprise you where you are and how far you have come a year from now!

The Year Without Football

This Saturday, August 8^th, the quiet town of Pine Village should have been bursting with people. There would have been town wide garage sales, kids selling lemonade, families lining the streets with blankets and chairs waiting for the parade to start, and the smell of burgers wafting through the air. All of these leading to the main event, local boys decked out in vintage black and orange jerseys, ready to take on the away team in a historical vintage football game.

Last year, over a thousand people gathered around the football field, located behind Pine Village Elementary School, to watch the old fashioned game and cheer on the locals! It was a sight to behold in the sleepy town of three hundred!

This year, planning for the second annual game got off to great start, but sadly all festivities were cancelled about a month ago due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The cancellation of sports and festivities in rural communities across the nation seems like such a crazy unreal thing to happen, but it happened back in 1918 to the original Villagers too. In 1918, Pine Village football came to a grinding halt as the players fought in World War I and all of America suffered from the Spanish Influenza, a byproduct of the war that killed thousands of Americans. That year, not one game was played, the field was left barren, and everyone wondered whether the Villagers would ever take the field again.

Now, over one hundred years later, we are all wondering the same thing that those Warren County people were wondering back then. Will things get back to normal? When will we be able to resume our festivals and small town traditions? Will the vintage football game be a thing of the past, or will we revive it again in the coming year?

I leave you with this excerpt from Robert Carr, the nephew of Pine Village football player, John Carr, who says of a parade revived again in 1918, “Such visiting there was, with friends they hadn’t seen in months and months… The two town doctors were very much on view… They all floated about, inquiring into the health of all.”

They went on to have their celebration and parade, and a year later, the Villagers took the field again! The hope and prayer of the Pine Village Football Committee is that this time next year, those of us who have social distanced for months, those of us who have missed out on opportunities, sports, and fun events, will be back together visiting, celebrating, and socializing once again! God bless!

Honoring Mudlavia with “Magical Mudlavia” Celebration

On February 29, 1920, smoke billowed out of peaceful valley. The smoke belonged to a fire that broke out at the world-renowned Mudlavia hotel. With a strong southeast wind whipping through the valley, the fire blazed at an alarming rate, destroying the entire hotel, the out buildings, and even the well house, which was several hundred yards to the south.

Mudlavia would never be rebuilt with the same grandeur again.

The site today gives little clue to the magnificent hotel that once resided there, and the only way to keep Mudlavia’s history alive is to celebrate it, talk about it, and share our knowledge about it.

On Saturday, February 29, 2020, one hundred years after Mudlavia burned down (twenty-five, if you are looking at it in leap years), I am partnering with Aubrey Dietrich, owner of Heart and Soul Farm, to honor and celebrate the history of Mudlavia, and we invite you to come and celebrate with us!

Our “Magical Mudlavia” evening will begin at 6:00PM at Heart and Soul Farm, where we will kick off the celebration with bitesize refreshments inspired by Mudlavia’s historic menus. During this time, there will also be a few Mudlavia pictures and postcards to view.

At 6:30PM, Aubrey will introduce herself and talk about the connection she sees between Mudlavia and yoga today. Aubrey started hear yoga studio, Heart and Soul Farm, a little over a year ago. Since then, she has used her yoga practice for outreach events in the community through the 4-H program, at Prophetstown State Park, and at the local elementary school. She also provides various yoga series throughout the year at her farm, as well as providing other fun community events, like our Magical Mudlavia celebration.

At 7:00PM, I will be doing a question and answer session about Mudlavia, as well as answering any questions about the writing process. I have been writing since I was a little girl, and encourage the next generation of writers by hosting a youth writing club at our local elementary school. I began researching Mudlavia five years ago to write a novel about Mudlavia in honor of my grandpa, Bill Ringer. I entered my novel in the MMWW contest three years ago, and won. I am currently in the process of trying to get my work published.

At 7:30PM, we will wrap up the evening with a reading of the first chapter of my novel.

All events at Heart and Soul Farm are free to the public, however, donations are welcome and appreciated. Any donations will be split between us.  Aubrey will use them to continue to put on events at Heart and Soul Farm, and I will use them to put towards publishing my work.

We hope you will come and celebrate the history of Mudlavia with us!

Giving credit where credit is due-
Special thanks for my girls, Dessie and Dara Austin, for taking our picture
Special thanks for Gayle Breymeyer for inviting me last fall to come out to the Mudlavia property anytime and take pictures

Mudlavia: Where Gatsby Meets Griffith

One of the most interesting things about Mudlavia is the dynamic of bringing the luxurious city life to the rural setting of Warren County, Indiana. I like to call it a place where Gatsby meets Griffith.

When I think of The Great Gatsby, I think of millionaire Jay Gatsby and the lavish parties he hosted in his mansion. Gatsby brings to life the roaring twenties, and any Gatsby themed party would include the things of the wealthy social circles of the time; prohibition style cocktails, jazz music, flapper dresses, tuxes, lavish food, and fancy cars.

When I think of Andy Griffith, I think of a kindhearted sheriff helping people in iconic Mayberry. Andy can be found doing small town activities from breaking up family feuds, to teaching his boy Opie moral lessons, to going to town picnics, and playing the guitar on his front porch.

You would think that these two very different lifestyles could never mesh. If Gatsby came to Mayberry, Andy would greet him with, “Well hooooowdy, golly that’s a fancy car if I ever saw one, isn’t it Barn?”

Yet, Mudlavia brings these two different dynamics together.

Mudlavia was built in what Henry Kramer coined as “peaceful valley” Indiana. The hotel was made with the most luxurious materials; mahogany, marble, onyx, Tiffany glass, and oriental tapestries. It had the best modern conveniences of the nineteenth century and was famous for its Mudlavia treatment, which included healing mud baths and lithium water.

There were definite differences between the great Mudlavia Hotel and the surrounding area. Mudlavia hosted dances and balls where quartets would play waltzes, marches, and minuets. In the small town of Kramer, where the married Mudlavia employees lived, the townspeople would host country dances with fiddlers playing “The Virginia Reel” or “Fishers Hornpipe”. While the automobile became popular in the city and Mudlavia was called “autolavia” in 1910 due to the sheer amount of automobiles being driven there, they were not a mainstay in Warren County until the 1930’s.

Nowadays, some people joke that Warren County is about ten years behind the times, and I imagine that when city folk came to visit in the early 1900’s, they might have said the same thing too. It must have been a wonder that such a fancy place existed among the sycamore trees and rolling hills of the Indiana countryside.

I would have thought there would have been a definitive line between the fancy hotel and the rural surroundings, of the wealthy visitors and country workers, but I found that Mudlavia blended the two seamlessly.

I was reading a book about the Titanic and there was a quote from Edith Rosenbaum Russel who said, “There was something about the Titanic, it was so very formal, it was so very stiff. The atmosphere was stiff. The coziness- well you know, that kind of ‘get-together feeling,’ it didn’t exist.”

The cozy “get-together” feeling existed at Mudlavia. I imagine the stiffness and stuffiness that would have existed at other luxury hotels would have been undone by this special place, a place with the same warmth and friendliness as Mayberry.

When visitors first arrived and signed the hotel ledger, they were immediately welcomed as part of the Mudlavia family. A copy of Mudlavia News, a newspaper printed at the hotel, mentions a baseball game played out on the lawn with the employees and the guests. It also mentions the annual field day held on the front lawns. It says the field was "...crowded with guests and employees. Many persons from the little town of Kramer were in evidence and rooted with a good will for their respective candidates. The meet was held to decide a question of long standing as to the supremacy of the office employees and the chef and his lieutenants in the kitchen."

Even wealthy Mr. Kramer had that small town Indiana warmth. He was one of the first people to get an automobile in this part of the state and he would bring it to Attica to give anyone who wanted to a ride around the block!

There were plenty of other fancy hotels and Mudlavia was in the middle of nowhere. I believe what really made it special was the blur of lines between the social classes and the warmth of the people of “peaceful valley”.

Busy Mom Read- The Dirty Life

When someone comes up to me at market and says they don’t like tomatoes, I like to think they just haven’t found the right tomato yet. Some shoppers have never had a tomato outside of the grocery store (those rock hard, sort of red things from the grocery definitely don’t count) or they’ve never tried anything except a red tomato. Tomatoes come in all different colors, from almost white to orange to green to black, and in all sorts of flavors. We grow ones that are so sweet they’re almost like eating candy, tart tomatoes with a nice bite, and tomatoes so rich and complex, they’re like a fine wine.

I always thought I didn’t like memoirs. During my college years, I was introduced to some pretty boring ones and few that were so wordy and over-the-top that the stories became unbelievable. A couple years ago the memoir The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball came across my path. Guess what? I loved it! Turns out I just hadn’t found the right memoir yet.

I’ve been rereading The Dirty Life this September as my “busy mom read”. It’s tucked in my purse to read during the quiet moments between the craziness of life. I’m also rereading it because this October Kimball’s second memoir, Good Husbandry, comes out and tells the story of their next five years on the farm. I am counting down the days until it comes out, which is something I never thought I would say about a memoir!

In The Dirty Life, Kimball shares about her experience falling head over heels for a farmer during an interview for an article. She abandons her city life to marry him and start a farm and CSA in upstate New York. Her story is hilarious as she is thrown into the world of country living, and pulls at your heart as she describes the struggles they face throughout the first year. Most of all, I’m drawn to the way that she describes food. Reading her words makes me want to run out to the garden and grab everything I need to replicate the delicious dishes they create from the food they grow and raise on their farm. It also makes me want to get a dairy cow in the worst way!

If you love food or farming or both, then I highly recommend this book!

Mudlavia: The End

Ask any third grade teacher or one of their students in the county, and they’ll be able to tell you exactly how Mudlavia ends!

It’s a tragic end to a $250,000 hotel (that’s $250,000 back in the early 1900’s- an extravagant amount for that time) with a state-of-the-art steam whistle alarm and sprinkler system that was supposed to make the hotel unburnable… just like the Titanic was unsinkable….

Mudlavia ended with flames and fire and smoke.

Mudlavia’s glory days were cutoff right before the roaring 20’s hit, on leap day, February 29^th, 1920. Newspapers say the fire started in a linen closet on third floor of the hotel, but interestingly enough, don’t say how it started. Local lore passed down over time can only guess at how the fire started and why the perfectly tested fire system didn’t work that terrible day. The stories range from the mundane to the eccentric, and leave a lot of playroom for anyone with an imagination!

I’ve been spending a lot of time concentrating on the last few chapters of Mudlavia. One of the biggest letdowns in the world is a fantastic book with a disappointing ending. I really want mine to be perfect!

Unlike all of the other novels I have written, I know the ending. History has handed it to me, and yet, it’s been one of the trickiest for me to finish.

The thing about the timeframe is that there was a lot going on in the United States leading up to that moment. There was the end of WWI, the Spanish Influenza, women’s suffrage, the beginning of prohibition, and red summer, which had to do with a huge migration of African Americans from the southern states to the northern states due to the gruesome violence they were facing in the South. Our country was facing some pretty difficult issues and they all weave their way into my novel. Somehow I have to take all of these, combine them with the character’s lives and the burning of the hotel, and tie them all together nicely to bring it to a satisfying end.

It’s felt nearly impossible. My hubby told me to look at the last line of the 7^th Harry Potter book for inspiration. Not joking, it ends with, “All is well.” Not going to work with my book! Better turn to some tragic Shakespeare or Edgar Allen Poe for inspiration!

Seriously though, inspiration can come from anywhere. I was reading a popular magazine and came across an article about the devastation caused by California wildfires. Bingo. Then of all things, the next day I put down some toast in the kitchen while I was editing my novel. I started to smell something odd, but I was so engrossed with the words on the page, that I ignored the smell until it occurred to me that something was burning. My toaster caught on fire, with smoke billowing across the kitchen and through the living room. The combination of the heart wrenching article and the smoke lingering through my house played a large part in my story coming together.

I’ve gone over and over the ending, knowing it wasn’t quite right, and now when I read it, it leaves me emotionally worked up, but in the right kind of way!

Pine Village Again In Field!!!

Towns acquire history through generations who pass down its stories and legacies from one person to another. This vintage game is a way to celebrate and pass on our history, the rich history of the Pine Village football team to younger generations.

One hundred years ago, the news title above took up the front page of The Review Republican. One hundred years later, the small town of Pine Village is reviving it.

After nineteen years of game-winning success, the Pine Village football frenzy came to a startling halt in 1918 due to World War I.

In the fall of 1919, Claire Rhode, the football manager who made the team famous, announced the Pine Village team would once again be back on the gridiron. The community went crazy.

Rhode claimed it would be the best team yet, with the homegrown boys that everyone counted on and loved, and new players hired to complete the team. Leading up to the first game in over a year, Rhode travelled around Warren County, building up hype and selling tickets for $1 apiece.

The excitement built and Pine Village defeated South Bend 8 to 0. There was even more hype before their next game against the Rock Island Independents, where the Rock Island Argus printed a headline everyday across their sports page. My favorite headline says, “Pine Village Is Daffy About Football Team… An ex-Pine Villager wrote in that Pine Village might aptly be termed the nut house of football. Every man, woman, and child in the town old enough to take an interest in the great sport, eat, sleep, and talk football.” (Rock Island Argus, Oct. 29, 1919)

When Pine Village finally met Rock Island on the field, they battled it out to a scoreless tie.

Now, one hundred years later, Pine Village will be meeting Rock Island again, this time on home turf. Not only are we coming up on the one hundred year anniversary of the game against Rock Island, but it’s also the one hundred year anniversary of the NFL.

Both teams will be fielded by local men, and just like the good ol’ days of Pine Village football, these are men that are counted on and loved by the community. There will also be players coming in from Nashville, TN and around the Midwest. The players will be outfitted in vintage leather helmets and replica jerseys designed by Simon Herrera of Vintage American Football. The game won’t be quite as bloody and brutal as it was in the early days, as they will be playing flag football, however, they will be playing by the 1920’s rules.

Along with the game, which will be held at 5:30PM on Saturday, August 10^th at Pine Village Elementary School, there will be a parade at 2:00PM, a Model T show, a tailgate supper cooked by the Pine Village Fire Department, free rides given by the Boilermaker Express, old fashioned concessions, and a raffle for a Jeff Brohm signed football. Admission is free and everyone is invited! Bring your best lawn chairs and picnic blankets to come watch the game and take part of this wonderful community event!

Giving credit where credit is due- Information taken from Pine Village Football "The Inside Dope" by Doris Cottingham

Quest For the Pine Village Football Colors

When Simon Herrera from Vintage American Football contacted me asking about the colors of the Pine Village football team, I figured that would be pretty easy information to find. In the day of the internet,  Alexa, and Siri, can't you find the answer to any question?

What I ended up with was a month long wild goose chase!

First off, any internet searches were utterly useless. Second off, Siri only responded with the upcoming IU games and lead me to the historical society's website, which does not state the colors of Pine Village's uniform. Last, Alexa just plainly stated, "Sorry, I don't know that one."

No problem. I know how to use a book. I went back to my main resources on the Pine Village football team and combed through them, trying to find anything on the uniforms that would give me a clue to the colors. Nothing. There was information on the games, the players, the history of Pine Village, Jim Thorpe, and many other things, but not one word on the colors of the uniforms. And the pictures weren't any help either, because they’re all in black and white!

The more I researched it and failed, the more curious I was to know the answer. My next step was to talk to people from Pine Village. I talked to old farmers, a relative of one of the players, and self-proclaimed Warren County history buffs... and still no one knew the answer!

People passed the word along and asked other people on my behalf. Some people thought that since the team started at Pine Village, they wore the Pine Village school colors, which are blue and white. However, further research turned up that the Pine Village High School had their own school team (whose colors would have been blue and white), and that the Pine Village town team had different uniforms.

My favorite answer came from a farmer who said that he didn’t know the color of the material of the uniforms, but he knew there was red on the jerseys because they always had blood on them!

I was desperate to solve this mystery, so I kept investigating.  I found myself back at Mary Ann Aker's The Good Ol' Days and combed through it again. Towards the end of the publication, a small line caught my eye.

"Black and Orange Colors- Left to right, Oct 17, 1915, Home Field Picture."

Was it talking about Pine Village?

My kids went to Pine Village and it's hard to imagine any other colors to represent the town other than blue and white.

I closed the publication and stared at the cover. Mary Ann Akers may have just been giving me a clue the entire time. I had always wondered why the football publication had been combined with the Halloween publication.... and now, just maybe I had the answer... the team's colors were actually black and orange.

I wanted real hard evidence though. It was difficult to tell from The Good Ol' Days if that is what the line meant. I read through the article again, which was from an excerpt of Robert Carr's book, Grandma Had Class.

I got my hands on a copy of the book, and immediately turned to the chapter on the Pine Village Football team and started reading.

Finally, beside a picture of the Pine Village football team, it said in bold print, "Black and Orange Colors” with a list and description of all the Pine Village players beneath it.

If you are from Warren County and you are surprised, believe me, I was surprised too!

When you come to the vintage football festival on Saturday, August 10th, Pine Village will once again take the field, dressed in black and orange.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due- Special thanks to Matt Akers and Teri Morris for sharing publications of The Good Ol' Days with me, and special thanks to Simon Herrera for designing the vintage jerseys. You can visit Simon's etsy site  here

Facing Rejection

Earlier this school year, my seventh grader jumped in the car after practice and saw my jumbled piles of rewritten query letters and lists of agents. She looked at me and asked if I would cry if I got rejected by an agent. She’s thirteen, and to a young teen, rejection is THE.WORST. THING. EVER.

But guess what? Rejection is inevitable. They say that the average writer receives anywhere between fifty and one hundred rejection letters. I’m about ready to send out my query and that means when I open my inbox throughout the next few months, I’m more likely to receive e-mails starting with… “I’m sorry, but…” or “It’s not the right fit,” or “No thanks,” than I am to see, “Love it! Send me your manuscript!” Sounds like an exciting spring for me, right?!

I could curl up in a ball and hide under my bed until next fall, or cry, or tape my rejection letters to the wall and throw darts at them.

I thought about all this as I pulled out of the school parking lot. Someday my daughter will face rejection. I want her to know that rejection doesn’t mean that life is over. I want her to know that you can face rejection and grow from it, you can use it to make yourself better, it can make you stronger, and it can lead to other opportunities.

I told her a few stories of my own rejections, disappointments, and doors that had closed, only to find that God had been faithful and used those rejections to do something greater. I explained that I’ve spent a lot of time not only praying about my book and my writing, but also about the process of finding an agent, and that faith is trusting that God would open the right doors and close the wrong doors.

The querying process comes with a mixture of hope and excitement and, if I’m honest, a little fear, but I keep these words by Shauna Niequest taped to my desk, which are a good reminder of the attitude I want to have.

She says, “I’m practicing believing that God knows more than I know, that he sees what I can’t, that he’s weaving a future that I can’t even imagine from where I sit this morning

Unlocking A Novel- Pine Village Football

When I first started researching Mudlavia, I researched everything that happened in Warren County during 1918 and 1919. My research led me to the Pine Village football team and included reading The Good Ol’ Day’s “Game In Progress” and Doris Cottingham’s book, Pine Village Football The Inside Dope.

I wanted to tell the story of Mudlavia because of my grandpa, but while I was working on it, I discovered so many other fascinating stories about Warren County’s history, and the idea of telling the story of the Pine Village football team took root. There was a line in The Good Ol’ Day’s “Game In Progress” that caught my attention. It said, “The story of this man is a most interesting one and I sincerely hope that someday it will be told in full.” (The man they are referring to is Claire Rhode, the Pine Village football team’s manager.)

For two years now that sentence has been haunting me, and the facts, stories, and headlines about Pine Village’s football team have been rattling around in my head. The problem was that I could not figure out how to put that information together to create a compelling work of historical fiction.

I knew it would be hard to focus on a single player on the team (as well as Claire Rhode), because I don’t have a lot of individual information on the players and didn’t want to make a bunch of things up. There was also the fact that the team ran from 1898 until 1927, which is a huge span of time. Should I start at the beginning? Should I focus on the glory years? Should I try to fit all of it in?

For two years every idea I came up with felt wrong.

This past year I partnered with Simon Herrera from Vintage American Football to try and bring a vintage football game to Pine Village. I presented this idea to various people in our community and we formed a committee to make this game a possibility. Recently we were sitting in a meeting talking through ideas and someone mentioned something we could do and the meeting continued on.

I’ve had all this information in my head, all these ideas, all these facts, and suddenly her words unlocked them. I needed to be in the right place at the right time. A few simple words blew the whole thing wide open, and as I drove home, the storyline came to me.

If you are writing and you are stuck, keep researching and taking notes and writing. Be patient. As all that information gets filed in your head, at some point you’ll hear something or read something or experience something that will unlock your story and turn it into something magical!

The Gift of Nanowrimo

By the stroke of midnight on November 30^th, all wrimos must set their pens (or laptops) down and relish the end of another nanowrimo season.

A few days after nanowrimo ends, I always do something silly. I print off those hard earned pages, tie them up with a piece of ribbon, and wait to open them again when I am ready to start editing.

Some critics say that nanowrimo creates a lot of bad novels, and they’re ushered into the coming New Year due to writers pushing and rushing to get them published. There is some truth to this. If I didn’t go back and edit my novels, I would be left with a crazed, frenzied jumble of words. However, if I go back and refine my story, then the hard work of nanowrimo has left me with a pretty awesome  Christmas gift.

One of the hardest things about writing a novel is getting the words down on paper. You don’t just magically have a 90,000 word story appear, you have to write all those words, and it can be daunting. With nanowrimo, a community of writers from all over the world comes together to write, encourage, rant, and spur one another on to get 50,000 words written down in a month.

Those words may not be beautiful or put together or make much sense, but it takes determination, discipline, and hard work to get that many words written down in such a short period of time. And if you can muster up enough determination and discipline to do that, than you have everything you need to go back and edit, and turn that lump of words into a polished novel.

Nanowrimo has been a rewarding gift to me. Without that month, I wouldn’t have all the novels written that I do now. I may have never taken my time to put my ideas on paper, flesh them out, and make them come alive.

So in the coming New Year, I am looking forward to sitting down on a cold, snowy day and untying that ribbon. I’ll celebrate with a good cup of coffee, congratulate myself on getting another idea down on paper, and then get to work and make something great out of it.

Gather and Wait

I’m coming out of a long season of editing and revising, and now I find myself in a season of gathering and waiting.

I’ve been gathering information on literary agents, following their social media, reading blogs and interviews, and making lists of which ones would be a good fit for me. I’ve been gathering together my other novels, going through them, and preparing myself to talk about them if an agent were to ask about my other book ideas.

And then there’s the waiting. I’m waiting for editorial notes from an agent I did a workshop with. They could show up in my inbox anytime between now and the end of December, and I’ve checked my inbox for what seems like a million times.  

In this strange place of gathering and waiting, how does one just sit and wait?

I’ve been trying to use my time well. November is National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo), so I’ve started a completely new project. I’m also helping with a youth writing club, which is an absolute blast. Those things have been great distractions, but these words from Joanna Gaines from the latest issue of The Magnolia Journal have really helped me to settle down and take in the journey of waiting.

She says, “It (anticipation) makes us wait. It can serve as a bridge between where we stand today and what lies ahead. Our attitude on that journey is surely as important as wherever it is that we’re going. What we make of this time in between, whether it’s two years, two days, or two hours, is every bit as worthy of our attention as the outcome itself… Whatever it is you might be anticipating in this season, here’s to savoring the waiting as much as the outcome.”

Bringing Back Vintage Football

One of the best things about working on my Mudlavia novel has been the people that it’s connected me with. A while ago, Simon Herrera, from Vintage American Football, contacted me after reading my post about the Pine Village Football Team (you can read that post here). He had a simple question, and I laugh now, because that simple question sent me on quite a wild goose chase! 

Simon designs these super cool Vintage American Football jerseys and t-shirts, representing different football teams from the early 1900’s, and he wanted to know the colors for the Pine Village football team to create a shirt for them.

I live in Pine Village, and love the rich history of the Pine Village football team. Pine Village is said to be where NFL football originated. When you read about the Villagers, who played from 1898 through the 1920’s, you can’t help but be drawn in. The team was mostly made up of farmers, who farmed all day, and played football underneath electric bulbs strung across the town square at night. They had a goat for a mascot, though no one knows why, and the fans were absolutely crazy about their Pine Village Eleven.

Pine Village Football Team with their goat!

We have a few local publications and lots of local stories about the Pine Village football team, so even though I didn’t remember reading about their colors from my research, I figured they would be easy to find. They weren’t, but that’s a story for another post!

Photo/Game Promo Credit- Simon Herrera

Like me, Simon was drawn into the history of football as he started researching the Rock Island Independents, one of the original NFL football teams. While he was researching them, he fell in love with the old game and its players.

Not only does he create jerseys and research the old football teams, he also puts on a vintage football game every fall in Rock Island, Illinois. They dress in the old school jerseys (which Simon designs), wear replica leather helmets, and play by the old rules. They do everything they can to make the game and the atmosphere as much like a 1920's football game as they can.

This year the big game between the Rock Island Independents and the Moline Universal Tractors will commence on Sunday, October 14th at Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois at 2:00PM. Along with the game there will be 1920’s style jazz music, a car show, and local food. This is a free, family friendly event showcasing 1920’s football. I don’t know about you, but sounds like a blast to me!

You can find Simon's vintage jersey and t-shirts at his Etsy Shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageMerchandiseCo

You can also read more about Simon's research at http://vintageamericanfootball.com/#/ http://rockislandindependents.com/

Mudlavia and Gangsters and Prohibition, Oh My!

 “All the records of the hotel were destroyed and the only means at hand tabulating a list of the patients was the remarkable memory of Harve Jackson, the day clerk of the hotel.” – Attica Ledger, March 5, 1920

Almost 100 years later, I can attest to these words! There aren’t a lot of resources on Mudlavia. After the hotel burnt down in 1920, what survived were mostly memories, stories, rumors, and local lore.

Local newspapers reported that the fire burned down on February 29, 1920, from a fire that started in store room 12. It was discovered by a maid retrieving linens.

What is interesting to me is that there is a Mudlavia ad at the Warren County Historical Society that claims Mudlavia was unburnable! Mudlavia boasted of its technology, which included a state-of-the-art sprinkler system with a steam whistle alarm. Some sources state that this was tested and worked perfectly, but it did not work the day of the fire…

The Attica Ledger also stated that they did not know the cause of the fire, so whenever I talk to people about Mudlavia, I always ask how they think the fire started.

There are two main rumors. The first one is that the maid was smoking in the store room and she left her cigarette on the linens, and they caught fire.

The second rumor is that members of the mob were hiding out at Mudlavia, and members from another mob found them, disabled the sprinkler system, and started the fire.

If the second rumor is true, we have to entertain the idea that gangsters hid out at Mudlavia... And oh, the local lore on Mudlavia's gangsters!!!

Mudlavia was situated in what Henry Kramer called “peaceful valley” in Warren County, Indiana. The hotel was nestled away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, making it the perfect place for the gangsters to flee to when things got “too hot” in Chicago.

Some articles on the internet claim that famous criminals like John Dillinger and Al Capone stayed at Mudlavia. In some ways it makes perfect sense. Mudlavia was hidden away (they definitely would have taken advantage of the secluded area), there was a train that went straight from Chicago to the Attica Station, making for an easy escape, and even though Mudlavia was in farm country, it was still extravagant and would fit the lavish lifestyle of these criminals.

First, let's discuss John Dillinger. He didn’t start his life of crime until 1922, and the original, luxurious hotel burned in 1920. By the time the hotel reopened in October of 1934, Dillinger was already dead. When you study the timeframe, Dillinger is out.

But what about Al Capone? That's a fascinating thought that he might have hid away at the extravagant hotel, possibly in a secret room with a secret tunnel! 

When you study Capone, you'll find that he lived in New York until 1919-1920, depending on what source you read, and then went later to Chicago at the request of mobster Johnny Torrio.

There’s a very small window between his arrival in Chicago and when the hotel burned down. When he came to Chicago he was a twenty-year-old bouncer, not the crime boss we all know him for. He did not take over the Chicago Outfit and become famous until after the original Hotel Mudlavia burned down. 

Okay, so there's a pretty slim chance Capone would have visited the first hotel... but what about the second one? The second very modest hotel was built in 1934, and Capone was prosecuted in 1931 for tax evasion, not looking good for Capone as a guest at Mudlavia.

 The thing is, there are so many rumors about gangsters at Mudlavia... could there be some truth to those tales? And if so, who fits the timeline?

The mob was around during the glory years of the first hotel. Big “Jim” Colosimo is credited to starting the Chicago Outfit, and ran gambling joints, brothels, and drug rings from 1902 until 1920. He was nicknamed “Diamond” Jim, because he wore white suits accented with diamonds. Mudlavia flourished from when it was built in 1890 to when it burned down in 1920, fitting Colosimo's timeframe exactly. He also had proximity to Mudlavia, and very expensive tastes, so it’s plausible to entertain the idea that he could have stayed there.

He brought in his nephew Johnny Torrio from New York, who became his second in command. Torrio was the one who brought in Capone in 1919/1920. When prohibition went into effect, Torrio wanted the Chicago Outfit to get involved in the lucrative bootlegging business, but Colosimo refused to, and was ambushed and murdered shortly after that.

I’ve also heard rumors about speakeasies and bootlegging at Mudlavia, an intriguing thought if I do say so myself. The Wartime Prohibition Act went into effect on June 30, 1919, which stated that liquor stronger than 1.28% could not be sold. The Volstead Act, which went into effect on October 28, 1919 carried out the 18^th amendment, which prohibited the sale, manufacturing, and transport of alcohol. The 18^th amendment went into effect at midnight on January 16, 1920. Considering that Mudlavia prided itself on its fine moral reputation, and didn’t allow vices such as alcohol and gambling, it’s hard to believe that the original hotel had any type of speakeasy, especially since it burned down just a month after the 18^th amendment went into effect.

One of the last things that people love to talk about are the secret tunnels. The rumor is that there was a secret tunnel system for the mob to escape from if they got caught at Mudlavia. Some people say that the tunnel went all the way from Mudlavia to the train station in Attica. That would have been over five miles of underground tunnels! I can’t find any actual evidence that there were tunnels, but it is brought up so often that I have to wonder!

So, are the rumors true? Did the mob hideout at Mudlavia? Did Al Capone walk its halls? Were there tunnels beneath the hotel? Was there illegal alcohol?

Primary sources don’t attest to any of these things, but there are many tales, and as the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire… especially at Mudlavia.

Menus and Mudlavia- Part 2

The tricky part about piecing together the food, menus, kitchen, and chefs at Mudlavia is the limited amount of information available. There are a handful of menus, a few articles, and some stories from locals, but that’s pretty much it. When the original hotel burned down in 1920, much of its history burned with it. Mudlavia never returned to its former glory, so there isn’t a lot of information that remains today, almost 100 years later.

The lack of information is both frustrating and fun. Frustrating, because I have so many questions without answers, and fun, because it gives me a blank canvas to imagine and create the food and kitchen staff, and how they impacted the hotel. Mudlavia had a 400 acre farm including vegetables, fruit, beef, and poultry. Their farm would have had a huge impact on the menu, and the workers at Mudlavia would have spent an enormous amount of time growing vegetables, caring for the animals, and prepping the food in the kitchen.  Even though I get to create how this all comes together in my novel, I still want to make sure that it is historically accurate.

To do this, I researched other historical places in the United States that focus on historical gardens and the great importance they had on our country. Two places that stood out were George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Both of these places have working gardens that reflect the gardens these two presidents used back in the day. They have tours that emphasize the importance of gardens in U.S. history, they grow the same vegetable, fruit, and flower varieties that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew, and they offer tours of the kitchens where the food was prepared for the presidents, as well as their many guests.

Side entrance to lower vegetable garden at Mount Vernon

Vegetable garden at Monticello

I was blessed to able take a trip to visit Mount Vernon and Monticello last summer with my family, and was amazed by how much I learned from taking tours of the gardens and kitchens at both of these places. 

Our family at Mount Vernon

My husband and I by the garden at Monticello

Peanut variety that Thomas Jefferson grew

Vegetables the kids picked from Thomas Jefferson's garden that the kids picked for a special class

Washington used this building to store the seeds he saved for the next year at Mount Vernon

Washington's vegetable garden- the cisterns captured rain water which he used to water the plants

 Both of these places, like Mudlavia, entertained large numbers of guests and provided elegant food without the conveniences that we have today. Most of the food they ate was grown and raised on their properties.Visiting these places allowed me to fill in the gaps I was missing in my novel and helped me imagine what the food and entertainment at Mudlavia would have been like. It also made me realize that the garden was not just something pretty to have or a hobby, but a way of life that was crucial to keep the hotel running to feed its staff and guests.

Menus and Mudlavia- Part 1

The research for Mudlavia has been a great segue into the realm of historical fiction for me. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to cook, I get way too excited about vegetables, and I’m a diehard gardener. All of these things pertain to the menus of Mudlavia.

Farm to table is a trendy thing right now, and if Mudlavia was still here, it would probably be the trendiest place around! At the turn of the century, Mudlavia had a 400 acre farm, not because it was trendy, but because there were no supermarkets or big box stores to feed all of their guests and employees back then.

Although Mudlavia sourced some things, like tea, coffee, bananas and sugar, most of the food on their menus was grown and raised on their huge farm. Sources state that Mudlavia had a poultry farm, cattle for dairy and meat, a creamery to process their dairy products, fruit, and an enormous vegetable garden.

I’ve been blessed to be able to see a handful of the Mudlavia menus. They include things like creamed carrots, mashed potatoes, apricots in syrup, glace sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, apple dumplings, radishes, green peas, beet and lettuce salad, cherry pie, and much more. These fruits and vegetables all could have been easily grown in the vegetable garden on the grounds of the hotel.

Mudlavia had three different dining rooms. A first class dining room, a second class dining room, and a staff dining room for the white employees.

Everything at Mudlavia was done with great grandeur, and the menu and food would have been the same. I came across one ad for the hotel that said, “Mudlavia! Where even the potato is made fancy!” They went all out, whether it was buying chandeliers for the dining room, putting in exquisite fountains, and even turning the humble potato into something magnificent to eat!

Researching the garden and food at Mudlavia makes me wish I had a time machine so I could travel back and see them growing the food, preparing it, and serving it to their guests. I imagine they would have showed off their produce and made their meals something sumptuously delicious to behold and eat!

Credit where credit is due- special thanks to Grandpa Ringer, Dennie Myers, Sarah Johnston, Tom Swanson and Chris Brown for sharing their knowledge about Mudlavia and its dining rooms/chefs/menus with me!

Summer Writing

In some ways summer writing is a little tricky. I’ve got my precious girls home with me, and they love to go to the pool and the park, they want to create new popsicle flavors and bake cookies, and they like to play lots of board games. I love soaking in every moment with them while they are here every day, so large chunks of time working on my stories gets put on hold for the summer.

Photo credit Dessie Austin

I also face the battle of do I edit or do I garden? It’s important for me to feed my family fresh organic vegetables, and the way I can afford to do that is by growing them myself and preserving the harvest to eat throughout the rest of the year. Selling at our local farmer’s market also supplements the income we lose because I’m not substitute teaching throughout the summer, and of course, gardening is great for your mental and physical health too!

Even though the kids and the garden take up a lot of my time, I’m still snagging bits and pieces of my days to work. I find it easier to create in the summer than to edit my work with a critical eye. With my Mudlavia chapters about wrapped up and ready to send off, it has been fun to create new story ideas. I’ve been so busy working hard to get my Mudlavia novel just right that I haven’t come up with any new ideas lately… In fact, I was worrying earlier this spring that I had lost all my creativity and would never have another new book idea again! Ha!

But with summer’s more relaxed schedule and plenty of thinking time in the garden, the ideas have begun to flow. I have a couple new book ideas to add to my middle grade detective series based on some interesting happenings this summer, I had a dream about two brothers in a medieval setting that reminded me of my two super cute nephews (I absolutely can’t wait to write a sword fighting adventure for them), and I’ve got a few ideas for some more historical fiction. I also started rereading a story about a Native American girl I wrote a few years back, and am really looking forward to editing it and bringing it to life this fall. For now though, I am daydreaming about these books while I work in the garden or go on a run, and am collecting research and notes in files so I can to pull them together later on.

I hope with the more relaxed pace of summer that you get to spend time daydreaming and working towards your own dreams too!

What I'm Reading- The Traitor's Game

My first poolside read this summer was The Traitor's Game by Jennifer A. Nielsen. I love anything by Jennifer Nielsen because it is always full of adventure, always contains a character or two with great sarcasm, and is always clean. In the YA fantasy, The Traitor's Game, she delivers another great adventure, and in my opinion this is one of her best books yet!

This story is set in the medieval fantasy world of Antora, and follows sixteen-year-old Kestra. On her way home to her father, Kestra is kidnapped by a group who forces her to betray her family and is thrown into a plot to overthrow the government. She desperately wants to do what is right for her country and her family, but as secrets unravel, it is difficult for her to know which side is right, especially when she can't figure out who is lying and who is telling the truth.

This is a fun YA read that keeps you guessing with a strong female character who can hold her own.  I love the humor between Kestra and the other characters in the book, and I appreciate that it is a clean read (so I'm comfortable letting my tween girls read it too)! If you are looking for something to read this summer, I highly recommend this book!

For more on Jennifer Nielson, you can find her website here- http://jennielsen.com/

Mudlavia and The Cottage Garden

I have never considered myself a historical fiction writer. I love writing fantasy and am often doing some sort of historical research for my fantasy novels, but when I decided to write Mudlavia and pursue it seriously, I wondered how in the world I would pull off a historical fiction.

It’s funny how you can find connections to a place that was built and burned down so many years ago. As I researched, I found myself being drawn to the old menus and food, to the vegetable gardens, the animals, and the flowers. It turns out that the love of food and gardening and flowers can span one hundred years and still touch a reader like me today.

I fell hard for any information on Mudlavia’s flower gardens, feeling an immediate connection to them due to my own love of gardening. When we moved into our home six and a half years ago, the neighbors who lived there before us said they named it “The Honeymoon Cottage”, because it was old, cute, and small, like a little place you would rent for your honeymoon. I loved their nickname for our house and started looking up cottage gardens and old-timey flowers. Since then, my flower beds have been a labor of love, so when I came across information about Mudlavia’s beautiful cottage-style gardens with winding paths and fountains, I couldn’t wait to learn more.

The photo of the Mudlavia postcard above features daffodils. I’ve been told that there is a series of these postcards, however, I’ve never laid eyes on any but this one.

One woman, who visited Mudlavia as a child, described the gardens as a delight and a wonder to children. They were welcome to run and giggle along the crushed stone paths, explore the rainbow displays of flowers, and wiggle their fingers in the goldfish pond for the fish to nibble on.

A few people I interviewed mentioned that the gardeners at Mudlavia collected seeds at the end of the season and would create seed packets. These packets were given to the guests at the end of their stay, so they could plant the flowers and experience the beauty and serenity of the Mudlavia gardens at their own homes.

Although it has been hard to find references to specific flowers, some references included canna lilies, daffodils, ivy, and irises. The rest I get to dream up. I started with the Select Seeds catalogue, which is a company that saves and sells heirloom flower seeds. Their catalogue has detailed information about old-fashioned flowers, like when they came onto the market, if they had medicinal properties in the good ol’ days, and how they were used in cottage gardens.

They say when you’re a writer, to write what you know. If it’s something you don’t know well and you are learning about, I think it’s also important to write what you connect to. For me it was using my love of flowers to not just tell you about Mudlavia in my novel, but to make you feel as you can see and smell and experience the beauty of the Mudlavia gardens like you were a guest there.